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Rod Paterson A Personal Memoir. An Ayrshire Legend Edinburgh Book Festival August 19 YES Dunfermline July 16 Dates for the diary Irvine September 28…. Born in Kyle Book Details/Contacts A Time for Reflection Scottish Parliament Indymatters Youtube Rod Paterson A Personal Memoir My friend Rod Paterson has passed away and my country has lost the finest Scots singer of our generation. His was a voice that had the purity of the classic Scots tenors revered by my father, and the clarity of Scots diction inherited by the great traveller tradition bearers like Jeanie Robertson. It was also a voice of soaring beauty and douce human empathy which came from within the man himself. I once said that I would be happy appearing before an audience and reading extracts from the Telephone Directory as long as I knew that Rod would come in every five minutes with one of his songs. That would be enough to take the audience with us! I don't remember where or when I first met Rod, but in all likelihood it was in Sandy Bells bar around 1976 when the pub was the hub of a thriving traditional music scene in Edinburgh with the great Hamish Henderson presiding over sessions from his neuk in the corner. Those were heady times and the music and poetry gave a vibrant cultural dimension to the growing national movement. Even in a smoky, boozy milieu like that, Rod's singing stood out as something very special. He was also a gifted guitarist and along with other fine musicians like Derek Hoy, Norman Chalmers, Jack Evans, Adam Jack John Croall, Ian Hardie and Tony Cuffe he formed one of the most iconic folk bands of the period Jock Tamson's Bairns. By the late 1970s I had started producing programmes for the BBC and devising shows based on my work there, and various combinations of the Bairns with Rod at the centre were always my go-to musicians at the core of the productions. One memorable show was Fergusson's Auld Reikie which celebrated the poetry of Robert Fergusson and the music of 18^th century Edinburgh. It was performed in the Bedlam Theatre on the very spot the poet died in 1774. Rod's poignant singing of Fergusson's favourite song The Birks of Invermay stayed long in the memory of those who heard it sung in that setting. We went on to record an album of the show and that inspired younger singers like Karine Polwart, who loved Rod's singing and the Bairns playing so much that she recorded her own beautiful version of the Birks of Invermay in her album Fairest Floo'er. Another show we collaborated on was Knee Deep in Claret which emerged from the series Rod organised the music for, The Complete Caledonian Imbiber. Gae Bring Tae me a Pint o Wine was yet another wonderful Scots song that Rod graced and created, for me, what was the definitive version of the classic Burns lyric. Fortunately, you can listen to the series here on the Youtube Indymatters site: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLgI0uOcqlxqRyuKDCR7Yyd7_23E3bhdYe The show ran for two weeks in the University Staff Club under the auspices of the Saltire Society as part of the Edinburgh Festival circa 1982. My Auld Alliance pal Jean Marie Johnston persuaded his wine making clients and friends in the Médoc to give him cases of half bottle samples from the top chateaux, so the pints of wine quaffed at the performances were of the very highest quality indeed! Rod was a proud Dundonian who was born in India when Calcutta took over from Dundee as the world's Juteopolis. I recorded some of his mum's wry memories for the India exhibit in the McManus Galleries Museum many years ago. Rod wrote one of his own finest songs India which he recorded for his album with his final band Bring in the Spirit: https://soundcloud.com/bring-in-the-spirit Also in that album, you can hear him singing Alterens Sacrament, a hymn by the 17^th Century Scottish-Norwegian poet Petter Dass, which I had translated into Scots for the launch of my book The Scottish World at the Edinburgh International Book Festival in 2006. This is how I described it in the paperback edition of the book: "When Norman Chalmers and Derek Hoy played the beautiful air from Telemark in Norway and Rod Paterson sang the Scots words of the song there was a tangible, powerful emotional current binding all of us together at that moment." A song we brought to the world together was the Midlothian Mining Song. There we adapted a mining song from the North East of England and changed the chorus to refer to places like Cockpen and Bonnyrigg. This was for one of the Odyssey programmes Mungo Mackay and the Green Table. Every time I hear excellent young singers like Siobhan Miller sing it, I smile and remember Rod and I working on it in my office in the BBC at 5, Queen Street Edinburgh circa 1981! When I was researching my play about the spinners and weavers of the city in the early 20^th century, They Fairly Mak Ye Work, I stayed with Rod and his mum at their home in Birkhill. One memory I have of that period shows Rod's more eccentric side. I had arranged to give him a lift from Edinburgh up to Dundee in