Meeting of the Parliament 24 April 2018
I will open with a quote from the very fine writer Joseph Conrad that has always resonated with me. “History repeats itself”, he wrote,
“but the special call of an art which has passed away is never reproduced. It is as utterly gone out of the world as the song of a destroyed wild bird.”
Conrad was talking specifically about human achievement and culture in its broadest sense, and I would include language in that. Indeed, as other members have said, language has been seen as the greatest achievement of humankind, without which none of our other achievements could be expressed.
A language that is lost is hard to reclaim; as Conrad said, it is
“utterly gone out of the world”.
I have always thought of Gaelic when I have heard that quote, perhaps because of its lyricism and the way that it captures the fragility of human culture. Comparing the threat to human culture to threats to wildlife is also evocative. We rightly support measures that are aimed at protecting our flora and fauna, and we are prepared to accept some inconvenience to ensure that the cackle of the corncrake or our ancient Caledonian pine forest is not extinguished.
However, human ecology is also in need of protection and we cannot afford to see Gaelic utterly gone out of the world. That is why I support this national Gaelic language plan. It aims to secure a future for the language, which carries with it a millennium of cultural richness, and I support the plan’s central premise that education is the future of the Gaelic language. It aims to increase its use, to expand the number of people who are learning it and to promote a positive image of it.
As other members have said, the language belongs to all of Scotland, and people are coming from all over the world to learn it and to enjoy the music, literature and oral traditions that it encapsulates. I welcome the fact that the motion enjoys cross-party support, just as the Gaelic Language (Scotland) Act 2005 enjoyed the support of every party in this Parliament.
Having said that, it is disappointing to hear some people outside the Parliament disparage Gaelic, perhaps because of their ignorance of the role that politicians of all parties have played in protecting it. Sadly, it is not at all uncommon to hear negative comments on social media and even in mainstream media, with nonsense about dead languages and their irrelevance. It is important to tackle that head on.
Particularly relevant to my area of the country is the line of argument, which is often rather drearily advanced, that Gaelic is not relevant to other parts of Scotland. That argument was articulated quite recently on social media by a councillor whose party I will not refer to, because he is quite young and I do not think that he is representative of his party. He made a point on social media about his area of the south of Scotland not having any connection at all to Gaelic.