CELTIC REVIEW & PHOTOS 2026

 

Fiona Hunter and the Scottish Symphony orchestra

Record breaking Celtic Connections delivers message of hope and unity to the world

Its usually hard to decide, as there are so meny concerts on over the festivals weekends, which concerts to attend. The opening night this year celebrated the over 200 artists from Europe and worldwide who will perform at Celtic Connections. Through diverse, contemporary  traditional, electic, national and roots music. The festival brings people together people from different places, cultures, backgrounds, traditional – to explore and expand our musical horizons. 

This year I decided to attend Friday’s concert which brought together the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and outstanding singers with new orchestral commissions for a celebration of Scots traditional ballads, brought to a deeper resonance. singers of traditional ballads were acclaimed Scots folk singers - Karine Polwart, Kris Drever, Lori Watson, Janice Burns with Jon Doran, Emily Smith, Fiona Hunter.  

 

Celtic Connections is Europe’s leading winter and roots music festival, it certainly chases away those winter blues! I was thrilled to attend several high quality and wonderful concerts this year. There are many concerts I might wish to have attended – Mother Tongue, Celebration of Gaelic song, Capercaillie, Jacob Jolliff, and many more. 

Scots legend Dick Gaughan Celebrated!

**The highlight for me at CC this year was the celebration of Scots folk legend Dick Gaughan. He is a voice of deep humanity in our present dark world. This was the most emotional Celtic concert I have been to, over my twenty years attending and doing photos! Testament to Dick’s fame and widespread appeal among legends of the folk music scene, several had travelled far and wide to perform tonight from Ireland, England and Scotland, to perform Gaughan’s well loved songs. Many has also sent messages. 

 

I first heard Dick Gaughan in the 70s at the Police folk club Edinburgh. A musician friend raved about how incredible and distinctive his guitar playing was. Many years later (after being in America for nearly ten years) I heard Gaughan again at Milngavie Folk club in 2007. This was an intimate gig where his chat and stories between songs while he tuned his guitar, was worth going for alone. In his own distinctive voice, Gaughan hammers and speaks with his acoustic guitar.

Gaughan brought many of the traditional Irish and Scots Celtic songs to new life. I’d never heard Robert Burns Westlin Winds before Gaugan introduced this as one of the best songs ever written. He searched through the Scottish national archives for the best traditional ballads. Like Burns and Dylan before him Gaughan has been a genius song collector and remaker of the old songs. He drew on his Scots and Irish traditions to develop his song craft and performance. 

Julie Fowlis and SCO

Another highlight was the excellent Irish Scots folk trad music at the concert with Julie Fowlis with SCO at Celtic Connections 2026 – with their well-crafted songs. Julie has a clear musicality, along with her husband Irish bouzouki (Greek mandolin) player Emanon Doorley and now partnered with Irish fiddler and Gaelic singer Zoe Conway and Irish musician John McIntyre.    The quartet’s 2024 ALLT albums captures their authentic traditional music with that impactful live vibe and a cohesive sound: with soaring pipes, fiddles, melodies, dynamic rhythm guitar, the emotional solo voice, and the collective and caressing soothing vocal harmonies. They played the range and depth of traditional music – and the long roots between Irish and Scottish music. Both intimate and powerful. All performers were clearly thrilled to have the impact and range of the SCO behind them, to enrich their music with strings, percussions, wind instruments. Creatively conducted by David Brophy.

Karen Matheson

The Celtic roots celebration returned for its 31^st year at Celtic Connections music festival. Transatlantic Sessions is one of the highlights of Celtic Connections music festival, with both the familiar tunes and the new. TS brings together the deep connections between Irish, Scots and American music. Its a special blend of the churning rhythms of bluegrass, country, the fine Scots melodies, jigs and reels and the haunting Irish Gaelic song. This year we were treated to a quality range of performers – from America, Kathy Mattea, and Darrell Scott: from Scotland Karine Polwart and from Ireland Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh. 

