Riddoch on the Outer Hebrides by Lesley Riddoch sampler

Foreword
Lesley <strong>Riddoch</strong>, as her company name proudly boasts, is a feisty woman.
This is underlined by her cycle through the Outer Hebrides in summer
2006. By way of contrast, I first cycled round my own native Barra on Easter
Sunday 2015, with just one repeat trip. I have known Lesley for many years
since we both met on the Island of Eigg sometime last century. Lesley shares
with me the feeling that islands are probably the best place a person can live
– but in Gaelic, there is a proverb, Is math an sgàthan sùil caraid. In English,
‘A friend’s eye makes a great mirror.’ I know that Lesley <strong>Riddoch</strong> is just such a
friend to the Hebrides, and sensibly, she is not an uncritical friend. She will, as
she’s demonstrated on radio many times, hold up a mirror that reveals warts
as well as beauty. Her observations, comments and analysis have rearranged
my mental furniture. Her book is ultimately an act of social consultancy – I
don’t agree with everything and she’d be shocked if I did. She is not a Gaelic
speaker but has an awareness of the language’s importance. Which is a great
asset amongst English-speaking social commentators. Because we are at a
crossroads in the islands linguistically.
We have to face up to the fact that we are living in the last area of the Gaelic
language on Earth. Only a minority of children reach school speaking Gaelic but
happily many more attend Gaelic medium education today, as the advantages
of bilingualism are more widely recognised. We must be positive and nurture
all that’s good about our islands to avoid becoming ‘dead end’ Gaelic speakers,
where the vernacular and perspectives of 50 island generations stall on our
tongues. Look at the Faroe Islands – perhaps the most successful island group
in the world with a 10 per cent population growth in the last decade, islands
linked by tunnels, and world leading broadband speeds. Despite this though,
many Faroese see the resurrection of their own language as the most important
driver of progress.
Crofting is also changing. Crofts earn very little but change hands for
shocking sums of money – out of reach for most young locals. Change is
needed, and I’d suggest that one person should not have more than one
crofting tenancy (with perhaps several grazing rights) to democratise access
to land. House building grants should also be divorced from the croft and
become a general rural housing grant.
In 2022 you can finally access the world from a croft. I’m as well wired
to current events in Barra as I am in my Westminster office thanks to BT
Broadband. The pandemic has changed work practices and led to increased
demand for island and rural life. That’s a good problem to have, but only if
there’s room for all – not just the highest bidders.
I’m grateful that someone I admired long before I met her has (again) asked
me to write the foreword to her book. One thing I can be certain of – Lesley
<strong>Riddoch</strong> will always argue a position with the best interests of the islands at heart.
That won’t stop respectful disagreement. But at least the debate will be feisty.
Angus Brendan MacNeil, MP Na h-Eileanan an Iar
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