Bàrd Baile Ghlaschu - Glasgow’s Gaelic laureate

The Bàrd Baile Ghlaschu is Glasgow's Gaelic Laureate, a role that was created in 2019, to coincide with the Royal National Mòd in Glasgow that year. A little like the Glasgow Poet Laureate, a role founded in 1999 and first held by Edwin Morgan, the Bàrd Baile Ghlaschu has a focus on Gaelic.  

The first Bàrd Baile Ghlaschu was Niall O’Gallagher, who has also won the Bardic Crown of An Comunn Gàidhealach, an honorary title bestowed on individuals for their outstanding contribution to the Gaelic literary canon. Niall has continued to write, publish, educate, collaborate, and serve as an ambassador for Gaelic literature and language.

The role of Bàrd Baile Ghlaschu will be revived in 2026, with the support of Glasgow Life and the Gaelic Books Council. Niall O’Gallagher will once again take the role. Once again, this coincides with the Royal National Mòd which returns to Glasgow in 2026. 

More about Niall O'Gallager

Niall O’Gallagher is the author of three poetry collections published by CLÀR: Beatha Ùr (2013), Suain nan Trì Latha (2016) and Fo Bhlàth (2020). Around half the poems in these books are collected in Fuaimean Gràidh: Dàin Taghta / The Sounds of Love: Selected Poems (London: Francis Boutle Publishers, 2023), with English translations by Peter Mackay, Deborah Moffatt and others. A verse-novella, Litrichean Plàighe (‘Plague Letters’), and a novel in prose for children, Abigail agus na Seilleanan (‘Abigail and the Bees’) are in preparation. The winner of a New Writers Award and an Ignite Fellowship from the Scottish Book Trust / Gaelic Books Council, and of the Wigtown Gaelic Poetry Prize, he was named Bàrd Baile Ghlaschu in 2019 and was awarded the Bardic Crown at the National Mod in 2023. His English and Scots translations of longer Gaelic poems by Christopher Whyte are collected in Ceum air Cheum / Step by Step (Steòrnabhagh: Acair, 2019), while an anthology, Bàrdachd a’ Bhaile Mhòir: 15 Glasgow Poems, was published by Blue Diode Press in 2024. The author of critical essays on Alasdair Gray, Sorley Maclean and Derick Thomson, Niall is currently Gaelic Writer in Residence at the University of Edinburgh.