October - Mòd Week!

What a week the Mòd Fringe was! While I could easily wallpaper two houses with the amount of press clippings I garned over my 12 years in Ireland with my work, it's fair to say neither my solo stilt performance work or the attendant press coverage has come anywhere as quickly in Scotland. Until now. With some 9 images of my work appearing in Scottish newspapers over Mòd Week (that I know of), including some 3 front pages (WHFP Front Page & two front pages of weekend supplements), and culminating in a 3 page Sunday Herald article by An Comunn Gàidhealach Chief Executive, John Morrison, where I get mentioned alongside the likes of Julie Fowlis, the Red Hot Chilli Pipers & current Gaelic Ambassador of the Year, BBC Alba presenter, Kirsteen MacDonald, things definitely feel different. I owe incredible thanks to the vision, kindness & openess of An Comunn Gàidhealach, the Inverness Local Organising Committee, Fringe Director, Bob Kenyon, my Fire Prop Handlers Dale Mawhinney & Calum Beaton, and again Calum Beaton & Anndra MacFhearghais for being fantastic actors to work with on this incredible and groundbreaking project. And 'Blowing the Horn for Gaelic Culture'? Very, many thanks to the interest from local newspapers in my work, and for ocassionally making me laugh with joy. It's been an incredibly, sometimes brutally tough time surviving largely on my own here in Scotland as things definitely didn't go to plan and I had to adapt very quickly to try to survive in what was essentially a totally new country with most of my Scottish family being pretty much all long dead, but this week has given me both great cheer, hope, and no small amount of confidence and reassurance of the value of my work and the esteem in which it is held. Thank you...

Monday, 09 October 2017