A major three-day conference on emigration due to be held at Sabhal Mor Ostaig (the Gaelic College) in Skye between 22-25 June is attracting world-wide interest.
Organised by the University of Aberdeen’s Research Institute for Irish and Scottish Studies (RIISS) and the College, the Conference, “Celtic Cultures in the Emigrant Context”, will be attended by leading academics from all over the world.
The event places the emigrations from the Highlands in a comparative context by examining them against the experience of the Irish, Welsh and Cornish diasporas. The focus is on the process of adaptation and assimilation in North America and Australasia and the speakers are drawn from the disciplines of Celtic Studies, History, Ethnography, Music and Literature.
RIISS Director, Professor Tom Devine said: “The movement of Europeans to the New World is one of the great themes of modern history. This Conference examines an important part of that story in an island which has itself experienced mass emigration.”
The Conference has also attracted interest from descendants of emigrants from Skye itself. Jim McCaskill and his cousin Penny McCaskill were born in Pinehurst in North Carolina, USA. Mr McCaskill is a retired teacher and his cousin is Director of the Decorative Arts Trust in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Their fathers were twins and they are descended from a family that left Skye in the 1790s.
Mr McCaskill said: “The best information that we have on our family is that there were 5 cattle raising brother whose herd was wiped out by some eighteenth century plague. Their father brought them to North Carolina, the mother had passed away several years before, more than likely up the Cape Fear to Fayetteville,. He took two years to see the sons set up on farms in the Carolinas then returned to Skye, Shortly thereafter, he also passed away.”
Conference delegates will be addressed on the Friday evening by Minster of State, Brian Wilson MP who played a key role in the establishment of the Columba Initiative for Gaelic education and on the following evening by David Green, Convenor of the Highland Council. The Consul General for Ireland, Mr Daniel Mulhall will also be in attendance.
Sabhal Mor Director, Norman Gillies anticipates a ground-breaking event with major benefits for the College and the whole area of Skye. He said: “With around one hundred delegates being attracted to the area and the business we are generating in terms of excursions on the final days of the conference, the college is making a significant contribution to the economy of the island.
“We know that several delegates have expressed a wish to say in Skye beyond the event itself and this is also a welcome boost. Together with the undoubted academic benefits involved in gathering such a prestigious list of speakers, we are delighted that the event is shaping up to be hugely successful.”
The Conference is supported by Comataidh Craolaidh Gaidhlig, Comunn na Gaidhlig, the Gaelic Society of Inverness, Highland Council, Highlands and Islands Enterprise, Skye and Lochalsh Enterprise and the Universities of Aberdeen and Otago.
The RIISS web page gives more details on the conference:
www.abdn.ac.uk/riiss/events/smo
Further information from:
Professor Tom Devine, RIISS, University of Aberdeen, Tel: 01224 273683, or
Dr H MacLennan, Carlotta MacKinnon or Normal Gillies, Sabhal Mor Ostaig, Tel: 01471 888000;
Fax: 01471 888001; e-mail: oifis@smo.uhi.ac.uk
University Press Office on telephone +44 (0)1224-273778 or email a.ramsay@admin.abdn.ac.uk.