"Devastating" cut to Tiree Gaelic jobs

Urras Thiriodh, (Tiree Community Development Trust) has reacted to the news that the Gaelic Development Officer Scheme has been ended as a result of cuts to Bòrd na Gàidhlig’s budget. Two jobs at Urras Thiriodh rely on the scheme.

Chairperson of Urras Thiriodh, Rhoda Meek, said: “I am incredibly disappointed at this decision. It is short-sighted and deeply damaging to island communities.

“Bord na Gaidhlig have been underfunded for a long time and these budget cuts will simply compound an already worsening outlook for the language. What is spent on Gaelic is a drop in the ocean when it comes to the overall budget. At this point, for the Scottish Government to so much as pretend that they care about the future of Gaelic is laughable.”

Urras Thiriodh had just embarked on a project to encourage greater use of the language in the community - particularly focusing on opportunities for existing speakers to use their language. The goal was to increase community usage to a level where Gaelic was regularly heard. 

In 2020, research showed that Tiree was one of the places where the use of Gaelic in the vernacular community had plummeted - leaving Gaelic in Tiree on a knife-edge. 

Rhoda continued: “Recovering community usage is not a quick and easy thing to do - if it were, Bòrd na Gàidhlig would have worked out how to do it long ago. It’s going to take years. We were six months in. We have six months of funding left. 

“It is devastating for all concerned - not least the two jobs which will be affected. It’s nothing short of a disgrace and a complete kick in the teeth to everyone who is battling against the tide of language loss.”

The funding relied on extensions to Bòrd na Gàidhlig’s budget over the last three years. It is that extension which has been cut. The main Bòrd budget remains unchanged.

Rhoda concluded: “I think the fact that Gaelic Development Officer posts relied on top-up funding rather than being included in the main Gaelic budget speaks volumes. Our existing Gaelic-speaking communities and native speakers in the islands feel like they are at the bottom of the list, and this only serves to underline the point."