From Gaeilge to Gaidhlig

It's called Turas na bhFili, the Poets' Tour, a cultural exchange between Ireland's Gaeltacht and Scotland's Gaidhealtachd, an almost unnoticed collaborative and subversive sharing which has been going on for nearly 30 years.

The collaboration is to be found in the annual migration of Irish and Gaelic-speaking artists from one country to another, from Gaeilge to Gaidhlig. It is subversive too in that it challenges our accepted notions of Gaelic culture and its place in the great scheme of things. For the Irish speaker who travels from Edinburgh's fine buildings to the Gaidhealtachd of Skye, it is like going back in time and discovering what the revival of Irish must have been like at the foundation of the State.

Scots Gaelic is a rural language. It has never achieved the state support that Irish enjoys nor has it ever permeated Scots society the way in which Irish has. Irish people are always within a maudlin phrase book of reclaiming "their" language. For the Scots, the work of reclamation has only just begun.

Arriving in Skye, the Irish speaker is confronted immediately by signs in Gaidhlig and English. It looks like Connemara but it isn't. It's as if someone mis-spelt every place name you ever new. Truth be told, it is a disconcerting feeling after leaving James Craig Road in Edinburgh and three hours of English traffic signs to be confronted with Portree/Port righ. The mental readjustment which has come with bilingual signage in this State takes longer to kick in. Yet readjustment is the name of the game.

Originally conceived in 1971, Turas na bhFili aimed to recreate the cuirteanna filiochta or "poetic courts" of the 18th century. Comdh ail Naisiunta na Gaeilge, in conjunction with the Gaelic Books Council of Scotland, have kept the project alive on a shoe-string budget and ensured that the poets of Ireland and Scotland continue to ask questions of each other and of themselves, not simply "Who am I?" or "Who are you?" but "Where are we?"

The list of who's been on Turas na bhFili is a "who's who" of contemporary poetry in the Gaelic languages. Ireland has been represented by Mairtin O Direain, Sean O Riordain, Nuala Ni Dhomhnaill, Caitlin Maude, Michael Davitt and Cathal O Searcaigh. The Scots have sent their finest in return, not least of whom was the poet Sorley MacLean, a figure whose work continues to command respect and devotion since his death in 1996.

This year the Irish poets were Colm Breathnach, whose latest volume, An Fear Marbh (Coisceim), has won critical acclaim and Collette Ni Ghallchoir, who has just published her first collection, Idir Dha Ghleann (Coisceim). The poets do not travel alone, however. Musicians have become an integral part of the tour. Roisin Elsafty a young sean-nos singer, Sonai O Conghaile, a melodian player, and his daughter Eileen, a seannos dancer, accompanied the group and added their own pinch of Connemara magic to the occasion.

The whole venture can seem like an endurance test. Landing in Edinburgh on Sunday, the group headed north-west to Skye on Monday where it spent two nights reading to the public and giving a workshop for local school children. After that it was down to Plockton on the west coast for a night, north to Inverness for another night and back down to Edinburgh for a reception in the Irish consulate and another performance.

While on Skye, both Breathnach and Ni Ghallchoir took the opportunity to visit the MacLean's grave. He, perhaps more than any contemporary figure in contemporary Gaelic poetry, casts a long shadow over the 20th century. "Sorley is one of Scotland's greatest gifts to poetry," says Breathnach. "His intensity and feeling for the language infused us all."

It is Breathnach's second tour of duty and it's one that he is happy to make. "It's important to read for a public and it's important to keep the contact up and compare notes with our Gaelic cousins. It's accepted when you're reading that you say a few words about the poems and that makes you think more deeply about what you're doing. The poem should stand up on its own merit.

"Coming outside your own culture makes you appraise it. It's not a question of competition. You're comparing different cultures and world views. It broadens your own horizons. But I hope we're also broadening other peoples' horizons.

"The Gaelic language in Scotland and the Irish language are under pressure. The loss of a language is like the loss of a person because every language is an individual. So we're supporting each other, bolstering the world views that these languages have. If we can tell people what a gem we have, then maybe it will help keep them alive."

It is an intense week for all concerned and the poets in particular. Most poets are lucky if they read two or three times a year. On Turas na bhFili they read on six separate occasions within the space of five days. It is demanding, says Breathnach and "mediating" between Irish, Gaidhlig and English offers its own challenges.

ONE person who knows more about this than most is the poet Rody Gorman who has published work in Irish, Scots Gaelic and English. Currently writer-in-residence in Sabhal Mor Ostaig, a third-level college on Skye where the teaching is through Gaidhlig, Gorman has been on the trip as a Scottish poet, despite the fact that he was born in Dublin. It is this blurring of the lines which does so much to open up the imaginative space between these two Celtic regions. Language rather than flags determine allegiances.

"We ended up in the Writers' Centre in Dublin and it was quite bizarre reading to my parents as a visitor from Scotland," he says.

Having seen the trip from both ends, is it really that important? Can these little bands of troubadours really make that big an impact? "I do think it's important. You're talking about two minorities. Any poetry in this part of the world is marginalised. It's all the more so in the Gaelic languages. So, it's all the more important as an exercise in mutual encouragement. There is no major problem in the connection between the music; it is a much more immediate medium. This is really the only formal connection which specifically emphasises the literary connection."

Those sentiments are echoed by the Irish consul general in Edinburgh, Dan Mulhall. He is fast becoming an expert in exploring and expanding the Gaelic language tradition, having launched a new Irish/Gaelic music series for television, Sruth na Maoile ("The Sea of Moyle"), a fortnight ago.

He is convinced about the need to develop the linguistic links and the beneficial results they can have. "I think that the connections between Ireland and Scotland are many and varied but one of the most obvious is the connection between the Irish language and Gaelic in Scotland. The presence of the poets here underlines and highlights that linguistic connection that we have, perhaps, in the past tended to overlook. This kind of visit is entirely productive and positive because it does underline these links."

By the time the tour reached the consulate the artists were all tired. Yet they all responded to the invitation to read, dance and sing with enthusiasm once again. It was fascinating to watch the group dynamic develop as they drew the audience in night after night.

Ni Ghallchoir was at first a little nervous. It was a lot of attention for someone with just one collection published, but she soon found her voice and, with every reading, her confidence grew. Sonai and Eileen are born performers. Sonai's warm personality won over the audience, while Eileen's tremendous dancing set even reticent Scottish feet a-tapping. Elsafty, too, (whose Egyptian father gives her less-than-Connemara surname) is a born performer. Her singing was magical, leaving everyone marvelling at the power and range of her voice.

No gimmicks, no call to the false imagination of the micro chip, just art expressed at its finest.

Sruth na Maoile begins on TG4 on Monday at 7.30 p.m.