Those behind the successful bid to bring the Royal National Mod to the Far North in 2010 also fear the campaign endangers the cultural and financial spin-offs the area can secure from the event.

Well-known Gaelic singer and activist Raymond Bremner yesterday singled out for criticism Highland councillors who are pursuing moves to overturn the authority's policy of erecting bilingual signs in all areas.

While claiming the argument to oppose their introduction in Caithness is flawed, Mr Bremner believes the high-profile ongoing campaign is undermining the efforts to provide a welcoming image in the run-up to the Mod.

He said: "The councillors need to understand that if they keep going down this path they will be damaging the efforts we are making to promote Gaelic and to encourage as many people as possible to come to the Mod."

Accusing the local representatives of paying lip service to promotion of the language, Mr Bremner warned that the opposition was attracting unwelcome national publicity.

He cited a headline on a Gaelic article in a Scottish Sunday newspaper which read: "The National Mod 2010 – Do they want us or don't they?"

Mr Bremner, a former Royal National Mod gold medallist and the chairman of the Caithness branch of An Comunn Gaidhealach, insists the road-sign controversy has been blighted by myths and misperception.

He took to task councillors who claim Caithness has little, if any, history of Gaelic-speaking. "Saying that Caithness has never been a Gaelic-speaking area is fundamentally wrong," Mr Bremner declared. "Gaelic-speakers were never in the majority but the county has a well-documented history of Gaelic-speaking.

"We need to challenge claims that this has been a Gaelic-free area."

Mr Bremner also countered suggestions that bilingual signs would be very costly and that their provision would be at the expense of frontline council services.

He said: "We have assurances that they would go up when existing signs need to be replaced or brand new signs installed. We are also assured that there would be minimal cost – we'd be talking about a few hundred pounds a year."

Mr Bremner says he fully respects the opinion of people who oppose bilingual signs.

"However, we have to question how long the councillors are going to pursue this campaign and what damage in the meantime they do to the image of this county," he went on.

"The councillors, after all, do represent people and organisations that are actively promoting the Gaelic language and culture. They have a responsibility to them as well as to those who don't want bilingual signs.

"You have to ask whether it is really worth devoting so much of their time and energy beating this drum when their resources would be better channelled in other directions.

"They say that they are not anti-Gaelic and that they are all for the Mod coming here and for a Gaelic-medium education unit in Thurso – but their campaign against the road signs has been very aggressive and sends out all the wrong messages."

Mr Bremner claims that Caithness will lose out if it does not seek to get a share of the council's funding for Gaelic promotion. "The money is there and, if Caithness does not take up its slice, it will go elsewhere and we'll lose out," he said.

What concerns him more is the negative anti-Gaelic image which he claims the councillors' stance is creating.

The An Comunn branch is inviting councillors to its next meeting in Thurso on June 17 to discuss the issue.

Mr Bremner insisted: "We don't want a barney with them. We just want an opportunity to explain to them how the county can benefit from the activities of the Gaelic bodies that operate here.

"We also want to get across the headache they could cause us in terms of promoting the Mod and getting visitors into the area."

His fears are shared by Janet MacDonald, the convener of the Royal National Mod. She agreed that the councillors' stance on the road signs tends to create the perception that Caithness is anti-Gaelic.

Mrs MacDonald, from Tobermory, said: "I personally don't think they have much of an argument.

"As well as being out of line with council policy, I think they are in danger of giving a misleading impression about how their county feels about Gaelic."

Caithness councillor David Flear yesterday insisted that the opposition to bilingual road signs does not make him and his colleagues anti-Gaelic.

He said: "All we're protesting about is Gaelic road signs. I've absolutely nothing against the promotion of Gaelic culture, and the Caithness councillors have welcomed the staging of the Mod in 2010, the local Gaelic playgroup and the Gaelic-medium education unit.

"I'm happy with that but I'm not happy about spending money on bilingual signs in an area where the names are not Gaelic. That is the single issue, but the Gaels say that if we don't want the road signs then we're anti-Gaelic – that's just rubbish."

iain-grant@ukf.net

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