When living in the Hebrides I came over time to connect with Gaelic culture

John Gordon of TUV (‘The Irish language is not part of our unionist culture’, Nov 19) should take a trip to Islay in the Inner Hebrides or to the Outer Hebrides.

The shared Scottish-Irish Gaelic identity, which has so shaped our islands, crosses denominational boundaries. I went to work as an NHS GP in the Hebrides over 20 years ago. Initially, I had little respect for the Christian faith of my island patients, let alone their Gaelic heritage.

However, over time I connected with Gaelic culture, plus the Reformed Church (evangelical Presbyterian) tradition present in the Western Isles. I was later ordained as an evangelist by Bishop Harold Miller in 2017.

It was very moving, in more recent years, to hear a Lewis choir from Stornoway sing the metrical psalms at the East Belfast Mission. As an evangelical Christian, in the Church of Ireland tradition, I do not find the Gaelic language at all threatening.

Many names on our local maps clearly have a Gaelic origin and the dialect of English spoken in rural Northern Ireland regions can sound remarkably similar to the Hebrides. One of the most moving pieces of spiritual music anyone can ever listen to online is ‘Song Of David (Psalm 67) by Maire Brennan’.


The Donegal singer’s moving testimony (in English) is also truly inspiring, resting finger in glove with a classic evangelical understanding of biblical conversion.

Dr James Hardy, by email