Resistance is growing in Scotland’s island and coastal communities to the Scottish Government’s proposals to introduce Highly Protected Marine Areas.
Fishers who work these areas in Scotland’s waters are concerned that no notice is being paid to the sustainable practices they themselves do. No one knows these waters better than those who fish them.
The Highly Protected Marine Areas could very well spell the end of a traditional way of life and with it the culture of the communities it supports.
Successful folk band Skippinish have released a protest song to raise awareness to Scots and those around the world about what is happening to islands and coastal communities in Scotland.
Available to download https://skipinnish.ffm.to/theclearanc…
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Lyrics The Clearances Again - Angus MacPhail Farewell to the cliffs of Mingulay And the shores of the Sandray Sound And the glow of a boat well laden Steaming north when you’re homeward bound. Donald Francis MacNeil is my name, I’m a fisherman through to the bone. I have lived by the creel and the wave To provide for a family and home. Generations before me have followed The toil and the call of the seas But the soul will be torn from our future And the heart from the Hebrides. I have hauled through the stacks and the arches And learned from the old in my youth. Ten thousand seabirds my chorus The sea is my way and my truth. At one with the ocean, with nature, The world above and below, The harvest of harmony’s circle But my life and my living must go For the fashions of urban ideals Where passions of ignorance play To the lies of political deals - No care for the lives in their way. My people, my language, my Island And the rights that our forefathers won To remain on the soil of our homeland By the sweep of a pen will be gone - A wrecking ball through our existence; Tradition and culture condemned At the hands of the arrogant stranger - The Clearances over again. But we’ll join with the kin of our coastline From Ness to the Holy Isle. Faceless grey suits from the cities, They will not play games with our lives. My song marks a fight for survival A Mayday call we cry. We will stand for the rights of our children. We will not let our islands die.
The Scottish Government’s Consultation closes on 18th of April 2023.
Fiona Grahame