Good evening to you all and I hope you are well. I’d like to extend a warm welcome to you all to the Gaelic Awards 2023!

Gaelic belongs to everyone. It already enriches the daily lives of the people of Scotland and beyond. It creates benefits, both social and economic, and increases wellbeing for Gaelic users, learners and supporters, across Scotland and internationally.

We’re here this year, as part of World Gaelic Week, to celebrate some of the people and organizations who work hard within Gaelic and we’re so fortunate to have so many of them among us.

This is the tenth year of the Gaelic Awards and we have made a few changes to the award categories. We will see a new Award for the Content Creator of the Year, an award for Gaelic in Sport and the annual awards such as Young Ambassador of the Year and Lifetime Achievement Award.

There is a lot of work going on in Gaelic and that is growing every year. That is clearly evident as we have received the most nominations this year!

I am sure that we will have a great night together as we celebrate the Gaelic language, contribute to the normalization of the Gaelic language and maintain the wonderful work that is going on in the world through Gaelic.

Mairi MacInnes, Chair, Bòrd na Gàidhlig

Cathy Macdonald

Dàimh

Forging the sound of the New Tradition, Dàimh are West Highland Music’s proudest exponents.

Dàimh, the Gaelic word for Connection, perfectly describes the electrifying musical interplay between the individual band members and portrays the interaction with audiences attending their breath-taking live shows around the world.

It also translates as the connection to the deep musical well from which they draw their inspiration. On the Scottish music scene the name Dàimh has come to represent a sound of a time and place a musical integrity that many strive to emulate.

Formed over 20 years ago the band have embodied the current wave of resurgence in Gaelic culture; the current line up includes younger musicians that have progressed through the thriving Fèisean movement and Gaelic medium education system and joined the 3 remaining founding members to continue the cycle of the tradition.

Recent achievements include receiving the MG ALBA Folk Band of the Year Award in 2015 and 2018 and passing the halfway mark on their career ambition of performing on every populated Scottish Island.