The University has recently made an unprecedented investment in the future of Celtic Studies at Glasgow by appointing two new professors to the Department of Celtic, thus bringing to seven the number of full-time and part-time staff in the Department, and making it one of the largest Departments of Celtic ever in Scotland.

The Department of Celtic is to celebrate the appointment of its two new professors with an Inauguration Afternoon consisting of two public inaugural lectures on Saturday 5 March. These will be delivered by the new professors, Thomas Owen Clancy and Roibeard ￓ Maolalaigh, and will be held in the Modern Languages Building, 16 University Gardens, commencing at 2 pm.

Professor John Caughie, Dean of the Faculty of Arts, said, 'The Faculty's investment in the Department of Celtic recognises a centre of excellence which, largely through its own efforts, has increased its student population by more than 70% in the past decade while maintaining a high profile of research in Scottish and Irish Gaelic and Celtic studies. The investment also reflects in a very particular way the University's commitment to supporting and enhancing the cultural life of Scotland.'

The new professors and their inaugural lecturesThomas Clancy, a member of the Department of Celtic since 1995, has been appointed to the Chair of Celtic, and takes over from Professor Cathair ￓ Dochartaigh, who held the chair from 1996 until 2004. Professor Clancy's main research interests include the history of Christianity in early medieval Scotland, medieval Celtic literature and modern Scottish Gaelic literature. He will lecture on '"I, not I": Composing the Self in Celtic Literature'.

Roibeard ￓ Maolalaigh, who previously worked at the University of Edinburgh, and more recently at the School of Celtic Studies, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, has been appointed to a personal chair of Gaelic (Scottish and Irish). Professor ￓ Maolalaigh's main research interests are in the field of language, including dialectology and historical linguistics. He is particularly interested in the emergence of Scottish Gaelic, its divergence from Irish, and its revitalisation in the modern world. His lecture topic is '"Us" and "Them": Linguistic Divisions in Gaelic'.

The history of the Department
Although Gaelic had been taught for Divinity students during the 19th century, the first official lecturer in Celtic (1901ﾖ) was Magnus MacLean, Professor of Electrical Engineering at Glasgow Technical College. Early lecturers in Celtic included many eminent Gaelic scholars such as George Henderson, George Calder and James Carmichael Watson. The first to hold the Chair of Celtic at Glasgow was Angus Matheson (1956ﾖ62), who was succeeded by Derick S. Thomson (1964ﾖ91), Donald MacAulay (1991ﾖ96), and Cathair ￓ Dochartaigh (1996ﾖ2004).

The Department today
Other members of staff in the Department of Celtic and their research interests include: Dr Sheila Kidd, Gaelic literature of the eighteenth to twenty-first century; Dr Michel Byrne, Early modern and modern Gaelic literature (especially poetry) and language teaching; Dr Katherine Forsyth, history and culture of the Celtic-speaking peoples in the first millennium AD, and Celtic inscriptions in Scotland, Ireland and Brittany; Bronagh N￭ Chonaill, Irish and Welsh law and society in the middle ages; Joina MacDonald, Gaelic poetry of the eighteenth to twentieth centuries, particularly local Harris poetry. The Departmental Secretary, Carol Smith, is also a graduate in Gaelic Studies.

The Department of Celtic has a thriving student community, with over 200 students taking Celtic courses, ranging from Celtic Civilisation to undergraduate and postgraduate courses in Gaelic, with separate provision for Gaelic beginners, fluent Gaelic speakers and native speakers at the undergraduate level. The Department currently supervises ten postgraduate students in a wide range of Celtic- and Gaelic-related topics. The interdisciplinary atmosphere of the Department is reflected in its interaction and contacts with colleagues in the Departments of History and Archaeology, which underpins much of its current research activity and teaching.

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First published: 2 March 2005