Like a musical river from Tennessee to Nashville to west Kerry, than to Shetland and to Pathhead Midlothian. As Mattea described, the colourful, one off collaborating at Celtic Connections lead to arteries “like the roots of a tree that lead to different accents – and make the collaborating more sweet.” Like a fascinating patchwork quilt with the variety and range of musical styles and genres that challenge and add musical colour to our lives.

This has been another hugely successful festival to chase away the winter blues.

Darrell Scott

Kathy Mattea

Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh

 16^th  Friday -  BBC Orchestra, Beyond the Tradition

 

17^th Saturday -  Celebration of Gaelic song

 

18^th Sunday –  True and Bold:  A Night for Dick Gaughan

 

21^st Wednesday  - Julie Fowlis & Scottish Chamber orchestra

 

23^rd Friday – Capercaillie 

 

23^rd Friday - Jacob Jolliff

 

29^th Thursday  -  Shooglenifty

 

1^st February – Transatlantic Sessions

Kris Drever

Record breaking Celtic Connections delivers message of hope and unity to the world =  Celtic Connections music festival 2026 celebrated several sell out live performances, record-breaking ticket sales and unique events, sending a message of hope and unity around the world about the power of music, cultural identity and collaboration.

More than 1,600 artists over 300 events at 25 venues across in Glasgow - Scotland’s largest live music city. This year’s event recorded over 200 sell outs, compared to 125 in 2025. With attendances of 114,000 across 18 days - with the highest ever number of tickets sold in the event’s 33-year history - cementing its place as the biggest winter festival of traditional, roots and world music on the planet.  Artists from 35 countries, included Palestine, Iraq, Ukraine, Mexico, Cuba, Brazil, Gambia, Mali, Senegal, Sweden, Norway, Ireland and the United States.

 

Ceilidhs and family events proved popular, with 637 participants taking part in music and song workshops. Four free concerts welcomed 7,000 children and young people from across Scotland to the Glasgow Concert Hall. With performances from Sian, DLÙ, Celtic Fandango and Ímar. Since 1999, more than 300,000 children and young people have benefited from the festival’s learning programme.

  

The last night’s programme, included the BBC Radio Scotland Young Traditional Musician of the Year final, the Danny Kyle Open Stage, Transatlantic Sessions and a performance from three-time Grammy winner Lucinda Williams, concluded the first major event in a busy year for Glasgow in 2026. 

 

Showcase Scotland shone a light on participants from Quebec, along with a wealth of homegrown talent, With international delegates attending from 24 nations for five days of top performances and networking opportunities.

 

The festival is delivered by Glasgow Life in partnership with Innis & Gunn. Celtic Connections is supported by the Scottish Government’s Festivals EXPO Fund and Creative Scotland.

Glasgow will also host WOMAD for the first time in July, the 2026 Commonwealth Games and the Royal National Mòd in October.

 

Alan Morrison, Head of Music at Creative Scotland said: “Scotland’s trad and folk artists were at full strength every single day during Celtic Connections 2026. Tradition bearers were honoured, new stars were born, and Scotland’s music proved yet again that it contains the very best the world has to offer. This was a particularly strong year for international artists too, as the festival celebrated different global cultures, bringing voices together in harmony, not discord, and creating music without borders.”

 

Celtic Connections Creative Director Donald Shaw said: “Such a unique coming together of performers as a global family sends a powerful message about the strength of music, cultural identity and collaboration, especially at a time when the world can feel more fragmented than ever."

“From the Drygate to Donbas, Byres Road to Baghdad, Candleriggs to Palestine, these past incredible days have been forged in friendship, fortitude and the freedom to express ourselves through song, dance and performance, filled with hope, inspiration and togetherness.  “From unforgettable headline moments to seeing artists step onto a Celtic Connections stage for the very first time, we have been united by the music and that is a legacy that will thrive long after the lights have dimmed. With the extraordinary support of our funders and partners, colleagues, venues, audiences and incredible volunteers, this is a festival built by passion and people, celebrating a rich cultural tapestry, musical pioneers and songwriting greats."

