Brechiner in tune with new Gaelic TV service
A FORMER Brechin High School pupil is the driving force behind BBC Alba, the corporation's £14 million pound Gaelic television service, which hopes to attract mainstream viewers from across the nation, and which was launched on Friday.
Alan Esslemont moved to the area in 1964 from Braemar and, as he explained, he has nothing but happy memories, both of being a pupil at the now defunct Aldbar Primary School and both the old and new Brechin High Schools.
"My parents hailed from Aberdeenshire, and my father worked as a butcher," he comments.
"However, the sixties weren't the best time for small Scottish towns and my mother, Margaret Esslemont, decided to go back into teaching, which resulted in her being appointed as headteacher at Aldbar School in 1964.
"So I also went to Aldbar Primary School to begin with and I think there were only about 18 in the whole school.
"At the end of primary school I went to the Brechin High Primary (now Maisondieu) and subsequently was in the first year class to attend the new Brechin High School.
"I was the Dux in the Brechin High primary in 1969-70. We spent just two weeks in the old High School and then we were the first group in the new High school.
"One guy who was in my year was Peter Myles, whose father, if I remember correctly was a Conservative MP and whose brother is now leader of Angus Council.
"I was also arts Dux in the secondary school and I loved doing languages. And I was doing French and German and I decided to study French at University. To be honest at that time in Scotland you simply never came across Gaelic. It had no profile at all.
"As part of my French degree, I was sent to France to teach and it was a great experience as I was spending all my summers in France and was working there during the summers anyway. It was only at that time that French people started to approach me and say, 'Oh, you are from Scotland, you must speak Gaelic'.
"In the part of Brittany I was in there were a lot of different dialects and the guy I worked alongside was Irish and he spoke native Irish.
"I remember phoning home to my mum, who, by that time, had moved to be head teacher at Careston Primary School, and asking her if Gaelic was still spoken in Scotland?
"I promised myself then that I would endeavour to learn Gaelic at some point. So after I finished at university I went to Switzerland and, when I returned, I undertook a two-week Gaelic course and I really liked it.
"It was followed by me gaining a job in Skye in a knitting factory and the locals there all spoke Gaelic. They spoke to me, which certainly helped me pick up the language quicker than I would have done through the course alone.
"So, after that, I returned to university again and did Celtic I and II in a year. The professor there said to me there is a job coming up in Ireland, teaching Gaelic in Galway, would you like to do that? So I went across on a nine-month contract and 25 years later I am still there!
"I met a woman from County Mayo who later became my wife and we now have five children. We speak Irish at home and occasionally Gaelic."
Alan said that Brechin was a great place to be during the sixties and early seventies.
"My family arrived here in 1964 and I lived in this area, in and around Brechin, until I finished at university in 1980. My dad, James, worked as a butcher in Willie Low's in Montrose and was then a meat inspector in the abattoir on the Montrose Road.
"I was lucky when teaching in the university that I was fortunate enough to do a television course. In 1996, they set up an Irish language channel called TG4.1E and I was part of the senior management for that launch. It was a bit strange having a Scot involved in the launch of an Irish channel.
"I eventually became director of television with TG4 and I really like it. Then the opportunity arose to become involved with BBC Alba, full in the knowledge that television channel launches are the most challenging, but also the most amusing types of work in terms of broadcasting, as they involve the most fun you can ever have.
"This is a completely new concept for the BBC. It is the first time they have ever launched a channel in partnership with another media organisation through the licensed service.
"The partners are my company MG Alba, who are Gaelic Media (Scotland). We are the main funder of Gaelic programmes in the country and have been for some time. However, rather than just be a funder in this project it was agreed that we partner the BBC in this project.
"I am the head of content, so I am in charge of the programming and I work alongside the BBC's representative, Margaret Mary Murray, who hails from Lewis, who is the head of service. Between the two of us, we have the responsibility of running the channel.
"Gaelic speakers have long needed this service. The BBC Trust has also issued us with audience targets and we need to target those who can speak Gaelic, but also those who can't.
"We need the service to be seen as something that's the usual for them and I do believe we have programmes which will appeal to a broad Scottish audience.
"As well as SPL football, live rugby, live SFL football, our sponsorship of the Challenge Cup has been good in raising awareness of our brand name.
"We want to play a role in fostering grass roots sport. We aren't about promoting just Celtic and Rangers, and the commercial side who get so much publicity anyway. We're small but we are growing and we are trying to form strong links and relationships with groups like the Scottish football League, which are similar and want to grow. It can work for both of us.
"We will have one of the Challenge Cup semis and the final on live and I think fans of the lower league clubs will appreciate this, although our budget is very restricted.
"In terms of the sustainability of the channel, we have a lot to do to go and seek new resources. However, if we can attract these resources, we can make it successful.
"Look at prime time television at present between half-past eight and half-past ten and you will see a distinct lack or programmes made in Scotland. So people are looking for programmes from Scotland and we will be able to do that with subtitles!
"If you have Sky you will see very quickly that we can deal with lowland Scots subject matter just as effectively, very well, very authoritatively, but through Gaelic as well. So there is wide scope for us to bring in audiences from all over Scotland, including Brechin.
"One of the early problems for us to overcome is that, in our early transmission period, we will only be carried on satellite tv. So you can find us on Sky channel 168 or on Free Sat 110.
"We are also pushing very hard to get cable delivery, but we won't have Freeview probably for another two years and that will very much depend on a review by the BBC Trust. However, we are very keen for that to happen as soon as possible and will continue to work in that direction.
"I used to go to Glebe Park in the sixties, which was a very hard time for the team.
"In fact the rest of Scotland thought we were called Brechin City Nil back then. It's your loyalty to a team through thick and thin that makes you a football fan and I would still consider myself a Brechin City fan.
"I have been in Ireland for the last 25 years and it has been much harder to keep up with the week to week stuff. However, you always get a feel for how Brechin city are doing and it has been really good to see the club making such obvious progress over the last 20 years, which has continued recently.
"Both my sons are Irish and have never been near Brechin, but the first result they look for from the UK on a Saturday night is that of Brechin City!
"School was an especially happy time for me in and around Brechin.
"I remember when we left the high school, one of my pals had a drum kit and we managed to get on to the roof of the new school and playing drums as loudly as we could just prior to leaving. Being the first class that went from beginning to end at that new school, we felt we were, in some way, a different generation and that we were different.
"Although I haven't been back in Brechin for a long time, I just have so many great memories of going through school with the whole of my year. Some tremendous people and a tremendous place in which to grow up. "
Email to a friend
Print this page
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Brechin
Sunday 05 February 2012
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: 1 C to 5 C
Wind Speed: 16 mph
Wind direction: West
Tomorrow
Sunny spells
Temperature: 0 C to 5 C
Wind Speed: 14 mph
Wind direction: North
