Orkney
I want to tell you about a thing that
happened to me in Orkney. I was in
the village of Longhope. That was in
the summer this year. There was a
maritime accident in Longhope forty
years ago. Eight people from the
area died. They were the crew on
the Longhope lifeboat. This year the
people of Longhope were remembering the accident.
It happened in March 1969.
There was a terrible storm. A ship,
which was registered in Liberia, in
trouble. The Longhope lifeboat was
called out. The ship went on the
rocks. The coastguards rescued the
crew. But the lifeboat did not return.
My wife and myself were in
Longhope this year. A woman – one
of the locals – started to speak to my
wife. We were off a yacht. We didn’t
have a vehicle. The woman offered
us a lift in her car around the area.
We were driving past the
cemetery. “That’s the memorial to
those who were lost,” the woman
said. She spoke the melodious
Orcadian dialect. I looked over. I
saw a large memorial in the
cemetery. I said, “The wounds will still be there. People will still be feeling the loss.”
She stopped the car. “I lost my husband, my father-in-law and my brother-in-law,” she said. She was sad. [The] tears were running down her face. The wounds were still there. They always will be.
What could [would] I say to her? The two of us said that we were very sorry for her loss. We were, as people who go to sea, extremely grateful to the people who work on the lifeboats. And that woman has a close relative still working on the Longhope lifeboat. Her son.
My blessing on that kind woman. My blessing on people like her in all places. The RNLI does heroic work throughout Britain and Ireland. A stone on the cairn of those who were lost forty years ago. And my blessing on every person that works on the lifeboats. They are all heroes.
Arcaibh
Tha mi airson innse dhuibh mu rud a
thachair dhomh ann an Arcaibh. Bha mi
ann am baile beag Longhope. Bha sin as
t-samhradh am-bliadhna. Bha tubaist
mhara ann an Longhope o chionn
ceathrad bliadhna. Chaochail ochdnar às
an àite. B’ iad an criutha air bàta-teasairginn Longhope. Am-bliadhna bha
muinntir Longhope a’ cuimhneachadh
na tubaist.
Thachair i sa Mhàrt naoi ceud
deug, seasgad ’s a naoi (1969). Bha
stoirm mhòr mhòr ann. Bha long, a bha
air a clàradh ann an Liberia, ann an
trioblaid. Chaidh bàta-teasairginn Longhope a ghairm a-mach. Chaidh an long
air na creagan. Rinn na maoir-chladaich
cobhair air a’ chriutha. Ach cha do thill
am bàta-teasairginn.
Bha mi fhìn is a’ bhean agam air
tìr ann an Longhope am-bliadhna.
Thòisich boireannach – tè às an àite – air
bruidhinn ris a’ bhean agam. Bha sinn
far gheat. Cha robh carbad againn.
Thabhainn am boireannach lioft dhuinn
sa chàr aice timcheall na sgìre.
Bha sinn a’ dràibheadh seachad
air a’ chladh. “Sin an carragh-cuimhne
don fheadhainn a chailleadh,” thuirt am
boireannach. Bha Beurla bhinn Arcach
aice. Choimhead mi a-null. Chunnaic mi
carragh-cuimhne mòr anns a’ chladh. Thuirt mi, “Bidh na lotan ann fhathast. Bidh daoine fhathast a’ faireachdainn a’ chall.”
Stad i an càr. “Chaill mi an duine agam, m’ athair-chèile is mo bhràthair-chèile,” thuirt i. Bha i brònach. Bha na deòir a’ sruthadh sìos a gruaidhean. Bha na lotan ann fhathast. Bithidh gu sìorraidh.
Dè chanainn rithe? Thuirt an dithis againn gun robh sinn fìor dhuilich mu a call. Bha sinn, mar dhaoine a thèid gu muir, taingeil dha-rìribh do na daoine a tha ag obair air na bàtaichean-teasairginn. Is tha dlùth-charaid a’ bhoireannaich sin fhathast ag obair air a’ bhàta-theasairginn ann an Longhope. A mac.
Mo bheannachd air a’ bhoireannach choibhneil sin. Mo bheannachd air a leithid anns gach àite. Tha an RNLI a’ dèanamh obair ghaisgeil air feadh Bhreatainn is na h-Èireann. Clach air càrn an fheadhainn a chailleadh o chionn ceathrad bliadhna. Agus mo bheannachd air a h-uile duine a tha ag obair air na bàtaichean-teasairginn. ’S e gaisgich a tha annta uile.
