TO celebrate the Year of Young People, every week in 2018 The National is giving a platform to young Scots. This week, Pàdruig Morrison

KILT at the ready? Gaelic songs learnt? Hundreds of us are in Dunoon today, and thousands will flood to the town between now and Friday for the Royal National Mòd.

A week of competitions, fringe events and craic, all centred around Gaelic, which engages scores of people and facilitates some of the fiercest competitions in the Gaelic world. This year, however, the next generation are coming to the helm.

As part of 2018’s Year of Young People, the opening ceremony saw performances from Beinn Lee and Sian. These bands consist mostly of young, Gaelic-speaking musicians, to whom Gaelic is a normal part of life.

I know this as I am in Beinn Lee. Gaelic is the language of much of our working and social lives and, for us, heritage is inescapable and ever near, but never binding or restrictive. The compulsion to use the language comes from a desire to reconnect the music – which is loved by the nation – with the language and the cultural community to which it belongs.

Since 1892, the Mòd has been a pillar in the Gaelic calendar. Like many other children, I took part in several instrumental competitions each year. This rigorous week of competing has produced a standard of performance and linguistic ability for children and adults alike.

Both the Mòd and the fringe environment work fantastically to foster a greater interest in learning our indigenous language and culture. It’s crucial that the festival ensures generational inheritance and custodianship of the language and culture, and in no year more so than this.

When I was asked to be co-presenter of the opening ceremony in celebration of the Year of Young People, I was honoured to take part. This year, the Mòd has been working hard to bring youthfulness to every aspect of the festival, having created a dedicated youth committee, as well as daily events for children during the Mòd week, and having significant involvement in the local schools to promote the language and the prospect of competing in the Mòd among pupils and teachers alike.

It’s important that more and more young people continue to enter these competitions. They provide a solid foundation to learning and performing our native songs, poems and tunes in a positive and encouraging environment.

The Mòd’s impact extends beyond the competitions. The fringe is a taste of the cultural vibrancy and energy of the youth present in the Gaelic community. Through the fringe, people are welcomed into the culture, and the language is truly used in a relaxed and natural fashion by many young people. It’s events like this that help to foster the language and help it flourish, and this type of interaction with Gaelic should be encouraged year-round throughout Scotland.

To sustain our language and culture, we must create an environment in which the generation that follows can pick up the Gaelic baton more engaged, more confident, and proud of their inheritance than ever. The Mòd is taking steps to do just that. Hopefully, this year’s celebrations are the start of a powerful journey.