 

“To see audiences turn out in such record numbers through a cold and wet winter month is the most fitting tribute we could hope for, and I would like to thank everyone involved for making our 33rd edition so memorable, as we already begin the exciting work of looking ahead to what comes next.” 

Skara Brae Orkney

Skara Brae & Skaill house

The absolutely spectacular Neolithic village of Skara Brae

 

 lies nestled in Skaill Bay, Orkney.

This historic site was only discovered in 1850, when a storm uncovered the round mounds covered in grass. Visitors can see how people this long ago lived, over 5,000 years ago.

 

Skara Brae is a remarkably well-preserved Neolithic village in the Orkney Islands, off the north coast of Scotland. It's considered one of the best-preserved Neolithic sites in Northern Europe and provides a unique glimpse into life 5,000 years ago. The site features eight houses linked by a subterranean passageway, showcasing stone-built furniture like beds and dressers. 

 

At over 5,000 years young, it predates both the Great Pyramids of Giza and Stonehenge. From around 3100 BC to 2500 BC, this remarkable site was home to generations of people for more than 600 years.

In the distance stands Skaill House, the ancestral home of William Graham Watt, 7th Laird of Breckness. It was he who, following a powerful storm in 1850, uncovered what remains one of the most significant archaeological discovery of our time.

 

#oflowerofscotland #SkaraBrae #Orkney #Neolithic #AncientHistory #Scotland— at Skara Brae.

British Peerages and Titles

 

The British House of Lords is the second biggest unelected second chamber in the world – after China! Britain’s archaic constitution of 1690. Britain is an outlier in Europe – the only nation that continues to give nobility privileges such as tax avoidance. 

 

Is Britain the only nation that continues to revere and believe in a hierarchy with the monarch at the top? In Great Britain, nobility and titles are part of the peerage, which is a social class of titled people who share in the responsibility of government. The five ranks of British nobility, in descending order of precedence, are:

 

·       Duke: The highest and most exclusive rank

·       Marquess: The second most senior rank

·       Earl: The third rank

·       Viscount: The fourth rank

·       Baron: The lowest rank 

Titles can be hereditary or granted. Until 1999, peers were exempt from jury duty and entitled to sit in the House of Lords. Some things to know about British nobility and titles include

French Revolution!

 

**France – There is no nobility, its legal status was abolished 1789, while there are titles with no privileges.

There is no such thing as nobility in France today. French courts have held that the concept of nobility is incompatible with the equality of all citizens before the law proclaimed in the Declaration of the Rights of Man, part of the Constitution of 1958. There are titles, which are considered part of the legal name, and entitled to the same protections in French civil and criminal courts, even though they give no privilege or precedence (the way they do in Great Britain). Regulation of titles is carried out by a bureau of the Ministry of Justice. The President has ceased to confer or confirm titles, but the French state still verifies them,  civil courts can protect them, criminal courts can prosecute their abuse.

 

History - 

1.     the abolition of feudalism and privileges in 1789, which did away with the legal status of nobility,

2.     the restoration of titles in 1808 by Napoleon, and their confirmation by the successive monarchical regimes until 1870

3.     the fact that the successive republican regimes have never passed any laws on the subject of titles.

The Revolution did away with nobility and titles, titles were restored (not nobility), and the Republic has not done anything about titles. French nobiliary law is mostly based on court cases. At present, titles have not been abolished. The final establishment of a Republic in 1875 left them in a kind of limbo, and it took a succession of court cases to define the jurisprudence, which is now well established. 

 

 

*Germany  - Abolished the legal recognition of nobility in 1919, while titles are still used. The Weimar Constitution of 1919 removed legal privileges and disadvantages of birth or rank. Current status - Titles of nobility are only valid as part of a name and may no longer be conferred.

 

August 1919, at the beginning of Weimer Republic (1918 – 1933) Germany's new constitution abolished royalty and nobility, and the respective legal privileges and immunities appertaining to an individual, a family or any heirs. Today, German nobility is no longer conferred by the Federal Republic of Germany (1949–present), and constitutionally the descendants of German noble families do not enjoy legal privileges.The Nobility of the German Empire was similar to nobility of the Austrian empire developed during the Holy Roman Empire and both ended in 1919 when they were abolished, and legal status and privileges were revoked.

