AN CLIATH CLIS

 

ABOUT
NEWS
CALENDAR
HISTORY
SONGS
CONTACT
   

NEWS

1. Welcome
2. Update
3. Hello From Scotland

4. Songs
5. The Waulking / Milling Tradition
6. The Nova Scotia Gaelic Council
7. Announcing: Sgioba Luaidh Inbhirchluaidh

 

WELCOME
welcome to our on-line home. Our website is courtesy of Dino Nardini who offered us space on his www.rivendellsoftware.com site.   Dino was also instrumental in advising us on attaining our new address: www.ancliathclis.ca.  Please show your appreciation by visiting Dino's site and clicking on his banner ads, for which he is monetarily rewarded. 

2. UPDATE

Hello everyone. It’s now February 2007. An Cliath Clis is going strong and our web site is looking a bit better. Thanks to Calum who has volunteered to tidy it up and post our news. Also thanks to Tim who is currently putting our song book in PDF format.

An Cliath Clis didn’t have a terribly busy year (2006). We had a few performances, and held regular practices during the year. In my last update, I mentioned we lost our practice space at Windsor Park. I can’t thank the Chiefs and Petty Officers’ Mess at Windsor Park enough for so generously allowing An Cliath Clis to use their facilities free of charge for 7 years.

Since their Mess moved to Stadacona it became impossible for us to use the new facility and we had to scramble to find a new place to hold our practices. Thanks to Joe Murphy for once again coming to our aid. What a good friend! Through Joe, we now have a nice bright room with tables for milling at SMU, through the Irish Studies Department.

In July, we participated at the Halifax Highland Games. I’m not sure this was a good venue for a milling frolic, with all the piping, drumming and dancing going on all around us at the same time we were singing, but we stood our ground and saw it through. I think a few people heard us. ;)  Thanks to Audrey Manzer for asking us to participate in this event.

I believe the 2007 Halifax Highland Games is being held the weekend of July 07. There will be 1000 pipers. Piperfest 2007 is a fundraiser of the Dalhousie Medical Research Foundation.

The weekend of July 15, 2006, a few An Cliath Clis singers sang at a milling frolic at the Antigonish Highland Games in the Gaidhlig tent. This was fun, but not when the earwigs fell from between the boards of the tables and onto my lap. There is only one word to describe this. GROSS!!

In November 2006 we had a fantastic waulking at NSCAD with once again, students from the weaving class, taught by Sandra Brownlee. Terry Mac Lean took many pictures at this event, and eventually we’ll have them on the website. What a fantastic waulking! The students wove 14 yards of brightly coloured cloth, and all were very enthusiastic about helping to mill it. We only milled for about 1 hour, but in just that short time the cloth shrank 1 yard.

There was a big crowd of both adults and children and no one was shy about coming up to the table. There was actually a line up for the milling table.

We have another waulking scheduled at NSCAD for March 01 at 7 pm.

There is a new venue for Gaidhlig learners in the city. Sgoil Ghaidhlig an Ard Bhail.  Regular and TIP gaidhlig classes are held at
Our Lady of Schools
6350 Cornwall Street
Halifax
Corner of Jubilee and Oxford

Contact Kathleen Reddy: kathleen.g.reddy@gmail.ca

An Cliath Clis has been invited to the Codroy Valley in Newfoundland this summer for The Codroy Valley Come Home Year 2007  For more information contact www.codroyvalleycomehome.ca

That’s all for now folks.

Mary Mac Lean

 

Previous News Columns:

[August 2003]  [ August 29, 2002 ]    [ May 5, 2002 ]      [ TOP ]

3. Hello From Scotland

Hi Mary,
 
Just been looking at your website - direach sgoinneil!
 
I am the founder /leader of a waulking group in Greenock (on the Clyde, 25 miles west of Glasgow), which started up about three years ago. Like you, we have had tremendous fun, and, I'm glad to say, have generated a lot of interest in traditional Gaelic song in the local area. We have been kept pretty busy performing for different groups all over the West of Scotland, the most interesting (and bizarre!) being our link with the Bangladeshi community in Glasgow, who organise multi-cultural events. We have also started receiving invitations to schools, which is great - don't kids just love bashing tweed?! We are lucky in that one of our members is a spinner, so she is able to do presentations on spinning and dyeing as part of our programme. We haven't a website yet, but one of these days we'll get round to it.
 
Just for fun I'm attaching a pic of us at the National Mod in Largs two years ago. Say hi to all our colleagues in An Cliath Clis.
 
Leis gach deagh dhurachd,
 
Frances Dunlop
Sgioba Luaidh Ghrianaig
 
Greenock, Scotland


[ Picture ]

[ TOP ]

4. SONGS

Its no secret to anyone familiar with the members of An Cliath Clis that George Seto has been instrumental in pulling the repetoire of the group into a indexed coherent collection and making it available on the Internet via this site and his own personal one:

http://www.geocities.com/george_seto.geo

Evidence of his labour can be seen now in the form of an abobe pdf file which is loaded on the song index page.  Finally we have a printable version of our song index.  This is just in time to complement the ten new songs which have been added to the website.  Thanks George.

5. The Waulking / Milling Tradition

Check out the updated "ABOUT" section for Mary's interesting essay on the origins and practice of the Waulking / Milling Tradition in Canada and Scotland.  This information is part of the workshop session that Mary is regularly requested to conduct through out the year. [ TOP ]

6. The Nova Scotia Gaelic Council

The Nova Scotia Gaelic Council, which is the association of scottish gaelic language societies in Nova Scotia, has been instrumental in successfully bringing about a heightened awareness of the gaelic language, culture and traditions in Nova Scotia.  It is primarily through their lobbying efforts that the provincial government of Nova Scotia set aside the month of May as "Gaelic Awareness Month".  Their efforts on behalf of gaelic are as wide ranging as their membership.    Please pay them a visit and send them a note of encouragement.

http://www.gaelic.ca/

Suas e !

 [ TOP ]

 
7. Announcing: Sgioba Luaidh Inbhirchluaidh

Hi Mary, & greetings to all our friends in An Cliath Clis.

I hope you had a good summer. We are all complaining here about the weather – it hasn’t been very summery!

The group are back in action after our break. We are busy rehearsing for the National Mod which is in Perth this year. We will be singing on Friday 15 Oct. There are four teams in the competition. Our hopes are high!

We have decided to change our name to Sgioba Luaidh Inbhirchluaidh. Mainly because I suddenly realised that it rhymes rather well! Inverclyde District is where Greenock is situated, and most of our members in fact live outwith Greenock. Some even live outwith Invercyde. However, we have to stop somewhere!

Our big news is that now at last we have a website! I have been slaving over it for the last few weeks! I have included a link to you, so I hope you will link back to us? Here’s our URL -

www.geocities.com/luadh

And do put a message on our shiny new Guestbook!   We have a really busy session ahead, and are looking forward to getting out and about.


Durachdan dha na cairdean gu leir ann an Alba Nuadh,

Frances