Book on historic use of Gaelic inspired by New Galloway conference published

A book about the historic use of Gaelic in Galloway has been published, inspired by a conference held in New Galloway in 2018.

Galloway: The Lost Province of Gaelic Scotland was edited by Michael Ansell with co-editors Ronnie Black and the late Ted Cowan.

As part of the CatStrand conference in 2018, a wide range of expert speakers gathered to consider the historic use of Gaelic locally. When was it spoken? Where did it last longest? What do we know of the people that spoke it?

The conference was completely sold-out and really progressed what is known about the Gaelic of Galloway, allowing the region to be properly considered part of the former Gàidhealtachd which once stretched from Cork to Caithness.

Michael said: “It’s great to see this book come out at last, a tangible legacy of a fantastic conference and great speakers.

“Ted Cowan was often spitting feathers as the editing and publishing process dragged on but I’m sure he would have been delighted with the end result.

“As a result of this book what we know about the 1,000 year-long Gaelic heritage of Galloway has been significantly increased and the book will hopefully act as a platform for further studies in future.”

The book, published by John Dewar Publishers, Kinross, can be ordered from www.johndewarpublishers.com/galloway-the-lost-province-of-gaelic-scotland/ or www.gaelicbooks.org/explore-the-shop/non-fiction/academic/galloway-the-lost-province-of-gaelic-scotland, from a variety of local stockists or directly from Michael on braidenoch@gmail.com