The Ghosts of Gaelic

April 2025 is the 20th anniversary of the Gaelic Language Act (Scotland) of 2005, passed unanimously by the Scottish Parliament with the aim of ‘securing the status of the Gaelic language as an official language of Scotland commanding equal respect to the English language’. It has provided the main policy framework for Gaelic since then. Scottish language policy is set to be reshaped by the Scottish Languages Bill, currently working its way through Holyrood, which will give official status to both Gaelic and Scots. This gives occasion to reflect on the place of Gaelic in Scotland, on the relationship of what is now a minority language to the identity of a nation which has had ambiguous and conflicting relationships with Gaelic. What was until the 14th century the primary language of Scotland was, in the 2022 census, spoken by 2.5 per cent of the population (up from 1.7 per cent in 2011).