[Dòmhnall] Fad trì fichead bliadhna ’s còrr bha na mìltean thar mhìltean Ghàidheil a’ cur cùl ri an dachaigh ’s a’ toirt cladach an taobh sear Chanada orra. Ann an eachdraidh thoinnte nan eilthireach sin gheibh sinn eisimpleir air a h-uile seòrsa adhbhair a bha a’ toirt air daoine agus air coimhearsnachdan slàn cùl a chur an tr fhèin
[Dòmhnall] Latha fliuch foghair tha mi air mo shlighe sìos Loch Seile.
[Dòmhnall] Bha an dùthaich àlainn-sa na pàirt de dh’oighreachd mhòr Chlann Raghnaill. Cha robh mòran dhaoine a sheas còirichean a’ Phrionnsa Theàrlach Eideart Stiùbhairt coltach ris an t-sluagh a bha a’ fuireach an seo. ’S ann air Loch Seile a thog e bratach nan Seumasach ’s a chruinnich na cinnidhean a bha a’ dol a dh’fheuchainn ri crùn Bhreatainn a shaoradh dha.
[Dòmhnall] Letheach sìos an loch tha seann tac Ghlinnaladail. B’ iad seo na fearainn aig Alasdair Dòmhnallach, fear de na ciad fheadhainn a sheas còirichean a’ Phrionnsa. Ann an seachd deug trì fichead ’s a deich ’s ann aig a mhac Iain a bha an tac agus an tiotal “Fear a’ Ghlinne”. Cha robh mòran cho àrd inbhe ris air Oighreachd Chlann Raghnaill.
[Dòmhnall] Bha Fear a’ Ghlinne na dhuine rudeigin àrdanach, pròiseil. Fhuair e foghlam ann an Colaiste Chaitligeach Ratisbon anns a’ Ghearmailt, ach coltach ri iomadach duine eile dha na fir-taca cha robh nòs ùr coimeirsealta a bha a-nise a’ sguabadh tron Ghàidhealtachd a’ tighinn air agus, a-rithist coltach ri gu leòr eile, bha e a’ tòiseachadh a beachdachadh air coimhearsnachd ùr a stèidheachadh thall thairis, ach do Ghleannaladail bha adhbhar eile ga ghluasad – creideamh.
[Dòmhnall] Tha Uibhist a Deas a cheart cho Caitligeach an-diugh ’s a bha e ann an latha Fear a’ Ghlinne fhèin, mar a tha e air a bhith fad linntean.
[Dòmhnall] Tha an tobhta-sa a’ tuiteam gu làr a-nise ach tha a pàirt fhèin aice ann an eachdraidh Uibhist. ’S e taigh còmhnaidh a bh’ innte aig aon àm ach fada ron sin bha i na taigh pobaill aig an eaglais.
[Dòmhnall] Aon mhadainn Dòmhnaich ann an seachd deug trì fichead ’s a naoi thàinig Cailean Dòmhnallach, Fear Bhaghasdail, dhan eaglais an seo, ach cha tug e fada anns an adhradh an latha a bha siud. Chronaich an sagart, a bha air ùr-thighinn à Èirinn, e ’s chuir e a-mach às an eaglais e. ’S e deasbad a bh’ innte a bha a’ dol a thoirt buaidh mhòr air eachdraidh nan daoine.
[Dòmhnall] Seo an rud a bha air cùl na connspaid – ceilp. Bha i a’ dol gu gnìomhachasan a’ chinn a deis ’s bha Fear Bhaghasdail ’s na h-uachdarain a’ dèanamh glè mhath aiste. Tha iad fhathast ri beagan ceilp ann an Uibhist.
[Eairdsidh Currie] Obair gu math trom, gu math trom air an druim.
[Dòmhnall] Dè cho tric ’s a bhiodh sibh a’ gearradh no dè cho fada dhan latha ’s a bhiodh sibh a’gearradh?
[Eairdsidh Currie] Tha còig uairean an uaireadair, seo cho fada ‘s a tha an tràigh ann , … fhad ’s a bhios … fhad ’s a tha an làn a-muigh. Agus … Ach tha ùine mhòr an sàs innte. Tha agad ri ròpa a chur oirre an-dràsta, mun cuairt, tha thu a’ cur ròpa oirre agus uaireadair a’ tarraing, co-dhiù mas e deagh shìde a th’ ann bidh thu air astar fhada.
[Dòmhnall] Bha Fear Bhaghasdail a’ cumail nan daoine ri obair na ceilp bho mhoch gu dubh. Cha robh e idir a’ còrdadh ris mar a bha daoine a’ gabhail làithean fèill na h-eaglaise dheth. Nuair a thàinig seachdain Fèill Mhìcheil dh’fheuch e ri an cumail ag obair.
