Stirling Provincial Mod

The choir went up to Stirling last weekend to compete in the little Mod there!  Lots of places hold provincial Mods and it’s up to the individual choirs which ones they attend!  We do Stirling and Mull, and of course the National Mod in October – this year in Stornoway, in the Western Isles. 

Anyway the Stirling Mod was a wee mod, with only a handful of choirs competing.  I’m not sure how many individual singers were competing in competitions, but Ceitidh (Katie)  won a cup, as did Linn.  This is Ceitidh looking very happy with herself!  Ceitidh used to sing with the choir when she lived in Edinburgh, but as she has now moved to Inverness she has become a part time member of the choir, singing with us when she can. What’s more, she brings her mum and grandad along too sometimes!!!  We made history at the National Mod last year having three generations of the same family in the choir!  Barbara, her mum, sang with us at Stirling.  

Here we are, on stage in the ballroom at the Golden Lion Hotel, doing our bit!  Sad to say, we didn’t win!  When the GGs (Glasgow Gaelic Choir) and Cumbernauld are around, they win the honours!  However we did OK!  Didn’t disgrace ourselves at all – and we enjoyed it!  I put this photo into a scrapbook page, using a kit that my friend Mary designed. 

The ballroom was rather nice.  You can get an idea of it from this picture of the Stirling choir from behind a painted pillar – yes, it does look like marble but it isn’t!  The hotel, pictured at the beginning, dates back to 1786, so I can imagine this was the scene of many a Georgian assembly – just think of  Scottish Elizabeth Bennets and Mr D’Arcy’s et al,  dancing their contredanses – country dances - and quadrilles!

After the competitions some of us walked up the road and round the corner to a nice little Italian restaurant where we had an excellent meal, a few glasses of vino and an occasional impromptu sing – in Gaelic rather than Italian – before returning to the ballroom for the end of Mod ceilidh (kayli), where dancing and singing was the order of the evening.

 

 

The few final stragglers from the choir caught the last train back to Edinburgh, some not managing to stay awake during the journey, and made our way home from Waverley Station, round about midnight.  I stayed overnight at Jackie’s  - our choir conductor’s - as the last bus to Peebles had long gone…… and despite the copious amounts of wine and whisky drunk during the previous night, there were no headaches  in the morning as we tucked into bacon rolls and mugs of tea for breakfast.  

Talk again soon.