Info on hobbies and people I work with
Organisations I do voluntary work for
- Gaelic-L A list for people
who wish to converse in Irish, Scots or Manx Gaelic. There is an
FTP archive for the list
including the C source for a program I wrote to tell the time in Scots Gaelic.
You can see the program
in action here
although the time will be in GMT. The source in C is
here.
- An Comunn Gàidhealach I am currently
the secretary of the Edinburgh Branch.
Our next function will be in 7-9 March 97 (A Gaelic Learners Weekend)
and a local Mod on 12th April 97.
- Comann an Luchd-Ionnsachaidh "The voice
of Gaelic learners", a charity which helps learners worldwide and publishes a range of materials including
a bilingual quarterly magazine, tapes and books. I am an unpaid Director of CLI.
CLI is pronounced "CLEE"
Singing
I like singing and sing in Gaelic, Scots and (with Voice House) in many other
languages. We've made several recordings. Hear me sing some
Gaelic Puirt a beul (music for dancing to)
by downloading some of this
puirt a beul I learnt
from a Sìleas album. You need to download the .wav files, some are about
100K and the long one is about 400K.
Links to favourite organisations
-
The Adult Learning Project (ALP)
-
ALP has about 200 students enrolled each term learning various aspects
of Scots music, song, dance, politics, Gaelic, democracy etc. I go to
the singing class and wrote an article on the Gaelic puirt a beul
Mór a' Cheannaich for someone in a fiddle class who was learning
the tune. I also sometimes go to
Scottish stepdancing classes at ALP. Scottish stepdancing is similar to
Irish stepdancing and is particularly popular in Nova Scotia.
- An Ceathramh.
-
This is where Craig did the advanced Gaelic course in September 1995.
They run courses for beginners and at two intermediate levels too. Mail them at
anceathramh@mail.enterprise.net
-
The Edinburgh Fringe
-
Part of the world's biggest arts festival and a great place to hear live
folk music.
-
Scots language
-
I'm a member of the Scots language society and really enjoy singing and reading
in Scots. My favourite Scots book is one we were given to read at Dunblane High
School and is Sunset Song by Lewis Grassic Gibbon. It is widely regarded as one
of the finest pieces of Scottish literature written this century and forms the
first part of a trilogy called "A Scots Quair". Funnily, although we were
"taught" Scots through English and History courses at Dunblane High, Gaelic
was not allowed to be on the curriculum, despite having a noted Gaelic poet
as a teacher at the school (Alasdair MacInnes from Glencoe). I later met up
with Alasdair on a Gaelic course in Essex. Funny how Gaelic can be taught in
Essex but not in Perthshire.
Craig Cockburn
craig@scot.demon.co.uk
Copyright © 1996-2003 Craig Cockburn
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