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Tea break: Morag MacLeod

In our regular feature, we join a local for a tea break and find out how they spend their time and their time off. This week, we welcome Morag MacLeod, founder of the Dè tha dol? newspaper and Gaelic song specialist.



Morag MacLeod, 2025
Morag MacLeod, 2025

Morag, you were the first editor of this newspaper. What were the early years of the Dè tha dol? like?

The Van Leer Foundation was involved in Community Education and started a scheme in the Western Isles in the late 70s. The first year was led by Annie MacSween in Ness, and its success led to a scheme in Harris and Benbecula. I worked in the School of Scottish Studies at the University of Edinburgh and my interest in the Gaelic side of community education and history made me a possible candidate for this new job. A 3-year sabbatical was easy to arrange. I joined Harris Development and it was under its auspices that a local news magazine started. One of the Job Creation schemes gave employment to four young people plus a more senior person. We were given a room in the Social Work office (now Rionnagan Òga) and a lady who lived nearby took on the typing, voluntarily. My vague memory is that each issue of Dé tha dol? appeared when it was ready, and that the first few editions were free. 


What would you like to see in the current version of the newspaper? Do you have any advice for us?

There are a lot of community magazines throughout Lewis and Harris, and they could be looked at, but Harris has fewer people. You have to depend on adverts, and they take up a lot of room. Without adverts, it would be difficult to keep the price reasonable. Local events are well-featured. In 1980 it was a source for hints and recipes, which are so easily found elsewhere now. The spiritual input from the churches in the Christmas issue was very welcome, I’m sure, and it might be a good idea to make this a regular feature (one contributor per issue).


While working at the School of Scottish Studies, you participated in the publication of the Tocher magazine. Could you tell us more about that?

The School of  Scottish Studies was established in 1951 by the University of Edinburgh as an institute to organise material in Gaelic and Scots. A substantial archive was formed, and I was employed in 1962 to take over the task of transcribing the Gaelic material. I began with material from Harris, but it was important for the transcriber to reproduce different dialects as closely as possible. I got a lot of help from academic colleagues. It was especially important to decide what words poets had in mind when composing, veering away from their own dialects sometimes, and making sure that one used the form that the poet would have in mind to comply with rhyme (choosing “eutrom”  or “aotrom” / “smaoin” or “smuain”, for example).

The first issue of Tocher came out in 1971, containing a selection of traditional tales, songs, and other material from the archive. The name Tocher was defined as from Gaelic tochar, a dowry.


You have collected a wealth of Gaelic songs throughout your career. Do you have a favourite one from Harris and Scalpay?

I listen to Gaelic radio every day, and in the morning, I might favour one song, but I am likely to choose a different one in the afternoon. In Scalpay I would have no hesitation in choosing songs by Tarmod Ruairi Tharmoid  (Norry). He had a special skill in putting words together, in tender love songs as well as in describing comic events. A’ mire ris a’ chat also comes to mind.


What resources would you recommend to our readers who would like to learn more about the traditional music of the Highlands and Islands?

Tobar an Dualchais (“Kist o Riches”) decided to make that rich archive of songs from the School of Scottish Studies, the BBC, and John Lorne Campbell’s collection in Canna, dating from the 1930s freely available. It is being tremendously well used. In Gaelic, my feeling is that not every old song must be given a new form. The language: Singers who have an interest in the words of the songs should go to a good source for translation so that what they sing is not just a musical exercise. Even non-poetic language has changed, in my time, and to an unbelievable degree over the last thirty years. I maintain that far too much of the language used officially is a translation from English. Where there is more than one meaning of an English word, in Gaelic that is shown in everyday speech. A prime example of that is the use of “anmoch” for English late, where more often than not, “fadalach” would be more correct. That is diminishing the use of one word. With “focus” – did you know that that was a Gaelic word? – it would be an interesting exercise to count how many real Gaelic words are being dismissed by the use of “focus”. I’m beginning to dislike it in English.


How do you like to spend your time?

With age I find that I have much less spare time. I watch television too much, and seldom to my edification. I don’t read a third of what I used to. Walking or running? I have a bit of a resistance to fashion, and they are both so fashionable.

 

What are your favourite places in Harris?

I like all parts of Harris.  To appreciate it, east or west, you have to find yourself in a flat boring landscape somewhere.


It’s tea break time. What’s on the menu?

I am really easy to feed. I like lots of kinds of tea or coffee, and I cannot think of any cake I do not like. 

 

 

1 Comment


patllaurel
Jan 21

Enjoyed your tea break with Morag, a very interesting lady indeed & a great photo of her 😘

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