Around the Virtual Hearth: A Modern Look at Traditional Gaelic Storytelling

“A’ cheud sgeul air fear an taighe agus sgeul gu latha air an aoidh.”
“The first story from the host and a tale until dawn from the guest.”

Around the Virtual Hearth: A Modern Look at  Traditional Gaelic Storytelling is being broadcast as part of Seachdain na Gàidhlig / World Gaelic Week,  20th – 26th February 2023.

This podcast is a conversation about the tradition of Scottish Gaelic storytelling. Storytelling has been a central part of Gaelic life since time immemorial, and remains to this day a part of Gaelic communal identity.  Stories have provided entertainment certainly, but they have also been a means of sharing and expressing a common cultural heritage, social history, and values, and of contemplating the human condition. The three guests in this dialog discuss not just the role and function of traditional tales in the past but what they still have to offer us in the present.

“Stories can make spaces places.”
~ Nancy Marie Brown, Looking for the Hidden Folk

This podcast is a collaboration between three North American organizations serving the Gaelic community: An Comunn Gàidhealach Ameireaganach (the American Scottish Gaelic Society), the Hidden Glen Folk School of Scottish Highland Heritage, and Sgoil Gàidhlig Bhaile an Taigh Mhóir (The Gaelic School of Baltimore.)

Guests:

Michael Newton, Hidden Glen Folk School of Scottish Highland Heritage
Liam Cassidy: An Comunn Gàidhealach Ameireaganach
Rick Gwynallen, Sgoil Gàidhlig Bhaile an Taigh Mhóir

Credits:

Introductory segment of a story recited by Michael Newton
Harp music at beginning and end of episode played by Maraji Gwynallen
Recording Engineering by Tim Thompson