 

*Austria - In 1919, Austrian nobility was abolished under the First Austrian Republic (1919–1934) and the and legal recognition of hereditary titles and aristocratic particles and use as part of surnames was banned. Today, Austrian nobility is no longer conferred by the Republic of Austria (1945–present), and the official use of noble titles, is a minor offence under Austrian law for Austrian citizens

 

* Denmark - The Danish constitution of 1849 stripped the nobility of its privileges, though the titles remained.

History - The Danish nobility was granted social, economic, and political privileges in the 16th century in exchange for their military service to the king. Some of the families still own and reside in castles or country houses. A minority of nobles still belong to the elite and they can be guests at royal events, are objects of media coverage, for example Kanal 4s TV hostess Caroline Fleming née Baroness Luel-Brockdorff. Some of them own and manage companies or have leading positions within business, banking, diplomacy and NGOs

 

 

*Holland – After Constitutional reform 1848 the privileges of the Dutch nobility were abolished and they lost their constitutional roles. The only privileges they were alllowed were titles and coats of arms. They became civilians with a noble title. Nobility became a small elite class consisting of families recognized as noble, and with or without a title in the Kingdome of the Netherlands

Ode to Joy

 

Beethoven’s ‘Ode to Joy’ was written in 1823 - and took Beethoven 30 years to write. This year is its 200 anniversary. The last choral section was based on a Fredrich Schillers poem 1785. By then aged 55, Beethoven was deaf. 'We wanted to erase inequality.'    

 

Beethoven Ninth symphony premiered in Vienna – not only for the elites, but for all people. He cut ticket prices. The chorus rises, evoking revolution – that all people will be brothers. 

 

Amid calls for Reform in turbulent times of Revolutions. Burns A Mans a Man, or Tom Paine’s

The music has been a rallying cry for social reformers  - from Karl Marx, to Hitler to Stalin. 

 

"Ode to Joy" 

(literally "To the Joy") is an ode written in the summer of 1785 by German poet, playwright, and historian 

Fredrich Schiller and published the following year in Thalia. A slightly revised version appeared in 1808, changing two lines of the first and omitting the last stanza.

"Ode to Joy" is best known for its use by Ludwig van Beethoven in the final (fourth) movement of his Ninth symphony, completed in 1824 and premiered in Vienna. Beethoven’s text is not based entirely on Schiller's poem, and it introduces a few new sections. His tune (but not Schiller's words) was adopted as the Anthem by the council fo Europe.  of Europe in 1972 and subsequently by the EU.  

 

Positives for a Free Scotland II

Recently I’ve had a health issue, and had to have various procedures and scans to access the problem and now another wait. Then a pre-op. As I read of the consultants and junior doctors continued strikes in England over pay and conditions, and the NHS there being eroded and under-funded. I am very grateful to live in Scotland and that I don’t have to worry that consultants or doctors are on strike here. Its bad enough waiting a week for test results.  

I’m glad my three grown-up children don’t have huge levels of student debt to pay off. I’m glad that Scotland is at least trying to protect health care for all and the NHS. I’m glad that under Alex Salmond, Scotland developed it’s renewable potential. I’m also grateful that Sturgeon prioritised babies, nursery and childcare - with baby boxes and a child payment uplift, because she recognised that you can forget the next fifteen years at school if children get off to a bad start in life. 

 

I’m glad Scotland wants to protect food safety (but worry we won’t be “allowed” to).  Yes the Scottish government made errors over the ferry procurement – but at the same time the Queensferry crossing was a success story. I’m certainly grateful to live in a Scotland where most people prioritise a well being economy, where all children deserve fair opportunities; where people value equality and a greener Scotland. The trouble is Scotland doesn’t have the levers to achieve this or a modern democracy - all it can do under the devolved settlement is to tinker at the edges.

