Taighean-cèilidh anns an sgìre.
Track Information
Original Track ID
SA1970.206.A2
Original Tape ID
Summary
Cèilidhing in the community.
There were no houses set aside for visiting. There were, however, certain houses where people went to play cards during the winter. Storytelling was not the main object of going out at night. The contributor would tell a tale occasionally. He used to go to one particular house where a man was keen on stories.
He stopped telling stories after the First World War but went over them in his mind. He started telling tales when he was about fifteen, and used to tell his father stories. One hearing and one telling was enough for him to commit a tale to memory.
He would exchange tales with his father while working, e.g. at peats. There was silence in the house while a story was being told. Women would stop working. Men didn't take any work to the cèilidh houses.
The contributor stopped telling stories because he got married after the First World War. Shortly after that, the radio came to the area. His radio was the first in the place, and people came to listen to it.
People didn't visit much after the war. A house that suffered a loss during the war was not deemed suitable for cèilidhs. There was a sense of dying away after the war. People were not so lively. Again, this was probably because of the deaths of members in the community.
Item Subject/Person
Johnson, Donald Alasdair
Item Location
County - Inverness-shire
Parish - South Uist
Island - South Uist
Language
Gaelic
Genre
Collection
Source Type
Reel to reel
Audio Quality
Good