Baile Mor nan Gaidheal

That's the Big City of the Gaels ... or Glasgow. I was very encouraged to see this report on the BBC Scotland website about the city's plans to increase the prominence and use of Gaelic:

Gaelic language plan for Glasgow

A three-year action plan to increase the use of Gaelic throughout Glasgow is being launched by the city council. The strategy will be unveiled at the first board meeting in Glasgow of Gaelic agency, Bord na Gaidhlig. It will see the opening of a second Gaelic school in the city as well as wider use of the language on signs and official council communications.

Councils are legally obliged to prepare a Gaelic Language Plan under the Gaelic Language (Scotland) Act 2005.

Glasgow City Councillor Aileen Colleran said: "We have a vision for Gaelic in our city and this plan sets it out. By 2020, the place of Gaelic will be obvious to all. We'll see it around us - in our buildings, on our streets and in our shops - we'll hear it in conversations, in our schools and in the media. Our young people will be speaking it in Buchanan Street without feeling self conscious about it and people will recognise the language as Gaelic."

BBC, 6 April 2010

It's good to see such a positive attitude. We are not alone in wanting to see our languages thrive, and Scotland seems to have followed up on some of the same methods and strategies that we have used in Wales.

There's some more info on Glasgow City Council's website here, and the Language Plan itself is here.

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1 comments:

Unknown said...

I was recently in Inverness, and was very heartened to see bilingual road signs everywhere.

I was heartened too, whilst I was there, on hearing from two Glasgow residents - one of them an English Settler - how they supported the new pride in the language that was becoming evident. Good for them!

Incidentally - whilst I can get Gaelic programs on BBCAlba on my Virgin Catch up service - nothing from S4C is available. I have written to Virgin on this, and still await their reply.

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