MUCH-loved actress, folk singer and and Yesser Dolina MacLennan is set to appear at a highly anticipated independence festival in the Highlands.
The 84-year-old has announced she will be performing a poetry reading at Manniefest, which will take place in Golspie from June 3 to 5.
She adds her name to the list of performers, including National columnist Lesley Riddoch, Saor Alba Pipes & Drums and Alf Baird.
And now MacLennan has revealed she will be performing a moving reading of the Hugh MacDiarmid poem “Island Funeral”, which speaks about the death of the Gaelic language and way of life but also acknowledges how it will return.
She told The National: “I knew if I could get [to Manniefest] and read this poem, it would really satisfy something in me.
“I’ve been involved with the independence movement since the 1950s, so I know this is something I need to do because not many people know about it.”
MacLennan was also motivated to go to Manniefest following her starring role back in 1973 in The Cheviot, the Stag and the Black, Black Oil.
The John McGrath play, originally staged by the 7:84 theatre company and revived a few years ago, recounts the history of economic change in the Highlands. It explores Scottish history from the Clearances through to the contemporary oil boom in the 1970s.
The festival is named for the Mannie statue, a 100ft-high monument of the first Duke of Sutherland, who was notorious for his major role in the Highland Clearances, when Highland and Island tenants were forcibly evicted from their homes in the 18th and 19th centuries.
There have been calls for the statue to be taken down over the years, but all have so far proven unsuccessful. MacLennan, a native of Lewis, added: “I’m very much looking forward to the event because I’ll be meeting up with lots of old friends.
“The people of the Highlands and Islands have always felt so far from Westminster. We’re a spit in the ocean to them.
“My initial big problem with coming to Manniefest was I’ve got to star in a play in Glasgow on the Monday and I don’t drive anymore, but I’ve spoken to someone who is going to take me there and back now which is wonderful.”
Ian Sinclair, a member of Yes Caithness, said an indy festival like Manniefest had never taken place before in the Highlands.
Sinclair said: “The independence movement seemed on its knees and the marches were dying off so we thought something different may work. We’re trying our best to keep [independence] alive.”
Tickets for Manniefest are available via Eventbrite.
