Va mee kionfenish ec accan çheu-mooie jeh Thie-tashtee Ashoonagh Nalbin yn vee shoh chaie mychione laccal y Ghaelg ayns taishbynys noa mychione ny Jamyssee.

Va’* taghyrtys reaghit liorish yn çheshaght Misneachd, ta kianlt rish yn çheshaght Yernagh lesh yn un ennym screeu mee moo yn cheayrt s’jerree.

Va ny smoo na three feed dy leih goaill ayrn ayns y varçhal gys y thie-tashtee, as ollooyn cronnal ny mast’oc chammah as paitçhyn, mummigyn as jishagyn voish y vunscoill Ghaelgagh ayns Doon Eidjyn. V’ad goaill arraneyn caggee voish traa ny Jamyssee.

Dooyrt yn thie-tashtee nagh vel yn taishbynys ’Bonnie Prince Charlie and the Jacobites’ daa-hengagh son dy re skeeal ’Oarpagh’ t’ad ginsh, ayns ynnyd skeeal ta bentyn da’* Ghaelg.

Cha row shinyn jannoo soiagh jeh’* leshtal shen eddyr, my-ta.

’She glare Oarpagh yn Ghaelg, glare son y laa t’ayn jiu, oddys ymmyd y ve jeant jee ayns ymmodee co-heks son taishbynys erbee dy vel yn thie-tashtee jannoo ayns firrinys, as cha vel eh agh resoonagh dy smooinaghtyn dy beagh ee usit cour red ennagh ta cho scanshoil da cooish y Ghaelg,’ dooyrt Wilson McLeod, ard-olloo yn Ghaelg Albinagh ayns Ollooscoill Ghoon Eidjyn.

Dooyrt eh neesht dy re ’shenn skeealyn, shenn toiggal, shenn leshtallyn’ v’ec mooinjer yn thie-tashtee.

Screeu olloo elley, Ronnie Black, ta lioar scruit echey mychione earish ny Jamyssee, ayns pabyr-naight: ’Ta yindys glen orrym roish yn ansoor borb, almoragh as slane Goaldagh veih Thie-tashtee Ashoonagh Nalbinâ?¦ she yn oyr lhisagh Bonnie Prince Charlies and the Jacobites ve daa-hengagh dy lhisagh dy chooilley haishbynys ayns Nalbin y ve daa-hengagh dy insh yn irriney, agh cha vel eh yn cliaghtey foast, myr shen veagh shoh er ve fer aashagh (as baghtal) dy ghoaill toshiaght lesh.’

Ghow Black tastey dy vel kuse veg dy Ghaelg çheet rish ’sy taishbynys bentyn da Dunverys Ghleann Comhan as Cah Chùil Lodair. ’T’eh baghtal dy vel peiagh ennagh ayns oik ard ’sy thie-tashtee credjal dy vel eh cooie dy yannoo ymmyd jeh ghaa ny three dy ocklyn dy Ghaelg dy hoilshaghey paart dy cheayrtyn tra ta earroo mooar dy leih ta loayrt Gaelg er nyn marroo, agh mee-chooie dy yannoo ymmyd jeh veg dy ghellal rish shennaghys, ellyn, kiaddey buildalyn, politickaght, cooishyn joarreeaght, as y lheid.’

Ta artyn er jeet rish ayns pabyryn-naight elley as ta’* chooish er ve er Radio nan Gàidheal as BBC Alba. T’eh jeeaghyn dy voddagh yn thie-tashtee v’er vrishey yn plan Gaelgagh oikoil oc hene. T’eh traa liauyr neayr’s va accan cha mooar shoh ayn bentyn da’* Ghaelg Albinagh, as ta shin treishteil dy bee cooishyn caghlaa dy gerrid.

I was present at a protest outside the National Museum of Scotland last month concerning the lack of Gaelic in a new exhibition about the Jacobites.

The demonstration was organised by the group Misneachd, which is an offshoot of the Irish organisation which was the topic of my last article.

More than sixty people took part in the march to the museum, including well-known professors and lecturers and parents and children from the Gaelic-medium primary school in Edinburgh. They sang Jacobite songs in Gaelic.

The museum said that the exhibition ’Bonnie Prince Charlie and the Jacobites’ is not bilingual because they are telling a ’European’ narrative, rather than a story that concerns Gaelic.

We were certainly not impressed by this excuse.

’Gaelic is a modern, European language, which can be used in many contexts in any exhibition the museum does, really, and it is only reasonable to think that it would be used for something that is so important and relevant to the Gaelic world,’ said Wilson McLeod, professor of Gaelic at the University of Edinburgh.

He also said the museum was coming out with ’old stories, old understandings, old excuses’.

Another Gaelic lecturer, Dr Ronald Black, who has written extensively on the Jacobites, wrote in a letter to a newspaper: ’I am flabbergasted at the crass, ignorant and utterly British response of the National Museum of Scotlandâ?¦ The reason why ’Bonnie Prince Charlie and the Jacobites’ should have been bilingual is that all exhibitions in Scotland should be bilingual, really, but it isn’t customary as yet, so this would have been an easy (and, well, obvious) one with which to get started.’ He noted that there was a smattering of Gaelic at the sections dealing with the Glencoe Massacre and the Battle of Culloden.

’Somebody high up in the museum clearly thinks that it’s appropriate to use two or three words of Gaelic to flag up the odd occasion when substantial numbers of Gaelic speakers are killed, but inappropriate to use any to describe history, art, architecture, politics, foreign affairs, etc.’

Articles have appeared in other newspapers and the matter has featured prominently on Radio nan Gàidheal and BBC Alba.

It appears that the museum may have broken its own official Gaelic language plan. It is a long time since there has been such a big protest in favour of Gaelic in Scotland, and it is to be hoped that change is soon brought about.