[Dòmhnall] Bha e cho àrdanach mòr às fhèin ’s nach robh diù aige de theagaisgean na h-eaglaise, a bha ag àithneadh do dhaoine fois a ghabhail. Chuir e de dh’fearg air an t-sagart ’s gun do chuir e às an eaglais e.
[Dòmhnall] Bha Fear Bhaghasdail a-nise air a chur thuige ceart. D’ àithn e gun tigeadh duine sam bith dhan t-sluagh nach gabhadh dhan eaglais Phròstanaich gun dàil a chur às na fearainn.
[Niall MacGilleMhaoil] Tha e coltach air an Didòmhnaich nuair a bhiodh iad a’ dol dhan eaglais, bhiodh e a’ tachairt orra ’s bha cabar de mhaide - bha maide mòr, buidhe aige – agus e ga bhualadh feuch an tilleadh iad. Sin agad mar a thàinig an creideamh “Am Maide Buidhe” a-steach, nach biodh e toirt orra … bha a leithid de chumhachd aig an duine is nan tachradh e air gu h-àraidh seann bhoireannaich bheireadh e orra a dhol air an glùinean air an rathad mhòr, cha bhiodh rathad mòr ann ach frith-rathaid, agus adhradh a thoirt dhan bhata bhuidhe, gur esan Fear a’ Bhata Bhuidhe agus gun cuireadh e às na fearainn iad agus gu dè nach robh e a’ dol a dhèanamh orra.
Chaidh am prògram seo, Na h-Eilthirich, a chraoladh an toiseach ann an 1999.
[Donald] For more than sixty years thousands upon thousands of Gaels left their homes and made for the east coast of Canada. In the complex history of those emigrants we will get examples of every sort of reason that made people and whole communities leave and improve themselves.
[Donald] A wet autumn’s day and I am on my way down Loch Shiel.
[Donald] This beautiful country was part of the great Clanranald estate. There weren’t many people who supported Prince Charles Edward Stuart’s cause like the people who lived here. It is at Loch Shiel that he raised the Jacobite flag and that the clan chiefs who were going to liberate the British crown for him gathered.
[Donald] Halfway down the loch is the old Glenaladale tack. These were the lands of Alexander Macdonald, one of the first people to back the Prince’s cause. In 1770 the tack and the title “Laird of the Glen” belonged to his son John. There weren’t many of such high status on the Clanranald estate.
[Donald] The Laird of the Glen was a somewhat arrogant, proud man. He was educated in Ratisbon Catholic college in Germany, but like many of the other tacksmen he didn’t like the new commercial custom that was now sweeping through the Highlands and, again like plenty others, he was starting to consider establishing a new community abroad, but for Glenaladale there was another reason stirring them – religion.
[Donald] South Uist is just as Catholic today as it was in the Laird of the Glen’s day itself, how it has been for centuries.
[Donald] This ruin is falling to the ground now but it has its own part in Uist’s history. It was a residential house at one time but long before that it was the church’s public house.
[Donald] One Sunday morning in 1769 Colin Macdonald, Boisdale’s Laird, came to church here, but he wasn’t long at the service that day. The priest, who had recently come from Ireland, rebuked him and sent him out of the church. It was a debate that was going to greatly impact the people’s history.
[Donald] This is what was behind the controversy – kelp. It was used in industries in the south and Boisdale’s Laird and the landowners did very well from it. They still do a bit of kelp work in Uist.
[Archie Currie] Very hard work, very hard on the back.
[Donald] How often do you cut or how long do you cut it for in the day?
[Archie Currie] Five hours, for the duration of low-tide, that is just about there... whilst the tide is out. But it takes a long time. You have to put a rope on it just now, around it, you put the rope on it and you have to wait for the tide and then it is the rope that you gather together and you have to then pull it. You can be perhaps half an hour pulling, especially if it’s good weather you will be a good time.
[Donald] Boisdale’s Laird kept the people at the kelp work from dawn to dusk. He didn’t at all like how people took the church’s holy days off. When it came to St. Michaelmas he tried to keep them working.
[Donald] He was so full of himself that he didn’t care for the teachings of the church, that obliged people to take rest. He angered the priest so much that he sent him out of the church.
[Donald] Boisdale’s Laird was now properly enraged. He decreed that anyone in the population who wouldn’t change to the Protestant church immediately would be evicted from the land.
[Niall MacMillan] Apparently on Sunday when they would go to church, he would meet them and he had a big caber of a stick – he had a big, yellow stick – and he struck it to try and get them to return from it. That is how the “Yellow Stick” religion came in, that he wouldn’t give them, he had such power and if the man would meet especially old women he would make them go on their knees on the main road, there wouldn’t have been a main road but the tracks, and worship the yellow stick, that he was the Man of the Yellow Stick and he could evict them from the land and whatever else that he was going to do to them.
This programme, Na h-Eilthirich, was first broadcast in 1999.
