Catholic religious practices in the Hebridean islands of Benbecula, South Uist, Eriskay and Barra
I recently completed a PhD thesis on the subject of Catholic religious practices in the Hebridean islands of Benbecula, South Uist, Eriskay and Barra. This may be seen by some as a “niche” subject and to make it even more “niche,” the thesis was written in Gaelic. What does this endeavour have to do with “reclaiming the piazza” in regard to Catholicism in Scotland and futher afield?
It is evident that there is a continuing public appetite for content concerning “Celtic Christianity.” One only has to examine the offerings of Christian bookshops to see any number of volumes on the subject. In 2021, a series entitled “Scotland’s Sacred Islands with Ben Fogle” aired on BBC1. A second series was co-produced by the Open University last year and the programme has been syndicated internationally. The BBC2 reality series “Pilgrimage” (2018-) has also dipped its toes in murky “Celtic” waters, with celebrity pilgrims visiting the Hebrides in 2022.
The discourse around this topic, with its talk of “thin places” and images of remote, windswept islands, was heavily influenced by the romanticisation of Gaelic Scotland in the nineteenth and early twentieth century. This context is often overlooked in popular representations of the Hebrides as a uniquely “spiritual” location. My own contribution counters this popular narrative by giving a voice to members of Gaelic-speaking Catholic communities and an opportunity for religious practices in these communities to be viewed as Catholic, rather than “Celtic.” One could argue that this foregrounding of Catholic Hebridean voices is useful as a reminder of the existence of indigenous Scottish Catholicism.