We are delighted to announce Róisín Gallagher’s ‘What Will We Lose If We Continue to Discourage the Use of Scots?’ as the winner of this quarter’s John Byrne Award!

WHAT WILL WE LOSE IF WE CONTINUE TO DISCOURAGE THE USE OF SCOTS?

By Róisín Gallagher

My aim is to get people more comfortable and acquainted with Scots and through my art practice I address the taught self-hatred we have towards the way we talk. My work explores and supports the recognition of Scots as a language and hopes to address damage done by school systems that brought up the generations before mine. The Scots language has been discouraged from being spoken for the past 300 years since its definition as a “provincial dialect”, often described as “Bad English” by means of implying that the speaker is of a lower class. Scots speakers therefore are dissuaded from using the language that plays an important part in expressing their cultural belonging and sense of place …

Read Róisín’s Full Entry

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