Folk music stars join protests over plans to axe Gaelic at Aberdeen University

Iona Fyfe, a folk singer from Aberdeenshire, said the course closures would have a ‘devastating impact’ on the north-east of Scotland. Photograph: Murdo MacLeod/The Guardian

Many of Scotland’s best-known folk music stars have joined protests by Gaelic scholars, lecturers and politicians over plans by the University of Aberdeen to axe its languages courses.

Award-winning Gaelic and Doric singers such as Iona Fyfe, Mary Ann Kennedy and Julie Fowlis have described the university’s proposals as “a staggering act of cultural vandalism”, with protests now escalating among students and teaching staff.