over two weeks time. The following Wednesday at 10 in the morning I was doing the onerous Edinburgh task of washing the stairs of my tenement in Montgomery Street. Down the basement stairs at the end of the entrance hall, I heard the door opening and instinctively knew that this was Rod coming for the lift exactly one week earlier than arranged. I climbed the stair to behold Rod complete with his golf bag and all set to grace the fairways of Camperdown. I telt him tae come back next week, and bade him fareweel remembering the story an early girlfriend of his telling my wife Joâo that life with him at times reminded her of training a lovable but unruly puppy! The other Dundee connection was with our fitba team, the great Dundee United. Rod was related to Ernie Robertson who had been Chairman of the club back in the 1930s. He was proud of that family connection and we went to Tannadice together from Edinburgh a number of times, once via David Low's sports shop in the town centre to buy my first United scarf. The other passion we shared was Scottish independence. I asked Rod to join me on the Bus Party in 1997 when folk like Willie McIlvanney, Neal Ascherson and Joyce McMillan toured the country encouraging people to vote Yes Yes in the forthcoming referendum to establish a Scottish parliament. Again, when I heard that his band was doing a gig in the Wighton Centre on a day in 2017 that there was to be a pro independence rally in City Square, I asked if they would perform. They did without hesitation and Rod's singing of Hamish Henderson's internationalist anthem the Freedom Come All Ye that day in City Square and outside Arbroath Abbey during the Bus Party will stay with everyone who heard it, till the day that Scotland finally wins its independence. Billy Kay Newport-on-Tay May 31^st 2024. An Ayrshire Legend Edinburgh International Book Festival August 19^th at 1615 I am delighted that my book Born in Kyle will be promoted in the prestigious surroundings of the Edinburgh Book Festival and that I will be joined there by my favourite Scots sangster, Robyn Stapleton. Hope to see you there. More details and tickets here: https://www.edbookfest.co.uk/the-festival/whats-on/billy-kay-an-ayrshire-legend Yes, Dunfermline & West Fife Group July 16. Abbey View Bowling Club 7pm. Amang Guid Companie An Evening with Billy Kay Billy will talk about his new book Born in Kyle and read the passages most relevant to a Fife and pro-independence audience. He will also talk about the major themes in his other books – our influence abroad in The Scottish World, our auld alliance wine history in Knee Deep in Claret and our linguistic history in his seminal work, Scots The Mither Tongue. In the second part of the evening, Billy will also talk about his life-long support for Scottish independence and hold a Q & A with the audience on that and the other subjects discussed earlier. There will be signed copies of Billy's books available at the event. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/an-evening-with-billy-kay-tickets-923664002897?utm-campaign=social&utm-content=attendeeshare&utm-medium=discovery&utm-term=listing&utm-source=cp&aff=ebdsshcopyurl Dates for your Diary I will post more details when I have them, but keep these dates if you would like to come to a Born in Kyle event in the autumn. Tidelines Book Festival Irvine Burns Club September 28^th at 7pm Wigtown Book Festival Sept 29 – Oct 3 Portobello Book Festival October 5^. Bookmark Festival Blairgowrie October 6. Pentlands Book Festival Colinton Library November 4, 18.30. Fergusson's Auld Reikie St Cecilia's Hall Edinburgh November 16^th. The book Born in Kyle is now published and is available in Paperback & Hardback and on Kindle & Audible. If you would like a signed copy and can pay by BACS transfer, please e mail me with your details: billy@billykay.scot For an address in the UK, the cost would be £12 for the paperback and £18 for the hardback. You can see them all by visiting my Author Page on Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/stores/author/B001K85LGO BORN IN KYLE A Love Letter tae an Ayrshire Childhood Naebody has duin mair than Billy Kay tae mak fowk awaur o the pouer an beauty o their guid Scots tongue, an tae gie it its richtfu place at the hert o the national culture. In Born in Kyle, Kay gaes back tae his ain linguistic ruits in the toun o Gawston in Ayrshire's Irvine Valley, an scrieves vieve memoirs o growin up there in the saicont hauf o the 20^th century. But he duis mair than that in a steirin mell o creative non-fiction an gleg short stories that create a sense o place wi a historie gaun back hunners o years an a sense o belangin for aw the fowk that appear here; fae glaikit gomerils tae wice worthies, fae guid sowels tae sleekit nyaffs, fae braw lassies tae gallus laddies, fae heidbangers tae fitba pioneers! Billy Kay lues the airt an the fowk he cam fae, sae the lowe o this shines bricht in this, his celebration o wha we are. One of the most important figures in the Scots revival of the late 20th and early 21^st centuries is Billy Kay. Through