The Blood is Strong Documentary

[creagdhubh]

Looks good!

I agree!

Here's a driver's-eye view of Calum's road today:

http://www.ukmadefilms.com/news.html

Such an amazing story, an amazing man, and an amazing testament to the spirit, dedication and perseverance of the Highland Gael.

Cheers,

[Aibhlinn]

Damn! Damn & thrice Damn!
Living in Scotland, as a teenager I was fortunate enough to see The Blood Is Strong when it was first broadcast in 1988.
I've since spent many years wittering on to anyone who would listen to me about how wonderful a series it was, so you can imagine how thrilled I was to stumble upon this thread which had links to my holy grail. And yet, just when it seemed within my grasp, i discovered that YouTube had intervened and appear to have withdrawn the footage.
In case anyone here is interested, here are details of the three episodes which I uncovered during the years of my quest:

1 It Is No Joy Without Clan Donald (1/9/88) - Traces the early history of the Gaelic Scots, a people who developed a separate language and culture in the West Highlands of Scotland, and tells of the events which drove so many from their homeland to seek a better way of life. It charts the fall of the Lordship of the Isles, the breakup of the clan system after the battle of Culloden in 1746, the famine and the notorious Highland Clearances2. 2 All That Is Able Is Going To America (8/9/88) - Second in the three part series tracing the history of the Gaelic Scots. The Carolinas became the magnet for thousands of Gaelic Scots in the years after Culloden. Later the American War of Independence was to divert the overspill of Highlanders to Canada, while more settled in Australia and New Zealand. The programme explains how these refugees fared and how the traditional Gaelic language and culture survives today in places as far apart as Winnipeg, Canada and Waipu, New Zealand
3. 3 A Stirring In The Gaidhealtachd (15/9/88) - Last in the three part documentary series on the history, language and culture of the Gaels of the Hebrides. Probes the psyche of the Gael, as modern technology combines with a revival in crofting, to give the Gaidhealtachd perhaps its most encouraging economic scenario for decades. But it is a land of contrast, with Britain's highest per capita number of university graduates and its most regular church attendance, but with one of its most serious alcohol problems. Is simple economic improvement enough for a people whose morale has been progressively undermined for two centuries? To many, the question is not whether the Gael will survive in his homeland, but what kind of Gael will survive.

I'm now hoping that some kind soul will put the footage back up on YouTube (perhaps under a different title) or, better still, sell me a dvdr copy to help me preserve my sanity and spare my long-suffering wife further years of my droning on about this fantastic documentary.

[TheOfficialBren]

Kyle, thank you for sharing about Calum MacLeod. His story is certainly one for the (pardon the pun) books and worthy of being told. Very interesting.

Regarding TV, I can see now why many folk didn't have a set. The mobile hone analogy really explained it well. It reminds me of some places here in the states, like Montana or Wyoming (I have an aunt there) where they only get spotty internet service and if they want tele it has to be via satellite. Mobile phone service is also patchy out there in the sticks.

Nathan, pertaining to the accent, I have noticed when watching some BBC programmes that the accents of many a Scot are surprisingly un-Scottish! I mean absolutely no offence but often (if they aren't speaking with a posh English accent) they sound nearly American!
Then-again, one could point out that Scottish tongues (among others) have had a large role in shaping the American tongue over the centuries. We are very rhotic speakers on this side of the pond. If I understand correctly, so are Gaelic-speaking peoples (Ireland, Scotland, Canada).
I can only surmise that this is (as prosited before): the influence of television, the decline of Gaelic, and the desire among younger generations to be more 'global' (if that last one makes sense).

I would love to hear from others more knowledgeable in this area especially. I'm certain that many of my observations are probably out-right wrong.

Thank you, in advance, for correcting any of my misconceptions and enlightening me.

[creagdhubh]

Cheers, Bren.

Well, as far as accents go, I'm sure we would all certainly agree that one's accent much depends on culture, geography, education, and family. This is especially true in Scotland where there is a plethora of accents from Glaswegian to Aberdonian. Not every native Scot has a thick Scottish brogue, especially of the style in which most outsiders tend to stereotype and associate with the Scottish people. Not every Scot speaks like Ewan McGregor's character, Renton, in the Danny Boyle film, Trainspotting.

