More Than Kilts and Cabers: Scottish Gaelic Voices from North America

More Than Kilts and Cabers: Scottish Gaelic Voices from North America is a seven-episode podcast that was broadcast during Seachdain na Gàidhlig / World Gaelic Week, March 21st through 27th 2022. A new podcast episode was released every day to explore a different region of North America, discussing the history of Scottish Highland immigrants to the area and the songs and stories that survive to attest to their lives and struggles.

Up to about the First World War most Highlanders spoke Scottish Gaelic as their native language, and some knew no other language. It is not hard to find the celebration of Scottish Highland heritage in the forms of kilts and Highland Games, but few people today seem to realize that these immigrants left us a record of their experiences, thoughts, and feelings in the form of songs and poems, and that this was in fact their favored form of cultural expression as individuals and communities. If we care about the history of Scottish Highlanders as immigrants, and want to understand their lives and perspectives, we need to listen to those voices in their native language – even if we need to translate those Gaelic voices to English.

The Episodes

This podcast was 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.