radio, television, plays, creative writing and especially his hugely influential book Scots The Mither Tongue, Kay's work helped change people's negative perception of Scots and paved the way for its acceptance as a key element in Scottish cultural identity. In Born in Kyle Kay goes back to his own linguistic and cultural roots and celebrates a sense of place and belonging in his native Galston in Ayrshire's Irvine Valley. Looking back, Kay realises that his was the last of the pre-television generations, and life was lived in a strong Scots-speaking environment which would be eroded when television in English was beamed into every household from the early 1960s onwards. In a vivid, gutsy and realistic Scots prose shot through with humour, Kay brings alive the characters he grew up with, some in personally recalled memoirs, others in short stories which bring out a history and a literary history inherited by local folk going back hundreds of years. This is his love letter to working class life in small town Scotland. Hardback ISBN 978-1-9993309-4-1 £16.99 "He has shown us images of ourselves that don't conspire with the prevailing media coverage – half pantomime, half Hollywood – and he has shown us that we can and do speak naturally and easily in a language of grace,dignity and power. Much of his work has been moving, delightful, even inspiring." Cover images: Author pic by Louis DeCarlo; other photos courtesy of the author. Cover design: James Hutcheson PAPERBACK EDITION £9.99 ISBN 978-1-9993309-3-4 Time for Reflection Scottish Parliament April 26^th, 2022. I wis gey vauntie tae be invitit tae gie the Time for Reflection speech in Scots by Emma Harper MSP. It created quite a stooshie, wi the majority luein it, an ultra unionist Scots deniers foamin at the mooth ower it's inclusion! Their ignorance is as deep as Loch Ness. Tae thaim I gie ye the words o Burns. The mair they talk, I'm kent the better, E'en let them clash; An auld wife's tongue's a feckless matter To gie ane fash. It was a privilege to lead the Time for Reflection in the Scottish Parliament on April 26th, and to create a bit of history. This was almost certainly the first speech delivered in Scots since the pre Union parliament of 1707. Ye can see whit I said by clicking here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=am1MCJsEGYA Here is the Scots text: Thenk ye, Presidin Officer, for giein me this honour o addressin oor National Pairlament. I'll stairt wi a kenspeckle quote fae Hugh MacDiarmid, ane o the skeeliest makars in Scots leiterature's thoosan year history: Tae Be Yersel's an tae mak that worth bein/Nae harder job tae mortals has been gien. It's maybe even harder for MSPs – for you cannae jist be yersel for yersels – but for aw the sels, aw the sowels, aw the brither an sister Scots fae Maidenkirk tae Johnny Groats and ayont, that ye represent, amang whilk theres ower 1.5 million Scots speakers. Noo's the day an noo's the oor tae rax oot an bring their words scrievit on the waws ootside the pairliament intae the hert o this chaumer, words perfit for debate like SPEIR inquire THREAP assert JALOUSE suspect, TAK TENT take care OR IT'S TINT its lost, OR gin ye dinnae want tae be douce ye can hae a FLYTIN – for it's a leid hoatchin wi gleg insults - glaikit gawkit gowk In daein sae ye'll raise the international profile o this airt wi words fae fremmit leids that touch us hame - French se facher - dinnae fash yersel – Dutch hunkers, Scandinavian lugs, an Latin dispone. Ye'll be howkin as weel fae a gowden seam in yer ain histories MacDiarmid wis a foundin faither o the National Pairty - Fellae makar Cunninghame Graham an his frien Kier Hardie the Labour Pairty The chiel wha first defined oor democratic intellectualism wis the Conservative Walter Elliot…. The Liberal Gladstone – wis oreiginally Gled Stane, Gled bein Scots for the bird o prey the kite. An the Greens are thirled tae oor ayebydand land whaur Scots words like smir, caller, haar or gloamin seem tae arise oot the yird itsel an haud oor herts. But mair important than thon ye'll gie a signal tae weans in the schuil that the culture o their hame is valued bi fowk electit by their mithers an faithers. Bairns like the quaet wee lass in P2 in Fawkirk wha ran an lowped intae her teachers airms lauchin an greetin wi joy when she furst heard her mither tongue in cless, or the sweirt learners in Dundee, dour teenage boays wha gaed tae the tap o the cless for the first time when the langage they yaised ilka day cam intae the schuil in books they then devoured …an never luikit back. Scottish weans transformed learnin a Scottish leid. A nation whaur naebody's excludit and awbody kens they belang – shuirly, dear Members o the Scottish Pairliament, thon's weel worth bein yersel for. Indymatters Anyone in search of my programmes when they are no longer available on BBC Sounds, should head over to the Youtube channel Indymatters. They have uploaded a number of my archive series, so you might well find what you are looking for there: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8pvizzdWKWWNqaTIZirHyg/playlists?disable_polymer=1