My chief for example, Sir William Alan Macpherson of Cluny and Blairgowrie, TD has a very "English" sounding accent, but that assumption is quite obviously completely bogus since Cluny was born and raised in central Scotland. Much has been a long-standing tradition for many men of status and rank to be educated "down south." Cluny was indeed educated in England, as well as attending various military academies there, where as he puts it, "learned to speak Her Majesty's English." And naturally so, since Cluny was a High Court Judge appointed by Her Majesty, The Queen, for many years in England.

Cheers,

[TheOfficialBren]

Ah! I totally dropped the ball on your point about regions! How did I miss that?!

But seriously, though, it does seem that even Native Scots are sounding less and less 'Scottish' among the younger generations. For example, the red-headed lass (Amy Pond) on "Dr Who"...or the crannagh (spelling) expert on the first episode of "A History of Scotland" (BBC, Neil Oliver hosted).

Perhaps the answer is all of the following: gaelic's decline, globalisation, education abroad, television, pop-culture, modernity, mobile populations living and working farther afield...

I also agree that the Native Scots I've met have quite varried accents. I've met folk from Edinburgh, Glasgow, the Western Isles, and the Borders. None of them sounded the same but the older ones sounded distinctly "Scottish" compared to the younger ones...who sounded less immediately identifiable.

Maybe I need to get my ears checked. Probably all that loud Rock N Roll music.

[creagdhubh]

That crannog expert was actually Canadian.

[TheOfficialBren]

Ah!! So much explained there! Thanks, mate. I really appreciate the insights shared here. I am really learning a lot.

[Ozark Ridge Rider]

Accents work both ways. At the top of the Sir Walter Scott monument, I had a brief conversation with a Scottish gentleman from Coatbridge, who said he worked for Chrysler there. Just small talk, the pleasantries of the day, etc. Space is tight up there so it's easy to be chatty with anyone else.

After climbing down, we said our goodbyes, and he said, "Tell me, would you be from Eastern Kansas or Western Missouri?". I racked my brain, but had said nothing about location. Yet he had me pegged within 100 miles in the midwest.

[TheOfficialBren]

That's very true, Ozark Ridge Rider. Some folks have a descernable-enough ear to peg an accent that closely!

California, for example, has a modest variety of accents: Southern California (faster paced and with somewhat odd metre, less rhotic than farther to the north), Okie (transplant-somewhat Southern but not quite as drawled and with Californian metre), Northern California (steady metre, quite rhotic), San Joaquin Valley (they tend to shorten the long "E" and morph it into a short "I" ["feel" sounds like "fill"]; long "A" becomes a short "E" ["fail" sounds like "fell"], moderately rhotic).

Then again, these don't always apply considering how much of a salad bowl even California can be. Most people seem to pick up bits and pieces from everywhere they've lived. Some people never do, however.

My father, for example, was born and for the first portion of his life raised in Arkansas (to an Arkansan father and a Kentuckean mother--both of Scottish descent) so he uses the odd Gaelic word here and there (although hardly aware of its origin on most occasions as the family history is more my area of interest than his) but he has an accent almost entirely distinctive to the Hillfolk of his birthplace. After moving permanently to California in his late teens (and being 70 now) he still has his accent without much Californian colour whatsoever. Perhaps he's stubborn, perhaps his sympathetic ear (I believe that might be the terminology I have heard linguists use describing this phenomenon) hasn't developed very much.

My mother, in the otherhand, was born in Oregon (the next state north of California) and her accent is entirely local to Southern California. She sounds nothing like her Oregonian relatives in speech.

I was educated in private schools when I was younger and as a result it is reflected in my own speech (not the typical Southern-Californian accent, very slightly less rhotic and with a steadier, more deliberate metre and an even timbre). That was probably a subconscious adaptation, though intentionally-exaggerated, extra-hard "R's" are kind of distracting to my ears (I don't to watch anything with actor Matt Frewer because of it--and his bad acting, too [the poorly executed "Australian" accent on "Eureka"---shudder).

[neloon]

it does seem that even Native Scots are sounding less and less 'Scottish' among the younger generations.

I think that's true, Bren, i.e. more "English". This has been going on for a long time, of course, and, in the eighteenth century, books were published on how to rid oneself of Scotticisms and Scottish accents so as to be acceptable in English society. Recent most noticeable changes are the loss of the "ch" so that "Pitlochry" becomes "Pitlockry" and the loss of the "wh" so that "what, where, why, when" become "wat, ware, wy, wen" etc. This is even found with BBC Scotland presenters so it will probably become fixed.
Alan