Our house ceilidh to bring in 2015 coincided with Old New Year, 12 January. We celebrated in our usual style, with plenty of songs and food (and drink). Click here for some pics of Sgioba Luaidh with their hair down (very sedately!).

At the end of January we had a visit to Stanley Primary School in Ardrossan, as part of their Scottish Week. On a bitterly cold, freezing morning five of us set off at 7.30am (yes, 7.30am!) for our run down the coast. We had a frantically busy day, with seven classes in quick succession, teaching them about how tweed was made, using the story of “Donald’s New Trousers”. The children were grand, and Sgioba Luaidh were fuelled with plenty of tea, thanks to Stanley staff, who were quick to recognise our priorities!

The following week it was the turn of Blairdardie Primary. Another bitterly cold, sub-zero morning, but not quite such an early start for us. Blairdardie is just off Great Western Road, so it was quite straghtforward for us to get to. This time we had two P6 classes in the morning, with “Donald’s New Trousers”; and after a lovely buffet lunch, we saw two P2 classes, and the tinies in P1. We had fun, telling them the story of “The Wee Bannock”, showing some of the work on the croft.

Two lovely schools, with lovely children, but mo chreach-sa thàinig, bha sinn seachd sgìth!

On 6 February we were delighted to have the chance to perform our new song “Mìle marbhaisg air an t-siùcar” in the luxurious Studio Theatre at the Beacon on Greenock Waterfront. We fair enjoyed luxuriating in the well-appointed dressing room.

Sugar Beats and Candy Rocks (Get it?) was an evening of tribute to Greenock’s former sugar industry. The young clients of Moving On Inverclyde had been working on this project with art work, songs and poems. They did a fantastic job, and were a pleasure to work with. There's a short film about the project here.

And our pics are here. More pics of us in action to come, we hope!