Rod Paterson A Personal Memoir.

An Ayrshire Legend Edinburgh Book Festival August 19

YES Dunfermline July 16

Dates for the diary Irvine September 28….

Born in Kyle Book Details/Contacts

A Time for Reflection Scottish Parliament

Indymatters Youtube

Rod Paterson A Personal Memoir

My friend Rod Paterson has passed away and my country has lost the finest Scots singer of our generation. His was a voice that had the purity of the classic Scots tenors revered by my father, and the clarity of Scots diction inherited by the great traveller tradition bearers like Jeanie Robertson. It was also a voice of soaring beauty and douce human empathy which came from within the man himself. I once said that I would be happy appearing before an audience and reading extracts from the Telephone Directory as long as I knew that Rod would come in every five minutes with one of his songs. That would be enough to take the audience with us!

I don't remember where or when I first met Rod, but in all likelihood it was in Sandy Bells bar around 1976 when the pub was the hub of a thriving traditional music scene in Edinburgh with the great Hamish Henderson presiding over sessions from his neuk in the corner. Those were heady times and the music and poetry gave a vibrant cultural dimension to the growing national movement. Even in a smoky, boozy milieu like that, Rod's singing stood out as something very special. He was also a gifted guitarist and along with other fine musicians like Derek Hoy, Norman Chalmers, Jack Evans, Adam Jack John Croall, Ian Hardie and Tony Cuffe he formed one of the most iconic folk bands of the period Jock Tamson's Bairns.

By the late 1970s I had started producing programmes for the BBC and devising shows based on my work there, and various combinations of the Bairns with Rod at the centre were always my go-to musicians at the core of the productions. One memorable show was Fergusson's Auld Reikie which celebrated the poetry of Robert Fergusson and the music of 18^th century Edinburgh. It was performed in the Bedlam Theatre on the very spot the poet died in 1774. Rod's poignant singing of Fergusson's favourite song The Birks of Invermay stayed long in the memory of those who heard it sung in that setting. We went on to record an album of the show and that inspired younger singers like Karine Polwart, who loved Rod's singing and the Bairns playing so much that she recorded her own beautiful version of the Birks of Invermay in her album Fairest Floo'er.

