Johann Lamont – a Gael in charge…

| Readers 43

The new  (first) leader of the Scottish Labour Party has the noble distinction of being the first MSP to contribute to a debate in the Scottish Parliament in Gaelic.

Here’s her blog post. And here’s herstory.

 Johann has lived all her life in Glasgow, yet both of her parents are Gaels from the Hebridean island of Tiree. In common with many other Glaswegians from such incoming communities, Johann feels her identity to be double-stranded, in which her love of the city is intermingled with the experience and ‘story-memory’ of island life and culture. Although as she explains, her Gaelic is now ‘faltering’, nevertheless this was the language that Johann chose to voice her first public statements at opening of the Scottish Parliament in 1999.

Imagine festival 202
Recent posts

Mick Fealty

An anatomy of the success of Irish Rugby: “Spread out, but stick together…”

Michael Hehir

More of the same heralds changes at Council elections: latest Irish News poll…

Mick Fealty

DUP won’t endorse the Windsor Protocol without “clarification, change and re-working…”

Donate to keep Slugger lit!

For over 20 years, Slugger has been an independent place for debate and new ideas. We have published over 40,000 posts and over one and a half million comments on the site. Each month we have over 70,000 readers. All this we have accomplished with only volunteers we have never had any paid staff.

Slugger does not receive any funding, and we respect our readers, so we will never run intrusive ads or sponsored posts. Instead, we are reader-supported. Help us keep Slugger independent by becoming a friend of Slugger.

While we run a tight ship and no one gets paid to write, we need money to help us cover our costs.

If you like what we do, we are asking you to consider giving a monthly donation of any amount, or you can give a one-off donation. Any amount is appreciated. 

Give a monthly donation Give a one-off donation