Watch the spectacularly scenic video for Feum thu a ràdh a rithist which is also our Song of the Day. The song is taken from Gillebrìde MacMillan‘s new Gaelic album Freumhan Falaichte (Hidden Roots) which Donald MacNeill reviewed here for Folk Radio UK. He concluded that Freumhan Falaichte was “…an enormously significant album in the Scottish folk scene and for Gaelic music. The writing poignant, the music inventive and passionate…the singing powerful but sensitive and the production faultless.”
Gillebrìde MacMillan offers the following introduction to Feum thu a ràdh a rithist, the video for which you can watch below.
My grand-uncle fought in World War 1 and when I was young we’d go to visit him. He’d sometimes tell of the suffering of war. A century on, we still have wars raging throughout the world – if leaders knew first hand of the suffering caused by war, maybe they wouldn’t be so gung-ho about commencing battle.
Bha Seòras Nìll, bràthair mo sheanar, a’ sabaid anns a’ Chiad Chogadh agus nuair a bha mi òg bhiomaid a’ dol a chèilidh air ann an Dalabrog. Bhiodh e uaireannan ag innse mu na h-uabhasan a chunnaic agus a dh’fhuiling e fhèin agus na mìltean eile an sin. Ach, tha cogadh fhathast againn agus nam biodhte ag èisteachd riuthasan a chunnaic agus a dh’fhuiling, ’s dòcha nach biodh dùthchannan agus ceannardan cho deònach a dhol gu cogadh buileach cho luath.