While the importance of Celtic and Gaelic heritage in education is being recognised widely in the UK and Ireland, only one university offers such courses in the entire Southern Hemisphere. Dunedin and its students have a strong association with Gaelic heritage with the bulk of Dunedin’s European settlers being Scottish. Students have often requested various courses in Celtic or Gaelic Studies — the Bamforth Fund was left to the University of Otago over 100 years ago specifically for the study of Scottish culture.
The latest Gaelic and Celtic Studies campaign began in 1993 when a petition containing 370 student signatures was presented to the History Department at Otago University, requesting that a course in Gaelic and Celtic History be established, concentrating upon Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. The Department agreed to implement such a course, then they postponed it, then more important priorities arose. By 1996 the plan had been shelved.
Interest
in all things Celtic had grown, however, and the Highland Society and Young
Sinn Fein were formed in the mid '90s. A second petition with nearly 1,000 signatures
was collected. It demanded a course in Gaelic and Celtic Studies be established,
not just in history but language, mythology, music, and politics as well. An
interdisciplinary paper taught by current staff was envisaged to initially test
the viability of a fuller course. The Highland and Gaelic Society is wrote a
submission to the University: The Case for Gaelic Studies.
Dunedin Mayor, Sukhi Turner, offered to jointly present the petition with student representatives on the University Council. But the Chancellor and Chairperson, Judith Medlicott, did not consider it “protocol” for the petition to be received by the Council (despite specifically being a petition of the Council), and hastened to add she did not want the Highland Society “coming into the meeting and causing trouble...”
In September 1997 the Dean of Humanities, Anne Trotter, after some pressure, stated in the Otago Daily Times that “a proposal for a paper dealing with Celtic history is being developed within the History department. It is hoped this will be available in 1999.”
2001
A paper titled ‘Celtic Spirituality’ was introduced as a special topic in Religious Studies
2004
Chair in Irish Studies established
2006
Chair in Scottish studies established
2008
Two Scottish Studies professors appointed
Padraig Madill and Mark
Baxter hand the petiton over to registrar Keith Houghton on the steps of Registry
after being banned from the Council meeting
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