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Flora MacNeil is one of the important sources of Scots Gaelic song. A native of the Island of Barra, Floras characteristic and personal style adds to rather than distorts the essential virtues of her ancient Hebridean heritage. In short she is one of the great singers of the world.
Born and brought up in Barra, she learned most of her songs from her mother but also from her aunt and uncle, Mary and Neil Gillies. They in turn learnt from their mother, Cairistiona Gillies, a native of Mingulay who moved to Barra in the late 1880s.
Flora writes: "Traditional songs tended to run in families and I was fortunate that my mother and her family had a great love for the poetry and the music of the old songs. It was natural for them to sing, whatever they were doing at the time or whatever mood they were in. My aunt Mary, in particular, was always ready, at any time I called on her, to drop whatever she was doing, to discuss a song with me, and perhaps, in this way, long forgotten verses would be recollected. So I learned a great many songs at an early age without any conscious effort.
As is to be expected on a small island, so many songs deal with the sea, but, of course, many of them may not originally be Barra songs. Nevertheless the old songs were preserved more in the southermost islands of Barra and South Uist possibly because the reformed church tended to discourage music elsewhere."
Flora sings only the traditional Gaelic songs and she always sings them unaccompanied. She gives regular recitals on both radio and TV and has taken part in the Edinburgh Festival on several occasions. She has also performed songs from the island of St Kilda at the Royal Festival Hall in London". |
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