A Series of Emails from Mr W Pursell - wpursell@cogeco.ca

Gaelic in Kintyre--a study

Ian

Back in March 2004, a correspondent to the magazine advised that he was doing a study of the history and decline of gaelic in Kintyre. His E-mail address at that time was: gregmacthomais@hotmail.com.

I responded with quite a bit of information and comments to help with his study or thesis. I originally got one response encouraging me to provide any thoughts which I might have and, since then, have been unable to get any further response despite several attempts to learn of the status of his project. Do you know if this study is still in the works or if the author has changed his E-mail address without my knowledge? Any help would be much appreciated and I would be happy to forward to you copies of my comments to him which you might find of some interest.

With thanks.

Willie

Hello Willie,

I haven't heard any more from Greg MacThomais since I posted his query in the Magazine. I note, however, that he gave two e-addresses. The one you have already tried and the other was sm00gt00@groupwise.uhi.ac.uk

Have you tried that one? He certainly didn't sound like the kind of person who would deliberately ignore email from folks such as yourself.

Do let me know if you are successful in contacting him. Also, I would love to receive copies of your previous comments to him. With your permission, I'll do a separate page in the next issue.

All the best for now,

Ian

Willie sent me copies of his correspondence.

Hello Willie,

Thank you for your series of emails re the Subject. I'll put a page together for the next issue due up in March.

I'm sure that the Mag readers will be extremely interested in them.

All the best for now,

Ian

There follows Willie's emails to Greg

To: gregmacthomais@hotmail.com
Sent: Sunday, March 07, 2004 10:16 PM
Subject: gaelic in kintyre

Just came across your request for input on Gaelic activity in Kintyre. I am uncertain as to the date of your request and whether or not you are still looking for material.

I was brought up in Campbeltown and was exposed to a fair amount of activity around the language through my father, Edward Pursell, who taught himself the language in the 1930s and became the Gaelic bard at the 1939 Mod. He was crowned after the war in 1946. He had many other activities involving Gaelic music and language with which I am still reasonably familiar.

Please advise if there is continuing interest and I will communicate as much as I can find, or recall, to you.

Sincerely,

W.A.Pursell

March 10th, 2004

To: gregmacthomais@hotmail.com
Sent: Wednesday, March 10, 2004 10:22 PM
Subject: gaelic in Kintyre

Thanks for your prompt reply! First of all--can you access the archives of The Campbeltown Courier? If this is possible, the issue of 13th February, 1964, has a fairly lengthy obituary on my father, Edward Pursell, and it covers many of the highlights of his life. If this is not available to you, I would be happy to send you a copy if you provide the address. In the meantime, perhaps I can make a few comments on Gaelic in Kintyre.

It has always puzzled me why the Campbeltown area in the last century had such an impact on the Gaelic literary and musical scenes in Scotland. There was essentially no Gaelic spoken , or even evident, in day-to-day life in Campbeltown and the lower part of Kintyre to which I was exposed. No one with whom I went to school--or in the age groups around me--had any Gaelic at all and perhaps only one of my teachers spoke the language. And yet look at the accomplishments in the Gaelic language and its music!

First, there were two Gaelic Mod bards from Campbeltown--my father in 1939 and Ronald Lamont in 1954 ( I do not have any records after 1977). Secondly, there were five lady Mod gold medallists from the Campbeltown area between 1893 and 1977 and this was second only to Glasgow which had the whole Highlands to draw on. The five ladies were Rose MacConnachie ( 1946); Rona MacVicar( 1948); Flora Campbell(1950); Carol Galbraith(1951)--she was also my first girl-friend- ; and Isobel Mitchell (1977). I knew the first four ladies very well indeed. I have no records after 1977 so I am unaware if there were further successes beyond that date. The lady with the closest association to the language would be Rona MacVicar whose Gaelic -speaking father was the church minister in Southend. One of her brothers was Angus MacVicar, the novelist. She was my math. teacher at school! It is interesting that there were no Mod gold medallists among the men and yet they were marvellous in choral singing.

This brings me to my third observation--the great success of the Campbeltown Gaelic Choir in National Mod competitions. Between1903 and1977, they won the premier Mod choir award--the Lovat and Tullibardine trophy--fifteen times. Next was Glasgow at twelve times. It seems clear that there must have been some very fine individual teachers of Gaelic to these singers and these choirs and I would think that my father had a hand in this but I do not recall this specifically. They also had a magnificent conductor in M.G.McCallum who was also my music teacher at school.

