Castletown woman wins Mod gold medal
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ONCE again Caithness has a gold medal winner from the Royal National Mod after a passionate supporter of the Gaelic language scooped the prestigious prize last week in Dunoon.
Christine Stone, originally from Back in Lewis and now based in Castletown, won the traditional gold medal for her vocal singing last Thursday.
Mrs Stone has long been a stalwart of the language in Caithness and was heavily involved in bringing the national Mod to the county in 2010.
As well as being a member of Melvich Gaelic Choir, she has been a key mover and shaker in getting local interest in Gaelic, which saw a record number of entries from Caithness enter into this year’s week-long festival in Argyll.
Chairperson of the local branch of An Comunn Gàidhealach Raymond Bremner said that there were tears when Mrs Stone returned from the event to her fellow Caithness competitors.
"Nobody went to the rural choirs’ do on Thursday night as the traditional final was being hosted at the same time," he said.
"The entire choir waited until she came in and as she did, we clapped her in. She wasn’t in the door five minutes and the bottles of champagne were cracked.
"It’s the biggest win for Caithness since I won the gold medal myself."
Mrs Stone also picked up several literature awards throughout the week and, with the success of her fellow Caithnessians, their home for the week was soon full of awards.
Mrs Stone was unavailable for comment at the time of going to press yesterday.
Other notable wins in the later stages of the Gaelic cultural celebration included the Coilich a’ Chinn a’ Tuath (Cocks of the North) winning the Mull and Iona Shield on Friday morning despite some shaky vocal warm-
ups.
A quick kick-about with a ball in a games hall, whilst kilted up, provided just the relaxation needed and when they took to the stage they brought the adjudicator – Scottish singer-songwriter and broadcaster Anne Lorne Gillies – to tears, explained Mr Bremner.
"The atmosphere in that venue was electric and it just all fell into place once we were on stage," he said.
"They mentioned afterwards that one choir had moved them to tears and that’s how I knew we had won."
Melvich Gaelic Choir just missed out on a podium place with fourth spot in the Lawrence Shield.
For male voices, the Caithness line-up was star-studded for the week.
The Rev Alasdair Gray, from Watten, picked up several awards, with other notable appearances from Mikie Henderson of local band The Chicken Pickers; head of HIE in Caithness and Sutherland Roy Kirk; Jimmy Scott, a retired police inspector from Wick; and Michael Simpson, grandson of the Mey games organiser Charlie Simpson, as well as a host of new faces making their first appearance at the Royal National Mod.
"Caithness is fighting well above its weight at the Royal National Mod," said Mr Bremner.
"Caithness goes to the Mod now and it is in the programme and people recognise that we are no longer that little place which is like a skelf in your hand giving you pain – it’s an integral part of the Mod."
Youngsters do their county proud third time around
FEIS Ghallaibh, set up to encourage youngsters in Caithness to take part in the national Mod in 2010, is now celebrating three years of local and national Mod participation.
This year, six youngsters travelled to Dunoon to take part in instrumental and solo singing competitions with five of the six also forming the Feis Ghallaibh senior folk group. Feis Ghallaibh coordinator Celia McDougall praised the youngsters for all their hard work.
She said: "Once again, Feis Ghallaibh was very proud of the standard gained and maintained by what are still very young competitors and hope that they will continue to progress with their knowledge of the Gaelic language and continue to enjoy singing and playing together as that is the essence of "Feisean nan Gaidheal" which Feis Ghallaibh is part of."
Caitlin Forbes, from Smerral, took part in the fiddle music competition for 13-18 year olds, playing a Slow Gaelic Air, March, Strathspey and Reel and William Campbell played his accordion in the under 13 open competition securing a bronze medal.
The young Mr Campbell also competed in the novice bagpipes and although he didn’t win a prize he reportedly played very well. The youngster has had a very successful year with both his piping and accordion playing at local Mods, festivals and piping society competitions.
Caitlin also sang in the solo singing competition for girls 13-15 years old, as did Heather Bain from Thurso.
Heather’s sister Isla Bain sang in the solo singing competition for girls 11-12 years old and Erin Cook, from Bettyhill, sang in two solo singing competitions for 11-12-year-old fluent speakers. All girls sang really well and were a true credit to their tutor Christine Stone.
Also taught by Christine, the only boy to sing solo was Duncan Davidson, from Castletown, who took a well-deserved bronze in the solo singing for boys 13-15 years old.
William, Duncan, Heather, Isla and Erin then combined – with fiddle, whistles, mandola and drums as well as singing – to make the Feis Ghalliabh senior folk group and took the bronze award in a very exciting competition.
