Gaelic Sessions Going Strong

Starting on March 11^th and running to March 14^th the Gaelic College will be hosting its March-Break youth session. Colin MacDonald, director of Gaelic language classes at the college spoke to me about his history with the 78 year-old institution. He attended sessions like the up-coming March session when he was ten years old, and he played in the college pipe-band throughout his teens. He has also worked as tour guide for the Gaelic College museum during the summers. He has a long history with the college, and now Colin is positioned to welcome perhaps more than 100 young students, between the ages of 5 and 18, to Gaelic college where they will be immersed in Gaelic culture for three full days.

 The Gaelic College is an institution that provides expert knowledge and teaching on all these different aspects of Gaelic Culture and the students who go there are eager to soak up as much of that culture as they possibly can. Emma Boutilier was one of those students, and this week I spoke with her about her experience at the Gaelic College. 

 “I remember that I was too excited to be nervous. I had done sleep-away camps before. There were 

some people who had never had that experience before and were feeling a little bit nervous, but the Gaelic College is such a comfortable and friendly atmosphere that they didn’t feel that way for long.”

Now a student of English literature at the University of New Brunswick, Emma Boutilier first attended the Gaelic College summer session when she was fifteen. After that she went back twice more, once for the winter session and once again in the summer of 2010.

 “I really loved it. All my classes were either bag-piping or Gaelic language, and I would get to take one other course every time I went. Having the opportunity to learn new tunes and styles was fantastic. We had really great instructors like Mike Campbell. I learned a lot of new tunes, and styles like piobaireachd and stathspey.”

The students are all given the chance to perform what they have learned in a variety show at the end of the session.

The Gaelic College has not usually been open-year round. It opens its doors to students for weeks at a time, like for the up-coming March Session, and for groups that wish to rent out the facilities. However, as Colin MacDonald explained to me, the Gaelic College will soon be living up to its name. Students at Cape Breton University are now able to enroll in a four-week immersion program. 

This program earns the students six credits toward their CBU degrees, but are also transferrable to any university in Nova Scotia. It may not be long before the Gaelic College starts to offer year-round programming to anyone who wishes to take part in the on-going efforts to preserve and perpetuate Gaelic culture in Nova Scotia. 

Gach deagh dhùrachd / Every good wish!

Colin's favorite word in Gaelic is: Cànan / Language