 

In a federal state the central government has clearly defined roles – federal roads, foreign police – and they don’t have to “allow’ the states to do anything! This confusing and unworkable devolved UK system is a mess and not used anywhere else. In a federal state the central government doesn’t “allow” the states broadcasting rights, immigration laws, or vat rates. Each state has its own laws for starters. I lived several years in Chicago and it surprised me greatly, that major decisions were made at the local level. (while things in the US are not perfect by any means). I also didn’t realise back then I should be a proud Scot. So many Scots are ignorant of our own heritage and history. 

 

The UK system is like a parent/ child – where Whitehall will only 'allow' the Scottish people certain rights, over our own lives if it so chooses. The British state since inception, has been fixated on centralized control, of supposed “stability” of the Crown in Parliament.

 

I’m proud Scotland has leading universities and innovative scientists, I’m proud Scotland has major international festivals and a successful creative community of artists and musicians. I’m proud Scotland has a wealth of resources – whisky, quality food, and the potential to be a world leader in renewables. 

 

Even while most Scots want better equality and democracy, we don’t have the devolved levers tover the economy o achieve this – and sadly Scotland is one of the most unequal and exploited nations in the developed world. Like many Scots I wasn’t taught to be a proud Scot at school - but to feel second rate to London and its history. Just as in Northern Ireland where children are taught about English rivers, but not about their own Irish rivers!

 

The union believes in a mono-global culture. In the 1800s European countries realised to harness their real potential they must have national renewal and national aspiration and the map of Europe changed from huge empires to the small nations of today. Scotland must join this Europe of sovereign, free nations. In order to shape and control our future destiny.

 

We can still share security and co-operate on defence with rUK, independence just means that Scots voices have a say and not just a tiny Tory elite.

Declaration of Arbroath on display

 

The Declaration of Arbroath was on display at the national museums of Scotland in June 2023, 

the first time in 18 years. It is a foundational document in European and American thought.

 

The declaration was a letter from the barons and wider community to the Pope in support of Robert the Bruce’s claim to the Scottish crown, and argues for Scottish sovereignty and question of national identity.

 

Bruce had been excommunicated by the Pope in Rome because he had murdered John Conwyn. The English crown was more influential at the time and had more power, but the scots were persistent. 

The document was drawn up in times of great turmoil. After the death of the Scots king Alexander in   1296. 

 

The wording came from the scholar Duns Scotus and his political theory of freedoms of all people – and was not limited to the barons. The words were also borrowed from the Roman historian Salas. 

During the Second World War, this document was used to recognise the rights of the countries in Europe that the Nazis were trampling over. 

 

Tartan Day set up in 1998, in honour of the declaration and takes place on the date it was signed.  Both James Wilson and John Witerspoon, American founding fathers, quoted the declaration. It also had a influence on Presbyterian and Covenanters. 

 

The document has an effect on the present day constitutional arguments over Scotland’s right to self- determination – while it is also a document with wider political significance. 

Tom Nairn why Scotland missed the European national revival 1800s

 

 

Tom Nairn why Scotland missed the European national revival 1800s

 

Scotland’s greatest political theorist of the modern times. 

Tom Nairn’s brilliant Break Up of Britain (1977), is one of the best reads on how and why the archaic institutions of the British state and its pre-democracy are failing us. How Scotland lost its way and its literary voice over the 1800s and of the fake tartanry of Walters Scott’s novels, of a Scotland that’s lost and can never return - “the heart regrets, but never the head.” Of the destructive and false nature of the Labour party. 

 

He writes on why Scottish nationalism is different to the rest of Europe. 

“All I’m arguing for is nations, minus the dratted “ism”; democratic natural, independent, diverse, ordinary, even boring rather than the museum pieces, or dictatorship or hustlers like Blair of Berlusconi.” Tom Nairn, Free worlds End, opendemocracy, Dec 4^th 2004. 

 

Nairn writes of the misfit of the British state to the modern world and not from the express of romantic tartanry, which the author excoriates – and the centrality of the nation in political change. 

