Excerpts from issue 53/13 4 April 2026
Doddie rides to Dublin
What would inspire anyone to take part in an 800-mile cycling relay across Britain and Ireland in the depths of early March? The prospect of raising £50 per mile pedalled in aid of a very worthy cause seems a good place to start.
That's what a hardy band of riders cycling under the banner of Kilchoman Distillery did last month as they tackled Doddie's Triple Crown Challenge and raised £40,000 (and counting) to help kick Motor Neurone Disease into touch. Over four testing days, the ten-strong team of riders, including Islay cyclists Tom Hunter, David Brodie and Keith Shaw, tackled gale-force headwinds, high mountain passes and driving rain (and often all three at once) on a meandering route from Melrose to Dublin, via stops in Leeds, Gloucester and Pembroke Dock in south-west Wales. Backed and ably supported by Kilchoman Distillery owners Anthony and Kathy Wills (with lots of logistical help from 'Saint' Catherine MacMillan), the riders joined hundreds of others on a collective mission to raise more than £1.3million for the My Name'5 Doddie Foundation, the charity set up by former Scotland rugby internationalist Doddie Weir, who was diagnosed with MND in 2017 and died in 2022.
Tom Hunter said, "I thought clocking up hundreds of miles in the worst weather an Islay winter can throw at cyclists would prepare us for anything the mainland had to offer, but conditions really were something else. It's meant to be a challenge, of course, and it certainly lived up to its billing. I hope Doddie was having a good laugh at our expense."
With the wind finally at their back for the last day's leg, the Kilchoman team made it to Dublin's Aviva Stadium in time for Scotland's Six Nations showdown with Ireland. Although the result didn't go Scotland’s way, the thousands of pounds raised more than cushioned the blow. Fundraising is still live and you can donate online at kilchoman just giving page, or make a cash donation over the counter at Port Charlotte Store.
Oh, and they didn't suffer a single puncture.
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Museum opening - 2026
The Museum of Islay Life, in Port Charlotte village, and which had a major makeover last year, has reopened for the summer season. Now in its 49th year, it has a new manager to take it into its half-century. Christine McPhie, who has a background in science and joined the museum in January, is now the custodian of 12,000 years of Islay History. Christine, who is currently undergoing training led by Museums and Galleries, Scotland, said, "I have always been interested in Scottish history and the island my ancestors came from, and I am delighted to turn a hobby into an opportunity to contribute to the excellent resource that the museum provides to Islay."
Welcoming locals and visitors at the front desk are familiar faces, Melody Want and Davy McMartin.
Each year, the museum refreshes and seeks to improve its displays, and this year is no different. The fourth of July this year will be the 250th anniversary of American independence, and the museum will be prominently displaying its wonderful portrait of Islay-born Alexander McDougall, who became a fervent campaigner against British rule and was jailed by the British. McDougall rose to the rank of Major General during the Revolutionary War, and later became the first president of the Bank of New York and a Senator. McDougall Street in Greenwich Village, once home to Bob Dylan, is named after him. The portrait was gifted to the museum by Lord George Robertson.
Later in the spring, the museum will host an exhibition revealing the exciting discoveries uncovered by archaeologists at the abandoned village of Olistadh on the Rhinns. Led by Professor Steve Mithen of Islay Heritage and Reading University, the archaeologists discovered that the 19th-century ruins lie atop a much earlier settlement dating back at least to medieval times. The name 'Olistadh' means Olaf's Steading in Norse, so evidence of Vikings might lie deeper.
Another 'new' exhibit that will go on display this year is a stone quern discovered during the excavation of the foundations of Bruichladdich's new warehouses. There's continuity for you; thousands of years ago, people were processing grain on Islay - and they are still doing it!
The Museum is open Mondays to Fridays from 10:30am until 4:30pm.
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In this week's issue:
Port Ellen Pier upgrade contract awarded, A&B Council's road programme, Loganair's electric flights, Lifeboat launch, Finlaggan Visitor Centre remains closed, Visitor Levy change, New Jura ferry, Primary schools' maths success, New water treatement works at Torra, Long-winded duck travel, Islay Wind Band trip, Museum of Islay Life re-opens for the season, Doddie rides to Dublin, Music review - Louis Stewart's Joyce Notes, Islay Golf Club prize dinner, The Easter Bunny story, 40 years of Islay Boys Youth Football Club, Craig Walker's Walk on the Wild Side, Argyll Talking Newspapers, Kilchoman's Maury Cask, Foraging with Amy Clark Want, Daylight savings, Rhinns Hall AGM
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Music review
Joyce Notes - Louis Stewart. Livia Records
The 'Joyce' of the title refers to James Joyce, author of Ulysses, Finnegan's Wake and Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, amongst others. It's the first of these writings that forms the basis of Irish guitarist, Louis Stewart's, six-part suite, first performed at the Cork Jazz Festival on 23 October, 1982, by an Irish-American octet.
Along with many others, the sense of dread instilled by the allusion to 'spoken word' in conjunction with music, did not bode well for my first listen. However, the expression and gusto voiced by Eamonn Morrissey, of extracts from Ulysses (surely one of the most eccentric texts in modern literature?) turned out to be far more entertaining than expected.
Originally recorded by RTE Television, this performance of the suite was the first of only three in total; one in Oslo and a final rendition in Dublin.
When composing works based on highly-respected prose, there's always a danger that one overshadows the other, but in Joyce Notes, the music is so well matched to the rhythms of the text, that reading Ulysses in comparative silence, now just seems wrong.
Take the opening track, 'Bronze by Gold' for instance. When Morrissey first voices the words 'Bronze by Gold', the octet launches into an accompanying vamp that takes on a life of its own when the spoken passage ends.
However, lest you think each of the six tracks repeats this formula, Night Town takes a musical lead from the start, with a bright instrumental ahead of the narrative, subsequently providing musical interludes when Morrissey is allowed several pauses.
And posthumous commendations to drummer, Bobby Rosengarden for such a musical solo to end the piece.
As an historical document, this is an essential recording, and I'm happy to report that never does the spoken-word become tired, or detract from Stewart's sublime compositions. We can wonder all we like why it has taken so long for this recording to see the light of day, but we can be eternally grateful that Livia Records founder and executive producer, Gerald Davis, had the presence of mind to encourage Stewart in this undertaking in the first place.
Joyce's Ulysses is not the easiest of books to to read or comprehend; Louis Stewart has made its several hundred pages of tightly packed text considerably more approachable.
Wonderful.
bp
Joyce Notes is available for download or on CD from Livia Records.
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This is Islay
2026 Podcast of the Year featuring individuals, personalities and features of Islay and Jura. Listen now at https://anchor.fm/thisisislay
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