Gathering line-up
A FORMER director of the Glasgow Islay Association will be the guest chairman at the group’s 154th annual gathering in the Glasgow University Students’ Union on March 4.
Consultant Gordon Gillies will prove to be a popular choice as he has had a lifelong connection with An Comunn Ileach and its aims.
Gordon was born and brought up in the east end of Glasgow and is of Islay parentage. He is a former member of the Glasgow Islay Gaelic Choir and is an active elder in his local church.
Before establishing his current consultancy he was employed in the hotel and catering industry and in the world of insurance.
He and his wife Alison, daughter Sophie and son Cameron, live in Bishopbriggs.
Appearing under Gordon’s direction at ‘the Islay’ will be a group of performers well known in Highland and Gaelic circles, and all guaranteed to provide pleasing entertainment.
Last year’s National Mòd gold medallists Catriona MacNeil, Barra, and Tiree’s Donald Iain Brown will reprise their winning ways. Doing likewise will be Alison Campbell, Erskine, daughter of the association’s immediate past president Malcolm Campbell and his wife Elizabeth, and winner of the Kennedy Fraser Trophy at the Oban National Mòd in 2015. Completing the singing line-up will be Robert Robertson from Fort William who struck gold at Paisley in 2013. He now conducts the Glasgow Islay Junior Gaelic Choir and currently pens The Oban Times’ Glasgow Letter.
Upping the tempo will be the lively Bearsden Fiddlers, association pipe major Andrew McCowan Jnr. will be much in evidence, as will piano accompanist Kirsteen Grant.
In an effort to increase attendance, the organisers have decided to revive the gathering dance, which fell out of favour in recent years. This will take place in the same venue immediately after the concert and in charge of the dance music will be award-winning Trail West.