There is an old Gaelic saying which, loosely translated, goes: “Only the best gold medallists win in Paisley”.
Actually, I just made that up. I coined the phrase to Iain Cormack last week, however, and we both very much agreed; possibly because we both won the medal (10 years apart) in Paisley Town Hall!
Huge congratulations to Iain who becomes the fourth Cormack gold medallist – his brother, sister, and father all having won the coveted prize before him. Congratulations also to the amazing Emma “Scalpay” MacLeod who won the ladies’ medal.
It is great to have two young and very deserving winners who will be tremendous ambassadors for the Mòd and for Gaelic singing as a whole.
Ditto Iain Beggs from Barra and Catriona Bain from Griais, Lewis, who were both outstanding in winning the Traditional Gold Medal the following evening. I was particularly proud of my pal, Iain, who sang Teann a-nall in the final as a very moving tribute to our mutual friend, John Robertson, whose posthumous award I wrote about last week.
Iain had a swift dram with the boys before the competition and one of the lads commented on never having been to a Mòd competition before. “Neither have I,” laughed Beggs, and casually sauntered onstage and won the medal!
Celebrations that evening were in The Sneddon to the sound of Robert Nairn and a huge array of talented singers. The inimitable Jimmy Cameron was the star of the show, as always, and had the whole place swinging and singing along to classics such as Eilean Mo Chrìdh.
On Friday afternoon, after a quick song on Mòrag Dhòmhnallach’s live ceilidh on Radio Nan Gàidheal, I rushed over to the Town Hall where the choirs were bringing an end to the week’s competitions.
My attempt to catch this was in vain because I kept bumping into people for a blether in the foyer! The first was Caitlin Sonachan from Sona Design whose bespoke Gaelic merchandise lured me to her table. Moments later, I was away with a Gaelic sweatshirt, two Gaelic t-shirts, a Gaelic print for my wall, and a Gaelic tote bag in which to carry my haul. I think she saw me coming!
The quality of clothing is absolutely first class and I thoroughly recommend you check out Sona Design online.
The second great catch up I had was with Coinneach MacLeod, better known as The Hebridean Baker, who was selling his extremely popular recipe books. They were selling like hot cakes, if you’ll pardon the bakery pun, and are well worth getting your hands on.
Meanwhile in the hall, the massed male voice choirs sang a wonderful tribute to the late Kirsteen Maclennan.
Having enjoyed the company of both Kirsteen and her father, the late Hamish Menzies, at many Mòds over the years, I was incredibly sorry to hear of her untimely passing only weeks ago. Her vivacious character and passionate love of Gaelic singing epitomised what is great about the Mòd and she will be sadly missed.