Tobar an Dualchais and BBC Bliadhna nan Òran Create New Gaelic Song Portal

A major development to the Tobar an Dualchais/Kist of Riches (TAD) website is being launched on Monday 23 February. A dedicated Gaelic Song portal has been created, offering users access to more than 700 Gaelic songs which were formerly available in the BBC’s “Bliadhna nan Òran / Year of Songs” website. This new portal within TAD includes audio recordings, song lyrics, and biographical information about the singers and composers, providing a rich and accessible resource for anyone interested in Gaelic song.

This exciting new development has been made possible through a collaboration between the BBC and Tobar an Dualchais which has seen the transfer of this unique collection to a new home. https://www.tobarandualchais.co.uk/

Bliadhna nan Òran was devised by Jo MacDonald and launched in 2010 as part of a themed year of songs on BBC Radio nan Gàidheal, with many hours of work put into sourcing and researching songs from the BBC’s Gaelic archives. This much-loved resource has now found a new home on the Tobar an Dualchais website, with plans to expand and include more songs in the future.

The launch of the new Gaelic Song portal is being marked in several Radio nan Gàidheal programmes throughout Seachdain na Gàidhlig (World Gaelic Week), starting with a ‘take-over’ of ‘Mire ri Linda’ on Monday 23 February from 10.00-12.00 hosted by Linda MacLeod. The programme which will be broadcast from the BBC’s studio in Inverness will feature live performances from Calum Alex MacMillan, Kristine Kennedy, Duncan MacLeod, and Emma MacLeod, as well as a selection of recordings from the Bliadhna nan Òran archives. 

Stories relating to the songs, singers and composers will also feature on ‘Naoi gu Deich’ on Monday and Thursday (9-10am).

Floraidh Forrest, Director of TAD said: “The development of the Gaelic Song portal will greatly enhance the Tobar an Dualchais website and we are very grateful to the BBC for collaborating with us to incorporate the Bliadhna nan Òran content. Bringing this material into the TAD infrastructure ensures that, with the support of our project partners at the University of Edinburgh, the song files and their associated metadata will be securely preserved for many years to come.

“I would particularly like to thank the TAD team for their dedication in enriching the material provided by the BBC – through further research for singer and composer biographies, translating data from Gaelic to English to make the site accessible to a wider audience, and adding many more photographs of singers and composers. There is still work to do, and we look forward to publishing additional biographies and linking up to song tracks already on the website in the months ahead.”

Margaret Mary Murray, Head of Gaelic Services and Inclusion at the BBC, commented:
“We are delighted that this wonderfully rich, comprehensive, and now growing compendium of Gaelic song, created by Jo MacDonald, and used regularly by thousands of people over the past 15 years, has been refreshed and will be housed within the fitting home of Tobair an Dualchais.  This will enable audiences to discover, rediscover and explore this fabulous resource.”

TAD received funding from the Scottish Government, Highlands and Islands Enterprise, Maoin nan Ealan Gàidhlig, and the Gaelic Language Promotion Trust towards the development costs.

Highlands and Islands Enterprise funded a six-month graduate placement to assist with the development of the portal. Claire Munro, Senior Project Manager at HIE, remarked:

“We were delighted to support this innovative new Gaelic digital song collection through the Northern Innovation Hub’s technology placement programme, which has delivered strong regional impact, with 66 graduate placements recruited and 12 student placements.

“The programme has helped TAD bring additional digital expertise into the project, strengthening its technological capacity and enabling new ways for audiences to engage with Gaelic heritage. This initiative preserves an invaluable cultural resource and also showcases how creativity, language and digital innovation can work together to benefit communities across the Highlands and Islands.”

The biographies in the Gaelic Song portal give a fascinating insight into the lives of the singers and composers and there are many interesting stories to be found among them. For example, Father John MacMillan was a priest and song composer from Barra who volunteered to emigrate with almost 300 people from Barra and the Uists on the transatlantic liner SS Marloch in 1923, bound for Canada in the hope of a better life there. Father John found the separation from his homeland very difficult, and he returned to Scotland two years later. His sojourn inspired him to write songs such ‘Fàilte do Bharraigh’ (‘Welcome to Barra’) and Seòlaidh Mise A-null gu Dùthaich Mo Rùin’ (I’ll Sail Over to My Beloved Homeland’).

Father John MacMillan and the writer Compton MacKenzie were good friends and MacKenzie based the character of Father James Macalister, who appears in the book ‘Whisky Galore’, on him. Father John was apparently very pleased to have a dramatised version of himself on film, and he also left a precious legacy in his songs and hymns.

The TAD team’s research on Murdo MacKenzie, a drover and farmer native to the Lochbroom area, helped to add valuable information to his biography. Murdo was said to have composed a number of songs, most of which have sadly not survived, as his brother-in-law advised him to burn his manuscripts. Nonetheless, Murdo’s songs proved so popular that at least two survived in print or oral tradition. One is ‘Òran nan Dròbhairean’ (The Drovers’ Song) which gives a valuable account of a drover’s work and lifestyle, in a profession that was integral to the Highland economy during the 18th and 19th centuries

Many village poets and their songs feature in the portal. These include: Angus Campbell (Am Bocsair) from Ness in Lewis; Alexander MacDonald from Antigonish, Nova Scotia who composed many songs in praise of his homeland; and Evan MacColl, the Bard of Loch Fyne, whose songs include ‘Fòghnan na h-Alba’ (‘The Thistle of Scotland’). The wide selection of singers includes Evelyn Jeffrey from Lewis, who was an opera singer at Sadler’s Wells.