Oban sing heart out for silverware
Irish songwriter behind hit song You Raise Me Up helps on way to victory
An ‘overwhelmed’ Sileas Sinclair celebrates winning the coveted Lovat and Tullibardine Shield with Oban Gaelic Choir. Còisir Ghàidhlig an Òbain beat eight choirs to win the prestigious prize, having finished second at the previous two Royal National Mòds. Sileas said: ‘We never expect, and always hope, and always do our best.’
‘We have worked so hard. We felt great coming off stage. We thought we could not do any more.’
Oban Gaelic Choir crowned Argyll’s triumphant week at the Royal National Mod in Glasgow, lifting the coveted Lovat and Tullibardine Shield on the final night – helped by the Irish songwriter behind the hit song You Raise Me Up.
Còisir Ghàidhlig an Òbain beat eight district choirs from Dingwall to Lothian to win the prestigious prize, alongside £200 and The Oban Times Silver Salver for achieving the highest marks in music, after coming second to Lothian’s Còisir Ghàidhlig Lodainn last year.
The Oban choir’s ‘over the moon’ president, Mary Catherine MacLean, said: ‘Every choir puts their heart and soul into it. We are all trying hard, hoping it will be us. We have worked so hard. We felt great coming off stage. We thought we could not do any more. We are so proud of our choir and our conductor.’
An ‘overwhelmed’ Sileas Sinclair, who also received the Malcolm G McCallum Silver Baton as the conductor of the winning choir, said: ‘We never expect, and always hope, and always do our best. It is an honour because the standard is so high. It’s lovely for the choir because they have been working so hard. They really wanted to get the set piece right.’
Each choir performed a set piece, a waulking song titled Alasdair mhic Cholla Ghasta (Alasdair, Son Of Gallant Coll) praising the Civil War soldier Sir Alexander MacDonald, and a song of their own choice. ‘Our own story was written by Brendan Graham from Ireland,’ Sileas said. ‘It was written about the loss of a child in the potato famine.’
Mr Graham, 74, who was listening in the audience, explained the backstory behind Oban’s song Crucàn Na pBáiste: ‘I live in County Mayo. There is a place near me called Crucàn Na pBáiste, The
Burial Place of the Children. There are boulders marking where the children are buried. I was thinking what it must have been like for the mothers and fathers, seeing the beauty, and having to bury their child. The place kept calling me back, like a claw in the gut, until I finished the song.’
Ms MacLean called it ‘the most beautiful, heart-wrenching piece’: ‘We were delighted he came to listen to us, and came to meet us beforehand. He loved what we were doing with his song.’
The singers, who mostly live in Oban, were tutored by Gaelic reader Christine MacIntyre from South Uist. The song, she said, ‘is about the potato famine and a woman losing her child, but also the guilt the woman feels in losing the child’.
‘There is plenty of resonance with food banks, where people are still going hungry today. How many people did we pass on the street today begging?
‘The words convey the story, the music conveys the emotion, and Sileas did that to an absolute tee. The emotion was coming through in the practises, but today there was a tear in my eye. There were lots of people crying.’
Behind Oban, Glasgow’s Ceòlraidh Ghàidhlig Ghlaschu finished second, followed by Inverness’ Còisir Ghàidhlig Inbhir Nis, in Glasgow’s packed Royal Concert Hall.
That afternoon area choirs from Portree, Aberfeldy, Dundee, Nairn and London also vied for the Margrat Duncan Memorial Trophy, which was again won by Stirling Gaelic Choir, Còisir Ghàidhlig Shruighlea. Portree finished third, and won the Staffinders Quaich for the highest marks in music.