Representatives of the Alba Branch of the League were invited to meet with Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP), Frank McAveety, this week as part of the Scottish Labour Party's formulation of an agenda for sports policy in Scotland.

Mr McAveety's, who is the MSP for Glasgow Baillieston, invited representatives of the League to further discuss how the Scottish sport of shinty can be better promoted and funded in Scotland, following a campaign that the League has been running on the promotion of the sport.

The Scottish Branch Secretary, Iain Ramsey, Ray Bell and a representative of the Camanachd Association (CA), Duncan Cameron, met with Mr McAveety, and discussed in depth, plans for the future promotion of the sport.

Reporting back to the League on the discussions, Ray Bell said that they were reassured that Mr McAveety had a genuine interest in the promotion of all sports and not just the more widely played sports, like football. Mr Bell added:

"The new Active Scotland plan for schools says that pupils are going to have to be taught a variety of sports at school, and if it is implemented properly, this should benefit shinty."

"There is possibly going to be a demonstration shinty match at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. I am no fan of the Commonwealth for political reasons, but I suppose this could be a good thing, because it will publicise the sport."

"It should be noted that McAveety has a vested interest in this, as the best ground in Glasgow for this is Anniesland, which is in his constituency."

"A key point that was not emphasised [at the meeting] is the social, cultural and heritage value of shinty. Its uniqueness must be emphasised. Although several major sports (golf, curling, rugby sevens) originate in Scotland, all of these have substantial support from international bodies such as the Olympic Committee, IRB, and major businesses. Shinty is very much rooted within certain communities such as Skye, Rothesay and Kingussie, in a way that more commercial sports often aren't. As such it is a key ingredient of Scottish culture, as are more obvious features such as kilts and bagpipes, or less prominent ones such as the Gaidhlig language or certain styles of architecture."

"It also has to be emphasised that shinty once had a much larger range. It was pointed out during the meeting that shinty is recorded as being played in Glasgow in 1589, which puts it centuries ahead of nearly everything else apart from golf. Rather like the Gaidhlig language, I think until it is public knowledge that it had a far larger range (from Caithness down into northern England, and St Kilda to East Lothian and the Borders in the case of shinty), it will not expand."

In his report, Mr Bell explained that Duncan Cameron informed those present that he had given MSPs a talk on the sport round about ten years ago in the National Museum, when the Scottish Parliament was relatively new. However, the Alba Branch representatives said that they believed that there had not specifically been a debate about shinty held within the parliament before and that this was something that they would now push for, in cooperation with the President of their branch, Rob Gibson MSP. Mr Bell said that although Duncan Cameron commented at the meeting that funding for the sport had an increase by 10% each year through schools, it was disappointing that he did not suggest increasing the funding further. However Mr Cameron's comments on the growth of women's shinty were encouraging for the branch, which, he explained, the CA had been encouraged to develop due to Sport Scotland's diversity programme. Mr Bell continued in his report:

"It was pointed out by the representatives that there is also the problem of media coverage, which I'm not sure we can completely address. Mr Cameron mentioned BBC Alba, but I pointed out that most of us can't receive that channel (it's free, but you have to have a Sky subscription!)"

Mr bell explained that it was felt at branch level that

"Every political party should have a policy on shinty, or at least name check it in their sports policy….While we are coming at this from a nationalist perspective, it will need to have support from Unionist politicians, as we did with the language act."

The Alba branch said that their next step is to try to push the issue further so that, in addition to a debate being held in the Scottish Parliament, the issue eventually becomes cross party in nature, so that each political party in Scotland develops a specific policy on the sport of shinty. The branch also commented that it would like to see the other traditional sports in the Celtic countries e.g. cammag and Cornish hurling, promoted further within their respective countries.

(Article compiled by Rhisiart Tal-e-bot)

J B Moffatt Director of Information Celtic League

27/05/09

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