That the Scottish Enlightenment was very much a Tory project. While Scotland prospered during the 1800s with manufacturing, its literary voice became bereft. He sees Walter Scott’s work of a mythical Scotland and Scots heroes, as very much glorifying a past that was gone and to be forgotten. Scotland became north Britain. While Scott’s romantic and mythical novels were highly successful across the world. 

**Those Myths of Blood and spirit, such as Jacobites, Rob Roy, Robert the Bruce.

Nationalism, Nairn argues is always both good and bad. ’ And originated from that derived in – the impossibility of escape from the uneven development of capitalism.’ Nationalism is not a question of simple identity, but rather of something more – a catalyst. Nearly all modern nations have a myth – a key to their nationalism and regeneration. But not England… :with an astonishing resistance of a fossilised and incompetent political order.  

“England’s peculiar form of nationalism  hopelessly stultifying inheritance of the state.…The main character of English history since 1688 “of which English ideology most proud is, her conditional and parliamentary revolution. “

“the mobilising myth of nationalism is an idea of the people … an emotive notion anchored in popular experience of love” – the revolution, war of liberation.”

 

He writes, “What counts is later mass beliefs. These are amplified into an inheritance, broadcast in ballads, written into documentary history text-books, novelized, sermonised and institutionalized into street-names and statues. From the process there derives an always latent conviction of popular will and capacity. That the people could always do it again.” 

 

**By contrast in Europe 1800s, nationalism took hold with the demise of empires, and the rise of nation states. “Only one country “stepped over before the Europe of 1800s – Scotland politics and culture was decisively and permanently altered by the great awaking of nationalist consciousness – Scotland or north Britain …due to the uneven development of capitalism. “

 

“After the black the unspeakable 17^th century was 1688 which marked the real dawn of Scotland, after the dark bloodshed years of religious conflicts across Europe. – William Robertson, in his book History of Scotland. When the Scottish bourgeoisie exploited the results of the English revolution. Scotland progressed from fortified castles and witch burning, to Edinburgh new town and Adam Smith in only a generation:”

Highlander Adam Fergusson, saw this contrast around him. “The Highlands were under-developed and didn’t have pre-requisite for nationalist existence. The Highland life was destroyed after 1745. The Scottish Enlightenment ended early 1800s. The Scottish literary tradition paused 1825 – 1860. Instead there was the Industrial Scotland of Glasgow-Edinburgh- Dundee – engineering, shipbuilding and iron stone. 

Scotland reverted to being a province in the 1800s Victorian times, while prosperous and imperial.  Why – because of the absence of political nationalism and a literary voice. The Scottish bourgeoisies pre-possessed the country’s distinctive and proto-national features – they believed in a universal and enlightened civilization .Therefore Scotland remained stuck betwixt and between - too much a nation to be a mere province, yet it could not develop into a nation-state on the basis either via nationalism. 

Nationalism, Nairn argues is always both good and bad. ’ And originated from that derived in – the impossibility of escape from the uneven development of capitalism.’

There is a duty to progressive England to positively urge Scotland onto independence in Europe.

England-Britain where, perhaps because Westminster no longer has a genuine interior life that links to public self-belief, almost everything that is political is unauthentic.

 

”national-democratic character of the need our self-government to ensure meaning on self-belief.”

Nairns approach is both international and rooted in Scotland and he wrote for the new left review London. He explores the nature of nationalism. In UK more confused by the overlay of British-ness, a nationalism without a nation. His case of Scottish independence advocated becoming LIKE other countries. The self-abasement of the union.

A Future???   A British isles or federation, confederation or modernised multi-national states.’

**DONATE to the conference to celebrate the work of Tom Nairn, organised by Peter McColl (Scottish Greens) , Janice Maxwell (co-editor), Pat Kane, Joyce Macmillan, Anthony Barnett (English democracy activist)

 

His most famous BOOK Tom Nairn’s brilliant The Break up of Britain 1977, is well worth reading and one of the best reads on the archaic nature of the British states’ pre-democracy. https://www.thenational.scot/politics/23475146.impact-tom-nairn-great-let-slip-quietly-away/

The most influential book on British politics to be published in the last half century,”  writes Anthony Burnett