[Dòmhnall] Fad trì fichead bliadhna ’s còrr bha na mìltean thar mhìltean Ghàidheil a’ cur cùl ri an dachaigh ’s a’ toirt cladach an taobh sear Chanada orra. Ann an eachdraidh thoinnte nan eilthireach sin gheibh sinn eisimpleir air a h-uile seòrsa adhbhair a bha a’ toirt air daoine agus air coimhearsnachdan slàn cùl a chur an tr fhèin
[Dòmhnall] Latha fliuch foghair tha mi air mo shlighe sìos Loch Seile.
[Dòmhnall] Bha an dùthaich àlainn-sa na pàirt de dh’oighreachd mhòr Chlann Raghnaill. Cha robh mòran dhaoine a sheas còirichean a’ Phrionnsa Theàrlach Eideart Stiùbhairt coltach ris an t-sluagh a bha a’ fuireach an seo. ’S ann air Loch Seile a thog e bratach nan Seumasach ’s a chruinnich na cinnidhean a bha a’ dol a dh’fheuchainn ri crùn Bhreatainn a shaoradh dha.
[Dòmhnall] Letheach sìos an loch tha seann tac Ghlinnaladail. B’ iad seo na fearainn aig Alasdair Dòmhnallach, fear de na ciad fheadhainn a sheas còirichean a’ Phrionnsa. Ann an seachd deug trì fichead ’s a deich ’s ann aig a mhac Iain a bha an tac agus an tiotal “Fear a’ Ghlinne”. Cha robh mòran cho àrd inbhe ris air Oighreachd Chlann Raghnaill.
[Dòmhnall] Bha Fear a’ Ghlinne na dhuine rudeigin àrdanach, pròiseil. Fhuair e foghlam ann an Colaiste Chaitligeach Ratisbon anns a’ Ghearmailt, ach coltach ri iomadach duine eile dha na fir-taca cha robh nòs ùr coimeirsealta a bha a-nise a’ sguabadh tron Ghàidhealtachd a’ tighinn air agus, a-rithist coltach ri gu leòr eile, bha e a’ tòiseachadh a beachdachadh air coimhearsnachd ùr a stèidheachadh thall thairis, ach do Ghleannaladail bha adhbhar eile ga ghluasad – creideamh.
[Dòmhnall] Tha Uibhist a Deas a cheart cho Caitligeach an-diugh ’s a bha e ann an latha Fear a’ Ghlinne fhèin, mar a tha e air a bhith fad linntean.
[Dòmhnall] Tha an tobhta-sa a’ tuiteam gu làr a-nise ach tha a pàirt fhèin aice ann an eachdraidh Uibhist. ’S e taigh còmhnaidh a bh’ innte aig aon àm ach fada ron sin bha i na taigh pobaill aig an eaglais.
[Dòmhnall] Aon mhadainn Dòmhnaich ann an seachd deug trì fichead ’s a naoi thàinig Cailean Dòmhnallach, Fear Bhaghasdail, dhan eaglais an seo, ach cha tug e fada anns an adhradh an latha a bha siud. Chronaich an sagart, a bha air ùr-thighinn à Èirinn, e ’s chuir e a-mach às an eaglais e. ’S e deasbad a bh’ innte a bha a’ dol a thoirt buaidh mhòr air eachdraidh nan daoine.
[Dòmhnall] Seo an rud a bha air cùl na connspaid – ceilp. Bha i a’ dol gu gnìomhachasan a’ chinn a deis ’s bha Fear Bhaghasdail ’s na h-uachdarain a’ dèanamh glè mhath aiste. Tha iad fhathast ri beagan ceilp ann an Uibhist.
[Eairdsidh Currie] Obair gu math trom, gu math trom air an druim.
[Dòmhnall] Dè cho tric ’s a bhiodh sibh a’ gearradh no dè cho fada dhan latha ’s a bhiodh sibh a’gearradh?
[Eairdsidh Currie] Tha còig uairean an uaireadair, seo cho fada ‘s a tha an tràigh ann , … fhad ’s a bhios … fhad ’s a tha an làn a-muigh. Agus … Ach tha ùine mhòr an sàs innte. Tha agad ri ròpa a chur oirre an-dràsta, mun cuairt, tha thu a’ cur ròpa oirre agus uaireadair a’ tarraing, co-dhiù mas e deagh shìde a th’ ann bidh thu air astar fhada.
[Dòmhnall] Bha Fear Bhaghasdail a’ cumail nan daoine ri obair na ceilp bho mhoch gu dubh. Cha robh e idir a’ còrdadh ris mar a bha daoine a’ gabhail làithean fèill na h-eaglaise dheth. Nuair a thàinig seachdain Fèill Mhìcheil dh’fheuch e ri an cumail ag obair.