A few words now about my father. He taught himself the gaelic language in the 1930s and used to spend endless hours translating from one language to another. We also toured the West Highlands every summer for two months ( as a headmaster we had concurrent summer holidays) and, everywhere we went, he was always chatting with the local Gaelic speakers and querying the different accents he came across. By the way, he built the caravan himself which we used on such excursions. He became so proficient in Gaelic that he won several awards for literature at the National Mods and, on two occasions in the 1940s and 1950s, was awarded the Cassillis Cup. This culminated in being named the Gaelic Bard in 1939, with the crowning taking place in Aberdeen after the war. He was also self-taught on the piano and was a magnificent performer of marches, strathspeys and reels---I have never heard anyone quite as good on that type of music. The combination of his musical ability and his mastery of the Gaelic language seems to have led him naturally to composing both Gaelic words and music, some of which is well known to this day.

Some examples are the words for Fagail Liosmor, An Fhaighir Mhuileach, and Banais Nighean Mhairi Anna. He also composed the lament, Tuireadh Iain Ruaidh. These have been used for Mod competitive pieces on several occasions. As a matter of fact, I was going through some of his old music papers recently and found an unpublished English language version he composed of Suilean Dubha, which I believe translates as Dark Eyes. There is also notation: Air from '' Ceol Mara". I don't know if this of any interest to anyone nowadays.

A final comment for now:: round about 1950, he prepared a series of Gaelic radio lessons for the BBC --in collaboration with Hugh Macphee, and possibly Finley J. Macdonald, at the BBC. They apparently selected an electrician at the BBC and literally taught him on the air. It was very popular at the time.

That's all for now. Hope this is the kind of input you were seeking.

Kindest regards,
Willie Pursell ( aka Bill in Canada!!)

To: gregmacthomais@hotmail.com
Sent: Wednesday, March 17, 2004 6:14 PM
Subject: kintyre gaelic-further comments


Greg,

Thanks for your reply. I can imagine how busy you are at this time of year and appreciate your response. A few further thoughts for your base material. I have wondered from time to time about the probable influence on the language ( both Gaelic and English) from the proximity of northern Ireland.

As you probably know from Angus Martin's fine books, there was a great deal of movement across the narrow channel between the two regions. This shows up today in the plethora of Irish or Irish-derived surnames in Kintyre. Moreover, one can go back to St.Ciaran around 600 AD and see the influence today in such names as Kilkerran Road and St. Kieran's school. By the way, if you get back to Kintyre this year, a visit to St. Ciaran's cave would be worth your while--apparently he lived there for quite some time because of the artefacts that used to be in the cave when I was a boy. The cave is round Achenhoan Head and can only be accessed at half-tide or lower. It is some 15-20 feet above the level of the gravel shore and is the only cave there with a fresh water spring on the floor. I visited it countless times as a boy because I lived nearby in Davaar House (opposite Davaar Island) and often went there to try to shoot rock pigeons for the pot! At that time, there was a beautiful anchor carved into the rock face on the right hand side ( a few inches in size); a flat slab of rock on the floor with a perfect circle carved on it( two or three feet in diameter, as I recall) and the petals of a flower carved inside the circle just as we did at school with a pair of compasses; and also a large broken cross in the pool of water on the floor, with the base and the slot to hold the cross upright really quite obvious.

Moreover, there were the clear remains of a dry-stone wall across the entrance but it has probably gone by this time--one could speculate that this was to keep out the wild animals( such as wolves) which apparently existed at that time. I am not sure what has happened to these artefacts but I doubt that they have survived our modern human predators!!

It has occurred to me that you might like to contact one of the people I mentioned in my previous e-mail--Carol Galbraith who was Mod Gold Medallist in 1951. She is the wife of Prof. Derrick Thompson of Glasgow University and believe he is still pretty active in the Gaelic world and that she is still in good health. Just a thought!

By the way, my father's series for the BBC was called " Learning Gaelic" and a booklet was issued which included all the dialogue heard on the radio. As a final point of trivia, our family name was MacSporran until the early to mid-1800s and was changed to Pursell by one Peter MacSporran as shown in the census data of that period. The family came originally from Gigha ( probably around 1800) and the Gigha location makes sense when one realises that the headquarters of Macdonald, Lord of the Isles, was next door on Islay for many hundreds of years. The original Mac Sporran( Paul) was supposed to be the sporran or money- man/ treasurer to the Macdonald clan!!

No response necessary until things have quietened down a bit for you. Best regards!

Willie

To: gregmacthomais@hotmail.com
Sent: Monday, April 12, 2004 12:06 PM
Subject: Further to gaelic in Kintyre

It has just clicked in my slow mind that your Gaelic name in English would be Thomson! It has therefore occurred to me that you may have a family connection to Derick and Carol Thomson--whom I suggested that you contact for a first-hand appreciation on the learning and use of Gaelic in Kintyre in the 1940s and 1950s. Is this possible or is it just a happy coincidence? It would be rather amusing if this were the case!! Hope to hear from you soon on your progress.

Kind regards,
Willie