Òrain is Sgeulachdan na Fèinne (360G-BNG-CC-2023-00702)

This ‘Scotland’s Year of Stories’ aligned project re-tells tales of Fionn MacCumhaill and other Celtic heroes through songs, stories and music.  The Finn Cycle stories and songs have been passed down through generations with some collected as field recordings by the School of Scottish Studies and The National Folklore Collection, and others being collected by folklorists for manuscript and print publications.  The stories and songs are not as well known in Scotland in the present day as they are in Ireland, and this project will highlight the riches of the shared traditions to a wide audience, in Scotland, throughout the UK and Ireland and potentially further afield.  This project will involve a residency collaboration between singers, musicians and storytellers, recreating the tales for a modern audience.  The residency will be situated either in the Republic of Ireland or in Northern Ireland, bringing together Scottish and Irish artists to consolidate on material recorded during the first phase of the project, enabling further performance pieces to be selected, and providing a space for rehearsal of the pieces prior to public performances.  The residential will also provide an opportunity for the artists to work together on content for workshops for Gaelic and Gaeilge medium pupils. This project will include three artists from Scotland and two artists from Ireland and the songs and stories will be performed in Gaelic and Gaeilge.   The performance of the wider collection will be in Scotland at storytelling, cultural and music festivals e.g. Blas Festival, Celtic Connections, and the Scottish International Storytelling Festival.  It is also hoped there will be performance opportunities in Ireland, interest in the project has been shown by the Féile Imram and it may also be possible to hold performances at Cultúrlann McAdam Ó Fiaich in Belfast and other locations such as Donegal.   Other proposed outreach work tying into public performances would be workshops at local Gaelic or Gaeilge medium schools close to where the performances will be held.  Within the project team, there are 3 fluent speakers of Gaelic and 2 fluent speakers of Gaeilge.  Several of the project team members have skills in both languages, and the workshops could be held entirely through the medium of Gaelic or Gaeilge, or bilingually depending on the situation.  The language skills within the project team will also be beneficial in developing workshop content e.g. a feature of the workshops and performances will also involve explaining words and phrases which are different in the opposite languages to speakers of the other language.