A faded cherub

 I love this faded cherub on the corner of a gravestone in North Merchiston Cemetery. 

Crafty Green Poet on Substack

I've set up on Substack, where I'll be posting most Wednesdays about the type of things I post about on my Crafty Green Poet blog, but in a different format. 

You can find out more and subscribe here.

All my content on Substack will be free, though I will eventually introduce paid subscriptions, largely encouraged by a generous blog reader pledging a subscription even before I'd posted anything! I'm not intending to introduce a paywall, though.

I posted my first post today. You can read it here.

Còisir Dhùn Èideann (Edinburgh Gaelic Choir)

 I recently joined the Edinburgh Gaelic Choir in the hope that it will offer a creative way for me to learn Gaelic. It's a small, friendly group. We learn songs in Gaelic and get a good amount of help on Gaelic pronunciation from the conductor who is a fluent Gaelic speaker. 

The choir is looking for new members, so if you're in Edinburgh, enjoy singing and have an interest in the Gaelic language then why not join in! Details on their website here.

A Year of Learning Scottish Gaelic!

Last year, I made a belated new year's resolution to learn Scottish Gaelic. Today I reached a 365 day streak of learning the language on Duolingo. Over a million people across the world are learning Scots Gaelic with Duolingo. Find out more here.

I did do a term of evening classes in Scottish Gaelic with Edinburgh Council's Adult Education Programme. However I was very disappointed in them and didn't sign up for another term. University of Edinburgh offers a wider range of classes, though they're more expensive and I was put off by the tutor who I met who said I'd need to sign up for the total beginners class despite having done a term with the council and a few months with Duolingo. 

More Online Resources

Learn Gaelic is a free online resource for learning Scots Gaelic. It shares a Gaelic word a day on social media. 

Speak Gaelic is a Scots Gaelic learning programme, offering online classes and producing learning materials for other organisations. The programme is broadcast on BBC Alba (see below) and you can also watch all the episodes on Youtube.

BBC Alba offers broadcast TV primarily in Scots Gaelic with some excellent programmes.

Scots Gaelic Week (20-26 February)

Haiku

sunset -

remembering

peace 

previously published in issue 10 of tsuri doro

Commemorating the Women and Girls of the Dalry Magdalene Asylum

The Magdalene Laundries in Ireland, also known as Magdalene asylums, were institutions, usually run by Roman Catholic orders, which operated from the 18th to the late 20th centuries. They housed so called "fallen women", an estimated 30,000 of whom were confined in these institutions in Ireland. Less well known is the fact that Magdalene asylums also operated in Scotland. They were not quite as strict as those in Ireland, but that doesn't mean they were pleasant places to be incarcerated. 

The Edinburgh Magdalene Asylum stood for a time in the Dalry part of Edinburgh and a number of the girls and women who were housed there are buried in North Merchiston Cemetery. One of the projects that the committee of the cemetery friends group has been involved with is preparing a plaque to commemorate the lives of these women. 

We are very pleased to report that the plaque is now in place on the burial mound in the cemetery. 

The plaque says: 

"The Dalry Magdalene Asylum. Conceived with the notion of Christian charity and philanthropy, the first Edinburgh Magdalene Asylum opened its doors in 1797 in Canongate as a kind of half way house for women leaving prison. In the mid 1800s, The Dalry Magdalene Asylum (subsequently renamed Springwell House) was founded as a reformatory school for what were then called 'fallen women'. The Asylum remained a reformatory school for women and girls until the 1950s. It has now been converted into apartments on the corner of Ardmillan Terrace and Gorgie Road. This is the mound in which some of the residents of the asylum are buried."

The burial mound was formerly marked only by this pretty but uninformative gravestone: 

Thanks are due to our committee member Lauren for putting the plaque together, and to Dr Jowita Thor for helping with the research.
 

Failte gu Alba (Welcome to Scotland)

Failte gu Alba (Welcome to Scotland) is an excellent documentary in BBC Alba. Singer Mischa MacPherson meets refugees and asylum seekers making a new life in Glasgow. Working on various musical projects, they share their stories and reflect on the importance of music in their lives. The programme is available for another couple of weeks, and you can watch it here.

Evye Madyise, a Zimbabwean musician living in Glasgow, features in the documentary. You can listen to some of her excellent music on Soundcloud here. 

Senryu

folding

 the ballot paper — 

shifting sands

 

previously published in tsuri doro, issue 10 

 

**

I have two senryu in Issue 85 of Failed Haiku, you can read the whole issue here.

Chimneys at Lauriston Castle

 There's something quite beautiful about the chimneys at Edinburgh's Lauriston Castle!

You can read more about today's walk around the castle grounds over on Crafty Green Poet.

Manchester Voices

 Manchester Voices is a fascinating research project run by a team from Manchester Metropolitan University. The project explores the accents, dialects and identities of people from Manchester in the North-west of England. 

The team identified four distinct Greater Manchester dialects - ‘Manc’, ‘Lancashire’, ‘Wigan’ and ‘posh’. Most people would probably say I have a 'posh' accent (and many people tell me I do sound posh), but really I have a Lancashire accent (posh Lancashire?). Of course, my accent has been affected by living in Edinburgh for over 30 years!

There's lots to explore on the Manchester Voices website! You may also be interested in the following articles about the project:

D'you know what I mean? article in the Mancunian Way newsletter

Vocal Pride on the Manchester Metropolitan University website

A permanent exhibition of Manchester Voices will be found in the city's central library.