Shinty Exhibition Opens | |
16 October 2015 A unique exhibition detailing shinty’s past, present and future was opened at the award winning Scottish Football Museum at Hampden Park, Glasgow on Friday 16 October 2015. In a partnership that will celebrate the historic links between football and shinty, the stick and ball game is to be showcased for six months in “An Tadhal: The Goal”. The exhibition is being organised by the Camanachd Association in partnership with the Scottish Football Museum. It was formally opened this morning by Eileanan Siar (Western Isles) MP, Angus Brendan MacNeil, himself a former shinty player from his Glasgow University days. The ceremony was chaired by Robert Craig, Chairman of the SFA’s Football Museum at Hampden which is hosting the exhibition. He said, “This exhibition is a first for the Football Museum in that all the objects have been drawn from collections out-with the museum. It is also the first, of what we hope, will be a series of exhibitions linking football to the wider world of sport in Scotland. The exhibition is a visible demonstration of the links being developed through the Sports Heritage Scotland Group, which is designed to encourage cooperation between the national sporting bodies to produce resources that widen the scope of the Museum’s Alzheimer project to other sports.” Speaking on behalf of the Camanachd Association, past-President Archie Robertson said, “This is something special for our sport. Shinty has a long, rich and proud history, and a bright and exciting future. This exhibition provides an opportunity to recognise and celebrate the sport, plus engage a new and wider audience. The Scottish Football Museum is an excellent facility and resource. We are extremely grateful for the opportunity to showcase shinty at Scotland’s National Stadium and for the advice, expertise and support provided by the Museum’s team.” The group which organised the display was led by shinty historian and broadcaster Dr Hugh Dan MacLennan. He said: “The opportunity to hold the exhibition in Hampden arose directly out of our partnership with Alzheimer Scotland and the hugely successful Shinty Memories Project. The first period of the exhibition up until Christmas will focus on our past. Then we will move towards the present and the future and the start of the next playing season. Some of the exhibition will last for six months and some parts of it will be changed and rotated to allow us to show as much as we can of shinty rich heritage.” Many of shinty’s great trophies will be on display on a planned rotation and clubs and Associations within the game are to be offered the opportunity to be part of the six-month long event. Interesting and unusual objects are also being sought for display and clubs views will be sought on the content. The exhibition is strongly bilingual with Gaelic elements throughout, and was supported by Bòrd na Gàidhlig, the national Gaelic development agency. Bòrd na Gàidhlig Head of Gaelic Usage, Daibhidh Boag, said, “In the National Gaelic Language Plan 2012-17, we recognise the importance of promoting the visibility and audibility of Gaelic as a unique part of Scotland’s heritage. This exhibition offers an excellent opportunity to do just that and I’m sure that this will be an excellent showcase for both shinty and Gaelic within one of Scotland’s most iconic sporting venues.” Given shinty’s participation in the Scottish Sporting Heritage network, which is also based at Hampden, the partnership between football and shinty looks set to develop. Many trophies and artefacts on display have rarely been seen in public, and the exhibition includes significant collections of memorabilia and medals from throughout the shinty community. Hugh Dan MacLennan added, “With many sporting bodies and clubs in Scotland now co-operating through the Sports Heritage Scotland network as well as the Alzheimer Scotland reminiscence project, this exhibition signifies the beginning of an expansion of all these partnerships into new areas. We hope that schools and young groups in particular will make use of this facility as it covers all of Scotland.” |