Another show we collaborated on was Knee Deep in Claret which emerged from the series Rod organised the music for, The Complete Caledonian Imbiber. Gae Bring Tae me a Pint o Wine was yet another wonderful Scots song that Rod graced and created, for me, what was the definitive version of the classic Burns lyric. Fortunately, you can listen to the series here on the Youtube Indymatters site:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLgI0uOcqlxqRyuKDCR7Yyd7_23E3bhdYe

The show ran for two weeks in the University Staff Club under the auspices of the Saltire Society as part of the Edinburgh Festival circa 1982. My Auld Alliance pal Jean Marie Johnston persuaded his wine making clients and friends in the Médoc to give him cases of half bottle samples from the top chateaux, so the pints of wine quaffed at the performances were of the very highest quality indeed!

Rod was a proud Dundonian who was born in India when Calcutta took over from Dundee as the world's Juteopolis. I recorded some of his mum's wry memories for the India exhibit in the McManus Galleries Museum many years ago. Rod wrote one of his own finest songs India which he recorded for his album with his final band Bring in the Spirit: https://soundcloud.com/bring-in-the-spirit

Also in that album, you can hear him singing Alterens Sacrament, a hymn by the 17^th Century Scottish-Norwegian poet Petter Dass, which I had translated into Scots for the launch of my book The Scottish World at the Edinburgh International Book Festival in 2006. This is how I described it in the paperback edition of the book:

"When Norman Chalmers and Derek Hoy played the beautiful air from Telemark in Norway and Rod Paterson sang the Scots words of the song there was a tangible, powerful emotional current binding all of us together at that moment."

A song we brought to the world together was the Midlothian Mining Song. There we adapted a mining song from the North East of England and changed the chorus to refer to places like Cockpen and Bonnyrigg. This was for one of the Odyssey programmes Mungo Mackay and the Green Table. Every time I hear excellent young singers like Siobhan Miller sing it, I smile and remember Rod and I working on it in my office in the BBC at 5, Queen Street Edinburgh circa 1981!

When I was researching my play about the spinners and weavers of the city in the early 20^th century, They Fairly Mak Ye Work, I stayed with Rod and his mum at their home in Birkhill. One memory I have of that period shows Rod's more eccentric side. I had arranged to give him a lift from Edinburgh up to Dundee in over two weeks time. The following Wednesday at 10 in the morning I was doing the onerous Edinburgh task of washing the stairs of my tenement in Montgomery Street. Down the basement stairs at the end of the entrance hall, I heard the door opening and instinctively knew that this was Rod coming for the lift exactly one week earlier than arranged. I climbed the stair to behold Rod complete with his golf bag and all set to grace the fairways of Camperdown. I telt him tae come back next week, and bade him fareweel remembering the story an early girlfriend of his telling my wife Joâo that life with him at times reminded her of training a lovable but unruly puppy!

The other Dundee connection was with our fitba team, the great Dundee United. Rod was related to Ernie Robertson who had been Chairman of the club back in the 1930s. He was proud of that family connection and we went to Tannadice together from Edinburgh a number of times, once via David Low's sports shop in the town centre to buy my first United scarf.

The other passion we shared was Scottish independence. I asked Rod to join me on the Bus Party in 1997 when folk like Willie McIlvanney, Neal Ascherson and Joyce McMillan toured the country encouraging people to vote Yes Yes in the forthcoming referendum to establish a Scottish parliament. Again, when I heard that his band was doing a gig in the Wighton Centre on a day in 2017 that there was to be a pro independence rally in City Square, I asked if they would perform. They did without hesitation and Rod's singing of Hamish Henderson's internationalist anthem the Freedom Come All Ye that day in City Square and outside Arbroath Abbey during the Bus Party will stay with everyone who heard it, till the day that Scotland finally wins its independence.

Billy Kay Newport-on-Tay May 31^st 2024.

