Taing | Thanks

Luchd-glèidhidh an dualchais | The Tradition Bearers

First and foremost, we honour the 161 tradition bearers whose songs, stories, language, and lived experiences form the heart of this collection. Their willingness to share—often in kitchens, living rooms, and community halls—has ensured that Gaelic cultural knowledge continues to live, move, and inspire new generations. We invite those exploring this site to meet the tradition bearers through the Contributors tab, where individual profiles and connections bring these voices and lives into fuller view.

We also extend heartfelt thanks to the many family members, friends, and community historians who shared memories, genealogical knowledge, photographs, and local context to inform the biographies newly written for each tradition bearer. They are listed in the drop-down box, below. Their care, accuracy, and generosity helped ensure that these lives and contributions are represented with respect, depth, and connection to place.

We are especially grateful to Dr. John Shaw, Professor Emeritus at the University of Edinburgh, whose fieldwork and scholarship lie at the foundation of this collection. Through his dedicated collecting and careful documentation, these voices were preserved and made available for future generations, enabling the work presented here.

An Sgioba | The Team

This work was sustained by an extraordinary project team whose skills, care, and shared commitment shaped every aspect of Gaelstream. We are deeply grateful for the generosity, patience, and intellectual labour each team member brought to the project. Most members of the team speak Gaelic to varying degrees, and we made a deliberate effort to use the language as much as possible in our meetings and day‑to‑day work, grounding the project in the living linguistic practices it seeks to support.

Team members contributed in many overlapping ways, including transcribing recordings; proof‑reading and correcting transcriptions; researching contributors and collection items; writing and revising biographies; expanding, correcting, and standardising metadata; managing and organizing digital files and project records; working directly with community members; promoting the project publicly; and writing about its aims and outcomes. As a team, we made a sustained effort to follow best practices in information management and documentation, supporting the long‑term integrity, usability, and care of the collection.

• Heather Sparling (Project Lead)
• Mary Jane Lamond (Project Coordinator)
• Màiri Britton (Project Coordinator)
• Stevie Barrett
• Hannah Krebs
• Chelsey MacPherson
• Emily MacDonald
• Brittany Rankin-MacDonald
• Angus MacLeod
• Dùghall MacPhee
• Shannon MacMullin
• Stacey MacLean
• Carmen MacArthur
• Effie Rankin

Student Researchers:

• Kaleb Deleskie
• Erin MacKinnon
• Vincent McDonald
• Robert Pringle
• Sarah Turnbull

Taic bho Bhuidhnean | Institutional Support

We gratefully acknowledge the institutions whose sustained support—both financial and in‑kind—made this project possible. These organizations contributed far more than resources: they shared expertise, time, infrastructure, and deep cultural knowledge at every stage of the work. Collectively, they provided fluent Gaelic‑speaking staff and staff with extensive Gaelic cultural expertise; assisted with and advised on transcriptions; consulted thoughtfully on project development; and offered guidance shaped by long experience working with Gaelic collections and communities.

Our thanks extend in particular to colleagues at Tobar an Dualchais, where Chris Wright developed, at very short notice, the interactive map that illustrates connections between Cape Breton settlements and their original Scottish origins—the first map of its kind for this material.

At DASG (University of Glasgow), Stevie Barrett designed and implemented the database functionality that enables detailed, flexible, and nuanced searching across the collection.

We are also deeply grateful to Susan Cameron, now retired librarian at St. Francis Xavier University, whose early and enthusiastic support for this project included facilitating access to the original recordings held in the Cape Breton Gaelic Folklore Collection. Dr. Michael Linkletter, professor of Celtic Studies at StFX, also supported the project throughout its development.

The generosity, trust, and collaborative spirit of these institutions shaped not only what could be built, but also how it was built, and we acknowledge their contributions with sincere appreciation.