Thread by @EaglaisML

Once again, a minor policy proposal (street signs in this case) has brought about the predictable social media backlash with people saying #Gaelic isn't now and hasn't historically been spoken in Edinburgh. I'll write this in English as those who speak Gaelic already know.🧵

Our congregation is living proof that this view is entirely ignorant with regard to the past and to the present. We've been here historically and we're still here now. Official provision for Gaelic worship in the Church of Scotland in Edinburgh goes back over 250 years.

Even before the establishment of the first formal Gaelic chapel in 1769 (there's a plaque marking the site on Johnston Terrace) there had been ad hoc worship in Gaelic in the city. One of the preachers in the pre-chapel period was the poet Dugald Buchanan who was in the city to

oversee the printing of the Gaelic New Testament. The Edinburgh Gaels would thus probably have been the first in the country to read the NT in Gaelic. This wasn't the first Gaelic book printed here by any means.

The prayer book of the new reformed Kirk was printed here in Gaelic in 1567, the first Gaelic book ever published in print.

We've moved around the city a bit since the summer of 1769, but we're still here. We've been part of Edinburgh for longer than Leith, than Hearts and Hibs, than almost all of the New Town. At what point are we allowed to be a legitimate part of the city's history?

We've been here through the Wars (33 members, including our minister John Campbell MacGregor, were killed in action in WW1), the Depression, Spanish Flu and Covid-19. We've experienced everything the city has because we, and the Gaelic community we serve, are part of the city.

As in the past, so also today. We continue to worship in Gaelic, every Sunday at Greyfriars Kirk, 12:30. We are a small congregation, and Gaelic speakers are a minority. You don't have to point this out, we are all very aware of it. We are also aware of nuances and complexities

around these issues that, with respect, non-speakers of Gaelic generally are not. We are part of the everyday life of the city, and Gaelic is part of our everyday lives. We know we're a minority, and so easily overlooked.

If you want to learn about part of the city's past and present you may have overlooked yourself, you can visit us for a service any Sunday. You'll be most welcome.