Anne Lorne Gillies

Anne Lorne Gillies – Anna Latharna Nic Gillìosa – is one of the greatest champions of Gaelic culture, a singer who has given concerts across the world, a television personality, author, singing teacher, community arts worker, television and radio producer, academic, educationalist, language activist and above all, an enthusiast who delights in sharing her love for and knowledge of Gaelic song.

Anne was born in Stirling on October 21st, 1944, and inherited her passion for the Gaelic language from both parents, and her musical aptitude from her mother, a cellist whose mother and father were both virtuoso violinists. In 1949 the family moved to a croft on the outskirts of Oban and it was here that Anne’s Gaelic education began, at school with the choir’s annual trips to the National Mòd and at home with the family’s beloved Gaelic-speaking helpmeet, Mrs Catherine Lawrie from South Lochboisdale.

While a pupil at Oban High School she began learning traditional Gaelic songs from the Rector of the school, John Maclean – brother of Sorley. On leaving school in 1962 she won the Mòd Gold Medal before matriculating at Edinburgh University where she studied for an M.A. and also learned many more Gaelic songs from her Celtic tutor, the Rev. William Matheson, a celebrated Gaelic scholar and tradition-bearer. She not only became a regular guest on Gaelic concerts, radio and television programmes, but also appeared regularly at folk clubs and festivals, often in partnership with traditional ballad singer Jimmy MacBeath.

She went on to post-graduate studies at the School of Scottish Studies, had classical vocal training in Siena and London, completed an LRAM in 1966 and a Post-Graduate Certificate in Education at London University the following year: she then worked as a secondary teacher in Oxfordshire till 1971, when her television career took off. Throughout the 1970s and 80s she appeared on network programmes for both the BBC and ITV, hosting her own shows and introducing a wide range of legendary guests – including West Side Story star George Chakiris, Stephane Grappelli, Chic Murray, Fairport Convention, the Chieftains, and Clannad.

Anne was also heavily involved in the movement to promote Gaelic language and culture – both as musician (she was Gaelic Singing Tutor on fèisean and summer schools in Scotland and the USA, notably many happy years on the University of Stirling’s Heritage of Scotland Summer Schools, where her talented students included Karen Matheson and Màiri MacInnes) and as educationalist, helping to establish Gaelic-medium education in primary schools throughout Scotland. After a Primary Conversion course at Jordanhill College she became supply Gaelic-medium teacher for Strathclyde Regional Council, fitting this around a Masters degree course in Multi-cultural Education at Glasgow University, a research project for Sabhal Mòr Ostaig (Popular Attitudes towards Gaelic Education) and the completion, in record time, of a Ph.D at Glasgow (Gaelic-medium primary education in urban contexts). She went on to work as National Gaelic Education Officer for Comann na Gàidhlig; as writer/producer of programmes like Speaking Our Language and Caraidean for Scottish Television, and eventually as Gaelic Lecturer at the University of Strathclyde, helping to train a new generation of Gaelic-medium teachers.

Among the most recent of her many published works and recordings are the CDs White Rose o’ June (the songs of Lady Nairne, 2003), An Long Hirteach (the songs of St Kilda, 2004) and her book Songs of Gaelic Scotland, praised by many as the definitive Gaelic song collection, which was published by Birlinn in 2005 and won the prestigious Ratcliff Prize for “an important contribution by an individual to the study of folklore and folk life in Great Britain and Ireland.” In the same year the Speakers’ Clubs of Great Britain elected her as their UK Speaker of the Year (2005).

She has an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Edinburgh, Honorary Fellowships from the University of the Highlands and Islands, the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland, Rotary International, and the Institute of Scottish Literary Studies; and in 2010 the Scottish Government appointed her their Ambassador for Gaelic. She is extremely grateful to Hands up for Trad for inducting her as a performer into the Traditional Music Hall of Fame (2012) and for recognising her Services to Gaelic in 2022. But her greatest reward of all has undoubtedly been to see her daughters, and latterly two grandsons, enjoying to the full the benefits of Gaelic-medium Education.