GUIR! Gaelic Arts development programme

Aonghas MacLeòid’s project centres on the contested history of Glasgow’s first post-Reformation theatre, once located beside the Bishop’s Palace at the top of the High Street. Traditionally believed to have been burned down in 1753 by a mob incited by the Methodist minister George Whitefield, the theatre’s fate provides the basis for a new dramatic work that questions how art, religion, and power intersect.  The proposed piece focuses on two historical figures: Daniel Burrell, a local dancing master associated with the theatre and dance hall culture, and George Whitefield, a former actor turned revivalist preacher. Their opposition reflects a deeper paradox, as Whitefield’s itinerant, audience-dependent ministry closely mirrors the lives of the performers he sought to suppress. Burrell’s role in introducing early forms of Scottish country dancing is contrasted with the precarious status of popular performance, caught between official disapproval and public uncertainty.

Rommy Nic Mhicheal and Marie Trestrail proposed incubation project is a short, multi-medium film adapting a Gaelic folktale, provisionally titled Uair a bha siud: [name of folktale] (“Once upon a time: [name of folktale]”). The film will visualise one story from John Francis Campbell’s Popular Tales of the West Highlands, combining live-action footage of Scottish landscapes with original animated sequences. The source material has been selected for its cultural integrity, as the tales were recorded from native Gaelic speakers during a period when oral tradition was still strong, and for its public-domain status.  The project focuses specifically on folktales collected on Islay, reflecting Romy’s personal connection to the island and its culture. Three potential stories are currently under consideration: The Tale of the Hoodie, The Girl and the Dead Man, and The Tale of the Queen Who Sought a Drink From a Certain Well.

Project Common Health Aims is an incubation project that explores healing practices across time, encompassing medicinal, musical, and spiritual traditions rooted in Gaelic culture. Drawing inspiration from personal family history and the book Healing Threads by Mary Beith, the project examines traditional knowledge gathered in the Hebrides, particularly Gaelic herbal medicine and community-based healing practices. Central to the idea is the figure of the creator’s great-uncle, Tormod, a seventh son who possessed healing abilities, especially in relation to Tinneas an Rìgh (King’s Illness). His quiet, gentle nature provides a personal entry point into a wider exploration of how healing knowledge was understood, embodied, and passed down through generations. The project is especially interested in healing as a spiritual and physical connection to land, the social structures that allowed such practices to endure and the how the emotional resonance of music supports our physical wellbeing.

Bogadh (mus tilleadh am muir air a’ lìonadh) is an incubation project for a short piece of dance theatre that explores climate change, movement, language, and identity through a Gaelic lens. Set within the urban architecture of Glasgow, the work imagines rising sea levels carrying a dancer upward along the city’s walls, using vertical harness dance as both a physical and symbolic response to environmental and personal flux. Led by a non-binary transmasculine artist with a background in circus, physical performance, and Gaelic theatre, the project builds directly on their existing practice, combining movement.

'The aim of my project is to create a series of works in response to the Vatersay Land Raids. The Vatersay Raiders, (including my great-great grandfather) were imprisoned in 1908 for occupying the Isle of Vatersay, landless people seeking a life outside deprivation, taken to court by one of the wealthiest landowners in Scotland. Later released after public outcry, a pivotal moment in land reform in Scotland. The project will include a period of extensive research, interviewing folklorists on Barra and historical records with the end goal being to create works which could include immersive installations and sculptural pieces celebrating the influence of the raiders on Vatersay and beyond.'

'Coming from a place where the land and sea are woven into every aspect of life, on the Isle of Lewis, when I first came to the city, I struggled to find the same connection to nature. But over the years, I noticed the beauty right here on my doorstep—bumblebees drifting between wildflowers, the scent of wild garlic in spring, the steady flow of the River Kelvin, and the quiet glow of the moon over high-rise buildings. These moments of nature are no less significant just because they exist in an urban setting. And in-fact may be even more important.  
During GUIR I hope to celebrate wild places within Glasgow’s city centre by composing new Gaelic songs and music inspired by these places hidden within the urban landscape and by reflecting natures through movement and contemporary dance, improvising and responding to the music and themes that emerge, I will explore a visual interpretation of the compositions and deepen the connection between music, place, and storytelling.'

'My idea is to create a collection of musical tracks which explore intersectional stories of strength in the face of suppression within a Gaelic speaking context including suppression of women, threats from the climate crisis, the Gaelic cultural/ linguistic crisis and rural depopulation with a particular focus on my local home area in Morvern. I want to embed my music in my natural environment, manifesting that deep connection with nature so central to the traditional Gaelic worldview, as well as honouring the oral tradition and containing the legacy of my local area’s culture.  Mairi Macleod was forced off her home in Morven, disconnected from her land, in one of the earliest and most brutal clearances. She had no choice but to move to the city – working with Galway Dance this project will also look at the physical movement from rural to urban, and how we traverse that in contemporary Scotland when we have choices.'

The Gaelic language has a rich tradition of storytelling and expression, and as a queer artist, Josie contributed to this tradition by creating new Gaelic songs that reflect her experiences and journey as a member of the LGBTQIA+ community. They celebrate diversity, inclusion, and the unique intersection of queer identity and Gaelic culture. 

Gaelic song has been used as a form of protest for centuries, raising awareness of injustice and subjugation of the Gaels. How is the cultural knowledge in these songs relevant to the climate emergency? Mairi created new songs exploring other minority languages, melodies and a wealth of old and new poetry, to continue the tradition of bearing witness and evidencing the current context for Gaels.

Caitlin developed an experimental audio-visual live set using personal and archival footage, field recordings, puirt-a-beul (mouth music) and live music. She explored the relationship between folklore and ecology, and how Gaels in Glasgow, past and present, have responded, adapted to and influenced the city.

Using the recorded phone conversations they have with their mother each Sunday, Babs Nic Griogair weaved the themes of maintaining connections with Gaelic, and ageing parents, into an interactive soundscape, installation and suite of poems. The work highlights themes of connection and disconnection; urban diaspora and rural roots; mothers and daughters, fragility, resilience, mortality and vitality.

As a non-binary gay artist, they find certain topics may be taboo in some Gaelic spaces. The phone call home is not two-way, and can be like listening to a soliloquy; listening intently but feeling unheard. How truthful are we in expressing our innermost feelings to a parent?

This project was supported bysupported by Susannah Stark