Resolution against drinking ardent spirits at funerals
Transcription of a resolution by the minister and Parishioners of Tiree against drinking ardent spirits at funerals.
Courtesy of His Grace the Duke of Argyll
In ‘The Statistical of Account of Scotland’ published in 1845, the minister of Tiree, Rev. Neil MacLean, wrote condemning the practice of ‘drinking ardent spirits at funerals’ and of ‘poor families parting with their last horse or cow, to furnish entertainment of this kind.’
This Resolution of 1847 called on like-minded parishioners to abstain from drinking more than one glassful of spirits at funerals or to pay a penalty of five pounds to benefit the poor of the parish. Rev. MacLean successfully sought the backing of the Duke of Argyll.
In November 1855, the Tiree factor, Lachlan MacQuarie, issued a notice prohibiting the consumption of spirits at ‘weddings, balls, funerals or any other gathering’ by tenants paying less than £30 rent, on pain of dispossession of their lands.
Photocopied photograph of a funeral cortege at Soroby graveyard in 1944.
Funeral cortege at Soroby graveyard in 1944.
Black and white photograph of war graves at Soroby graveyard.
World War II graves at Soroby.
Black & white photograph of Mrs Revilliod and Grace Campbell of Tullymet, Gott, at the graveside of Flt. Lt. Leonard Revilliod who was killed in a mid-air collision over Island House in August 1944.
Courtesy of Mrs Grace Campbell
On the 16th August 1944, two Halifax aircraft from 518 Squadron took off for air tests before their usual nightly weather reconnaissance flights. They lost sight of each other in patchy cloud and collided, killing all on board.
An eyewitness on the top of Ben Hynish reported seeing one plane taking off while the other was coming in. ‘They appeared to come so close to each other that they tipped wings…and the next thing the two of them went up in flames and you could see the wheels with the tyres burning and falling right to the ground…’
One of those killed was Flight Lieutenant Leonard Revilliod, a grandson of the Czechoslovakian Prime Minister, Jan Masyrak, who flew with his daughter-in-law to Tiree for the funeral. The photograph shows Grace Campbell and Mrs Revilliod at her son’s graveside at Soroby in Balemartine.
Audio cassette recording of John Fletcher, Balemartine, interviewed by Maggie Campbell on 8/2/2003.
John Fletcher of Balemartine talks to Maggie Campbell in February 2003 about coffin-making on Tiree, people who made them – Calum Iain Chaluim of Balemartine and Sandaidh Chailean Bhàn of Hynish – and the nameplates, the wood and other materials used, caithris na h-oidhche to guard against body-snatching, grave-digging, burials, closing and dressing the grave and tending the graveyard. Iain Mac an Fhleisdeir a’ bruidhinn ri Mairead Caimbeul anns An Gearran 2003 mu dheidhinn cùisean co-cheangailte ri bàs – na daoine a bhitheadh a’ dèanamh na cisteachan-laighe (Calum Iain Chaluim o Baile Mhartainn agus Sandy Chalein Bhàn o Haoidhnis), am fiodh agus an stuth eile a bhitheadh iad a cleachdadh, caithris na h-oidhche, cladhach na liochd, dòighean tòrradh agus tiodhlacadh, dùineadh agus càradh na liochd agus na daoine a bhitheadh a’ coimhead as dèidh an cladh.
