Issue 40/15 18th May

married couple at bowmore
Bans? Aye!

Pictured above are Mr and Mrs Kobayashi, the Japanese couple who had their marriage blessed in the Round Church on Saturday 4 May. Because of their love for Scotland, the groom wore Highland dress, their celebration including a visit to Bowmore Distillery, and eating cake at Ardbeg. We wish them all the best in their life together.

Photo courtesy Islay Studios

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Blar

140 Islay musicians collaborate on Blar - a unique performance of a community musical event celebrating Islay Bard William Livingstone.
Blar (Battle) is a community musical event taking place on Islay on 30 May which will see at least 140 island musicians staging a performance of new Gaelic music composed by the outstanding Gaelic traditional musician Clare Jordan.
The new music is based on a Gaelic poem by the long neglected Islay bard William Livingstone, which tells the story of the infamous Battle of Gruinart, which took place on Islay in 1598. ÊEvery musical group on the island will take part: the traditional instrumentalists, the island brass band, all the primary school Gaelic choirs, the junior Gaelic choir, the high school choir, the senior Gaelic choir, and the Islay Pipe Band. The performance will be an innovative multimedia event featuring a dynamic digital art work commissioned from local artist and writer Raymond Lafferty.
Clare Jordan said: "Last year Coisir Ghaidhlig Ile commissioned me to compose a suite of three songs with words from William Livingstone poem Blar Thraigh Ghrunieard. I wasn't aware of Livingstone's poetry when I started on the project but I became fascinated by this forgotten masterpiece. The Battle of Gruinart was the last clan war fought on Scottish soil and behind the bloody and brutal depictions of 16th century Scottish warfare is the tragic story of two families - the MacDonalds of Islay and the MacLeans of Mull - torn apart over ownership of Islay lands. Sir Lachlan Mor MacLean was killed in the Battle and he was Sir James MacDonald's uncle. There's a further layer to the poem: the folklore and legends surrounding the battle and in particular the story of the evil Dubh Sith (Black Fairy) who in spiteful rage killed MacLean with an arrow. These are great stories, well-known on Islay, but we're now going to be sharing them with a wider audience."
Iseabail Mactaggart, Coisir Gaidhlig Ile's conductor said: "This is a thrilling event to have produced. The three songs Clare composed for the choir are wonderful and by linking them together with new instrumental passages has produced a stunning new work. Bringing 140 performers together has been a considerable challenge but it has brought together people with different musical interests from all corners of Islay and united them in common cause.
"This is truly a community arts event and Islay has never before seen anything on this scale and of this ambition. We are delighted to have Dr Raymond Lafferty on board. He is working alongside Islay young people taking the John Muir Award in Gaelic at RSPB Gruinart to produce a stunning digital film which dovetails with the music. Children from all the Islay and Jura primary schools have also produced their own artworks based on the stories in the poem and we are thrilled with the results.
"Although Gaelic poetry is at the heart of this project we have been determined that this will not be a barrier and that Blar will be fully accessible to non-Gaelic speakers. The scale and ambition of the project means that we can only have only the one performance but that performance will be during Islay's exceptionally busy Feis week and we already know that our audience will not only be a local audience but an international one too."
"Fergus Muir, Coisir Ghaidhlig Ile's President, said, "Blar is probably the biggest Gaelic cultural event other than local Mods that we've seen on Islay and it's brought together people from all corners of the island. That so many people want to see the performance is justification for all the effort that has gone into making Blar a reality and we're delighted to be able to offer a second performance on the night of the 30th. We're grateful to all the organisations that have supported Blar so far."

Two performances of Blar will take place at Bowmore Hall, Islay on 30 May at 6.30pm and 8pm. Tickets cost £10 and are available from Feis Ile, Bowmore and Port Ellen Post Offices.

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ScottishPower Renewables scoops energy Globe award

ScottishPower Renewables' plans to install up to ten underwater tidal power turbines in the Sound of Islay has been recognised with an Energy Globe Award, one of the World's most prestigious environmental awards.
The Energy Globe Award was founded in 1999 by the Austrian energy pioneer Wolfgang Neumann and is now considered a leading global environmental prize. The goal of the Award is to showcase innovative sustainable projects to a global audience, in the belief that many of the currently recognised environmental issues already have good, feasible solutions.
Barry Carruthers, Tidal Power Development Manager at ScottishPower Renewables, said: "We are delighted that our plans for a pioneering tidal power project in Scotland have received international recognition, and we were very pleased to receive an Energy Globe Award.
"Tidal power has tremendous potential to make a significant contribution to Scotland's energy needs. Projects like Islay will be critical in allowing the whole industry to have a greater understanding of the challenges involved in generating electricity from the tides, before larger projects are deployed in other locations around Scotland and across the world."
Andy Macdonald, Tidal Energy Project Officer at the Islay Energy Trust said "The award is great news for Islay and further recognition of the fantastic potential for marine renewables in the seas around Argyll. SPR has worked closely with the Islay Energy Trust to maximise the opportunities for local businesses to be involved in this world-leasing project and build up the supply chain ready for follow on projects."
The Sound of Islay project is a ten megawatt (MW) tidal array which will be located close to Islay. The project has a strategic role to play in tidal energy development and is the essential intermediate step ahead of large scale deployment.
Development work for this project is well advanced, having secured the world's first consent for a tidal array in March 2011. It is planned that construction work will commence in the next two years, subject to successful completion of the HS1000 prototype device tests in Orkney.
The prototype HS1000 tidal device, developed by Andritz Hydro Hammerfest Strom, was deployed in The European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) off the coast of Orkney in 2011. Testing aims to fully prove that the technology can operate efficiently in Scotland's fast flowing tides, that monitoring and maintenance operations can be performed reliably and to help drive down costs in operations and installation.


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NEXT ISSUE ON SALE 1st June 2013

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scottish natural heritage

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bothy media

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Islay Natural History Trust Blog

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islay community council

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Additional information is available on the Isle of Islay
and Isle of Jura websites.

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Islay Diary 2013

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