An Ayrshire Legend

Edinburgh International Book Festival August 19^th at 1615

I am delighted that my book Born in Kyle will be promoted in the prestigious surroundings of the Edinburgh Book Festival and that I will be joined there by my favourite Scots sangster, Robyn Stapleton.

Hope to see you there. More details and tickets here:

https://www.edbookfest.co.uk/the-festival/whats-on/billy-kay-an-ayrshire-legend

Yes, Dunfermline & West Fife Group

July 16. Abbey View Bowling Club 7pm.

Amang Guid Companie An Evening with Billy Kay

Billy will talk about his new book Born in Kyle and read the passages most relevant to a Fife and pro-independence audience. He will also talk about the major themes in his other books – our influence abroad in The Scottish World, our auld alliance wine history in Knee Deep in Claret and our linguistic history in his seminal work, Scots The Mither Tongue.

In the second part of the evening, Billy will also talk about his life-long support for Scottish independence and hold a Q & A with the audience on that and the other subjects discussed earlier.

There will be signed copies of Billy's books available at the event.

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/an-evening-with-billy-kay-tickets-923664002897?utm-campaign=social&utm-content=attendeeshare&utm-medium=discovery&utm-term=listing&utm-source=cp&aff=ebdsshcopyurl

Dates for your Diary

I will post more details when I have them, but keep these dates if you would like to come to a Born in Kyle event in the autumn.

Tidelines Book Festival Irvine Burns Club September 28^th at 7pm

Wigtown Book Festival Sept 29 – Oct 3

Portobello Book Festival October 5^.

Bookmark Festival Blairgowrie

October 6.

Pentlands Book Festival Colinton Library

November 4, 18.30.

Fergusson's Auld Reikie St Cecilia's Hall

Edinburgh November 16^th.

The book Born in Kyle is now published and is available in Paperback & Hardback and on Kindle & Audible.

If you would like a signed copy and can pay by BACS transfer, please e mail me

with your details: billy@billykay.scot

For an address in the UK, the cost would be £12 for the paperback and £18 for the hardback.

You can see them all by visiting my Author Page on Amazon:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/stores/author/B001K85LGO

BORN IN KYLE

A Love Letter tae an Ayrshire Childhood

Naebody has duin mair than Billy Kay tae mak fowk awaur o the pouer an beauty o their guid Scots tongue, an tae gie it its richtfu place at the hert o the national culture. In Born in Kyle, Kay gaes back tae his ain linguistic ruits in the toun o Gawston in Ayrshire's Irvine Valley, an scrieves vieve memoirs o growin up there in the saicont hauf o the 20^th century. But he duis mair than that in a steirin mell o creative non-fiction an gleg short stories that create a sense o place wi a historie gaun back hunners o years an a sense o belangin for aw the fowk that appear here; fae glaikit gomerils tae wice worthies, fae guid sowels tae sleekit nyaffs, fae braw lassies tae gallus laddies, fae heidbangers tae fitba pioneers! Billy Kay lues the airt an the fowk he cam fae, sae the lowe o this shines bricht in this, his celebration o wha we are.

One of the most important figures in the Scots revival of the late 20th and early 21^st centuries is Billy Kay. Through radio, television, plays, creative writing and especially his hugely influential book Scots The Mither Tongue, Kay's work helped change people's negative perception of Scots and paved the way for its acceptance as a key element in Scottish cultural identity. In Born in Kyle Kay goes back to his own linguistic and cultural roots and celebrates a sense of place and belonging in his native Galston in Ayrshire's Irvine Valley. Looking back, Kay realises that his was the last of the pre-television generations, and life was lived in a strong Scots-speaking environment which would be eroded when television in English was beamed into every household from the early 1960s onwards. In a vivid, gutsy and realistic Scots prose shot through with humour, Kay brings alive the characters he grew up with, some in personally recalled memoirs, others in short stories which bring out a history and a literary history inherited by local folk going back hundreds of years. This is his love letter to working class life in small town Scotland.

