Tom McKean tells the story of how he once approached the BBC in Aberdeen, offering to provide a news bulletin in Doric on a daily basis. As the director of the Elphinstone Institute, which was set up in the city in 1995 to celebrate, research and promote the traditions of the north-east and north of Scotland, he believed it would be another positive way of preserving the region’s rich language. Speak proudly in your own tongue However, as he recalled: “I was told that you can’t use to discuss serious matters, such as funerals and war.
But that is rubbish, of course. “What else do people do in their own homes, but talk of contemporary and important matters in their own native tongue?” It wasn’t the first barrier that Tom had faced in his career and it certainly wasn’t the last. But this is a man from New England with a genuine passion for New Scotland.
And he’s not going to allow any obstacles to halt him in his tracks. Whatever critics might argue, matters have changed for the better since the grim days of the 1950s when school pupils were threatened with the belt if they used the same vocabulary in the classroom which was part and parcel of their lives at home. And the , which is celebrating its 30th birthday next year, has been at the forefront of this affirmative action in a way which makes many people cry Hallelujah.
The institute could Handel it As Tom said: “We commissioned and performed a Doric Messiah at St Machar Cathedral [in Aberdeen]. And, with a.