[Dòmhnall] Bha e cho àrdanach mòr às fhèin ’s nach robh diù aige de theagaisgean na h-eaglaise, a bha ag àithneadh do dhaoine fois a ghabhail. Chuir e de dh’fearg air an t-sagart ’s gun do chuir e às an eaglais e.
[Dòmhnall] Bha Fear Bhaghasdail a-nise air a chur thuige ceart. D’ àithn e gun tigeadh duine sam bith dhan t-sluagh nach gabhadh dhan eaglais Phròstanaich gun dàil a chur às na fearainn.
[Niall MacGilleMhaoil] Tha e coltach air an Didòmhnaich nuair a bhiodh iad a’ dol dhan eaglais, bhiodh e a’ tachairt orra ’s bha cabar de mhaide - bha maide mòr, buidhe aige – agus e ga bhualadh feuch an tilleadh iad. Sin agad mar a thàinig an creideamh “Am Maide Buidhe” a-steach, nach biodh e toirt orra … bha a leithid de chumhachd aig an duine is nan tachradh e air gu h-àraidh seann bhoireannaich bheireadh e orra a dhol air an glùinean air an rathad mhòr, cha bhiodh rathad mòr ann ach frith-rathaid, agus adhradh a thoirt dhan bhata bhuidhe, gur esan Fear a’ Bhata Bhuidhe agus gun cuireadh e às na fearainn iad agus gu dè nach robh e a’ dol a dhèanamh orra.
Chaidh am prògram seo, Na h-Eilthirich, a chraoladh an toiseach ann an 1999.
[Donald] For more than sixty years thousands upon thousands of Gaels left their homes and made for the east coast of Canada. In the complex history of those emigrants we will get examples of every sort of reason that made people and whole communities leave and improve themselves.
[Donald] A wet autumn’s day and I am on my way down Loch Shiel.
[Donald] This beautiful country was part of the great Clanranald estate. There weren’t many people who supported Prince Charles Edward Stuart’s cause like the people who lived here. It is at Loch Shiel that he raised the Jacobite flag and that the clan chiefs who were going to liberate the British crown for him gathered.
[Donald] Halfway down the loch is the old Glenaladale tack. These were the lands of Alexander Macdonald, one of the first people to back the Prince’s cause. In 1770 the tack and the title “Laird of the Glen” belonged to his son John. There weren’t many of such high status on the Clanranald estate.
[Donald] The Laird of the Glen was a somewhat arrogant, proud man. He was educated in Ratisbon Catholic college in Germany, but like many of the other tacksmen he didn’t like the new commercial custom that was now sweeping through the Highlands and, again like plenty others, he was starting to consider establishing a new community abroad, but for Glenaladale there was another reason stirring them – religion.
[Donald] South Uist is just as Catholic today as it was in the Laird of the Glen’s day itself, how it has been for centuries.
[Donald] This ruin is falling to the ground now but it has its own part in Uist’s history. It was a residential house at one time but long before that it was the church’s public house.
[Donald] One Sunday morning in 1769 Colin Macdonald, Boisdale’s Laird, came to church here, but he wasn’t long at the service that day. The priest, who had recently come from Ireland, rebuked him and sent him out of the church. It was a debate that was going to greatly impact the people’s history.
[Donald] This is what was behind the controversy – kelp. It was used in industries in the south and Boisdale’s Laird and the landowners did very well from it. They still do a bit of kelp work in Uist.
[Archie Currie] Very hard work, very hard on the back.
[Donald] How often do you cut or how long do you cut it for in the day?
[Archie Currie] Five hours, for the duration of low-tide, that is just about there... whilst the tide is out. But it takes a long time. You have to put a rope on it just now, around it, you put the rope on it and you have to wait for the tide and then it is the rope that you gather together and you have to then pull it. You can be perhaps half an hour pulling, especially if it’s good weather you will be a good time.
[Donald] Boisdale’s Laird kept the people at the kelp work from dawn to dusk. He didn’t at all like how people took the church’s holy days off. When it came to St. Michaelmas he tried to keep them working.
[Donald] He was so full of himself that he didn’t care for the teachings of the church, that obliged people to take rest. He angered the priest so much that he sent him out of the church.
[Donald] Boisdale’s Laird was now properly enraged. He decreed that anyone in the population who wouldn’t change to the Protestant church immediately would be evicted from the land.
[Niall MacMillan] Apparently on Sunday when they would go to church, he would meet them and he had a big caber of a stick – he had a big, yellow stick – and he struck it to try and get them to return from it. That is how the “Yellow Stick” religion came in, that he wouldn’t give them, he had such power and if the man would meet especially old women he would make them go on their knees on the main road, there wouldn’t have been a main road but the tracks, and worship the yellow stick, that he was the Man of the Yellow Stick and he could evict them from the land and whatever else that he was going to do to them.
This programme, Na h-Eilthirich, was first broadcast in 1999.