Hardback ISBN 978-1-9993309-4-1 £16.99

"He has shown us images of ourselves that don't conspire with the prevailing media coverage – half pantomime, half Hollywood – and he has shown us that we can and do speak naturally and easily in a language of grace,dignity and power. Much of his work has been moving, delightful, even inspiring."

Cover images: Author pic by Louis DeCarlo; other photos courtesy of the author. Cover design: James Hutcheson

PAPERBACK EDITION £9.99 ISBN 978-1-9993309-3-4

Time for Reflection Scottish Parliament April 26^th, 2022.

I wis gey vauntie tae be invitit tae gie the Time for Reflection speech in Scots by Emma Harper MSP. It created quite a stooshie, wi the majority luein it, an ultra unionist Scots deniers foamin at the mooth ower it's inclusion! Their ignorance is as deep as Loch Ness. Tae thaim I gie ye the words o Burns.

The mair they talk,

I'm kent the better,

E'en let them clash;

An auld wife's tongue's a feckless matter

To gie ane fash.

It was a privilege to lead the Time for Reflection in the Scottish Parliament on April 26th, and to create a bit of history. This was almost certainly the first speech delivered in Scots since the pre Union parliament of 1707.

Ye can see whit I said by clicking here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=am1MCJsEGYA

Here is the Scots text:

Thenk ye, Presidin Officer, for giein me this honour o addressin oor National Pairlament.

I'll stairt wi a kenspeckle quote fae Hugh MacDiarmid, ane o the skeeliest makars in Scots leiterature's thoosan year history:

Tae Be Yersel's an tae mak that worth bein/Nae harder job tae mortals has been gien.

It's maybe even harder for MSPs – for you cannae jist be yersel for yersels – but for aw the sels, aw the sowels, aw the brither an sister Scots fae Maidenkirk tae Johnny Groats and ayont, that ye represent, amang whilk theres ower 1.5 million Scots speakers.

Noo's the day an noo's the oor tae rax oot an bring their words scrievit on the waws ootside the pairliament intae the hert o this chaumer, words perfit for debate like

SPEIR inquire THREAP assert JALOUSE suspect, TAK TENT take care OR IT'S TINT its lost, OR gin ye dinnae want tae be douce ye can hae a FLYTIN – for it's a leid hoatchin wi gleg insults - glaikit gawkit gowk

In daein sae ye'll raise the international profile o this airt wi words fae fremmit leids that touch us hame - French se facher - dinnae fash yersel –

Dutch hunkers, Scandinavian lugs, an Latin dispone.

Ye'll be howkin as weel fae a gowden seam in yer ain histories

MacDiarmid wis a foundin faither o the National Pairty

- Fellae makar Cunninghame Graham an his frien Kier Hardie the Labour Pairty

The chiel wha first defined oor democratic intellectualism wis the Conservative Walter Elliot….

The Liberal Gladstone – wis oreiginally Gled Stane, Gled bein Scots for the bird o prey the kite.

An the Greens are thirled tae oor ayebydand land whaur Scots words like smir, caller, haar or gloamin seem tae arise oot the yird itsel an haud oor herts.

But mair important than thon ye'll gie a signal tae weans in the schuil that the culture o their hame is valued bi fowk electit by their mithers an faithers.

Bairns like the quaet wee lass in P2 in Fawkirk wha ran an lowped intae her teachers airms lauchin an greetin wi joy when she furst heard her mither tongue in cless,

or the sweirt learners in Dundee, dour teenage boays wha gaed tae the tap o the cless for the first time when the langage they yaised ilka day cam intae the schuil in books they then devoured

…an never luikit back.

Scottish weans transformed learnin a Scottish leid.

A nation whaur naebody's excludit and awbody kens they belang – shuirly, dear Members o the Scottish Pairliament, thon's weel worth bein yersel for.

Indymatters

Anyone in search of my programmes when they are no longer available on BBC Sounds, should head over to the Youtube channel Indymatters. They have uploaded a number of my archive series, so you might well find what you are looking for there:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8pvizzdWKWWNqaTIZirHyg/playlists?disable_polymer=1