大象传媒

Tha Annabel NicIllinnein, a tha an-dr脿sta na h-oileanach Ceiltis sa cheathramh bliadhna ann an Oilthigh Ghlaschu a' gabhail turas tro na linntean agus a' coinneachadh cuid de sgoilearan na roinne, feadhainn a th' ann agus a bh' ann, agus ag ionnsachadh mun chiad chathair Cheiltis a chaidh a steidheachadh aig an oilthigh.

Annabel MacLennan, currently a student of Celtic Studies at Glasgow University, takes a trip through the centuries to meets some of the department's academics. She explores the university's place in the context of Scotland's other universities, and also finds out about how the first chair of Celtic came to be.

From the founding of this ancient institution in the fifteenth century, Gaels were a sizeable group at the university. Gaelic was still spoken by up to half of all Scots and it was very much the language of the countryside surrounding the city of Glasgow. Despite this, there was no formal teaching of Gaelic at Glasgow University until the very end of the nineteenth century. The main impetus for this to happen came from the Ossianic Society, founded in the 1830s to provide a forum for Gaels to meet together and speak their mother tongue. After much pressure, both from within the university and at a national level, enough money was raised to have regular lectures in Celtic studies, but it was to be over half a century before professor Angus Matheson was finally awarded the chair in 1956 and the department's prestige was elevated to that of other subjects at the university.