Dying estate owner gives £100,000 to Gaelic college

SLG · Dying estate owner gives £100,000 to Gaelic college

Dying estate owner gives £100,000 to Gaelic college
DAVID ROSS, Highland Correspondent

One of the last acts of Scotland's largest foreign landowner is to give more money to help save the Gaelic language from extinction.
Paul van Vlissingen, the Dutch owner of Letterewe estate in Wester Ross, and his partner, Professor Caroline Tisdall, are to donate £100,000 over three years to Sabhal Mor Ostaig, Skye's Gaelic college.
In April, at the age of 64, Mr van Vlissingen, announced that he was dying of pancreatic
cancer. He said he had survived cancer 25 years ago, but this time there was no escape. In June, he flew by helicopter to say a final farewell to Letterewe, which he had bought in 1977.
The college announced yesterday that Mr van Vlissingen and Ms Tisdall's latest donation, in the form of Letterewe scholarships to help those who want to go to Skye to learn the language, will bring their total support to £250,000.
This had allowed five scholarships to be awarded a year, worth around £3000 each, as well as other investments.
The landowner recently explained why he wanted to help the work of Sabhal Mor Ostaig. He had been deeply impressed by the commitment of all those involved, who were seeking to preserve an important aspect of Scottish linguistic and cultural heritage.
"They have recognised the significance of the language in a genuinely holistic way, to the future economic, social, ecological and cultural wellbeing of the area. Sabhal Mor is an institution of huge importance to the future of the language and culture and, for that reason, I am pleased to be able to contribute in some way to its ongoing work."
Ms Tisdall, a writer and film-maker, said yesterday: "These new scholarships will continue to provide support for students who might not otherwise have been able to study at Sabhal Mor.
"At least one will look to assist with a dedicated piece of postgraduate study into the Gaelic cultural heritage of Letterewe itself. I look forward immensely to my ongoing involvement with Sabhal Mor."
Donnie Munro, the former Runrig singer who is Sabhal Mor's director of develop-ment, said yesterday: "This announcement secures the continuation of these important scholarships which have benefited many students since their inception five years ago and brings Paul van Vlissingen's personal financial contributions to Sabhal Mor, in recent years, to £250,000."
Professor Norman Gillies, Sabhal Mor's director, said: "This is a magnificent gesture from Paul van Vlissingen and Caroline Tisdall.
"Quite apart from the significance and helpfulness of the financial contribution itself, and of perhaps equal significance to us, is that it represents a further external validation of the work Sabhal Mor is doing, from two high-profile individuals deeply involved in the funding of many international projects."
Sabhal Mor Ostaig is situated on the Sleat Peninsula in the south-west of Skye. It is one of the constituent colleges of the UHI Millennium Institute which is expected to win full university status next year as the University of the Highlands and Islands.
When Mr van Vlissingen announced his imminent demise in April, he said chemotherapy could only delay the end by a few months, and spoke of how he preferred stoical acceptance of his fate.
"I have only a short time to live. The form of cancer I have cannot be treated. Chemotherapy would merely prolong my life by a couple of months. And what sort of life would that be?
"In the western world, we mistakenly try to keep death at bay. I look to Native Americans instead.
"When they see their death approaching, they visit good friends and family to share happy memories and look back at the good things they experienced together. "Then they die in silence in a place of their own choosing, without fear of what lies ahead."

http://www.theherald.co.uk/news/68096.html

Babygael

och aye,an' didnae he up the stakes again since?

Reluctant Hero

I have actually got a family member who is about to enroll in this college.

The more money made available to preserve Gaelic, the better.