
Dr Frederik Paulsen Family Foundation support for Sabhal Mòr Ostaig
Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, The National Centre for Gaelic Language, Education, Culture and the Arts, is pleased to acknowledge the very generous financial support of £50,000 gifted to the College by Dr Frederik Paulsen Jnr, who along with Mossburn Distillers, is the ‘driving force’ behind the development of the newly completed Torabhaig Distillery on South Skye.
This very generous donation, made through the Paulsen Family Foundation, is given in support and in recognition of the important work which Sabhal Mòr Ostaig undertakes and delivers, as the National Centre for Gaelic, with regard to securing the continued regeneration and development of the Language, culture, and community.
Dr Paulsen’s family, which owns the globally successful company, ‘Ferring Pharmaceuticals’, started in Sweden in 1936, by Dr Paulsen’s late father, Dr Frederik Paulsen Senior, has a long history of engagement in philanthropic activity, throughout the world.
Dr Paulsen Snr, born in the tiny port of Dagebull on the North Frisian Coast, took a very particular and special interest in maintaining and supporting the Frisian language of his parents and ancestors.
Commenting on the Paulsen Foundation’s generous donation, Sabhal Mòr Ostaig’s Director of Development, Fundraising and the Arts, Dr Donnie Munro, said today,
‘This donation is very welcome indeed and, quite apart from its obvious usefulness, it is an important international commendation of our on-going work, in support of the Gaelic Language, culture and community and mirrors the Paulsen family’s historical support for, and understanding of, the issues facing minority languages across the world’.
The donation, which is spread across two financial years, will be applied in support of the work of the Tobar an Dualchais-Kist o Riches, National Conservation and Digitisation Programme, considered by many, to be one of the most extensive, far reaching and important cultural heritage programmes undertaken, anywhere in Europe.
Sabhal Mòr Ostaig Principal, Professor Boyd Robertson, commented “This is a most welcome injection of funding for a project of international significance which offers internet access to anyone anywhere to a veritable treasure trove of the cultural riches of the Gaelic and Scots traditions. We are most grateful to Dr Paulsen for this further manifestation of his support for minority languages and for recognising the cultural bond between the distillery at Torobhaig and the mission of Sabhal Mòr Ostaig”.