# Sail on, sail on #
9:30pm on Saturday night and the MV Isle of Lewis is loading some of the vast numbers of cars and passengers trying to escape a Lewis Sunday and get back to civilisation before the end of the world as we know it.
Conversely, I am told that an equal number of devil worshippers, communists and recidivist ex-members of the Free Church are waiting on the OTHER SIDE to bring death, plague and war to the sober citizens of Lewis, as prophesied by many in the know.
Having seen a vast number of youngsters stagger past tonight, planning goodness knows what adventures for the evening (although the Court reports will have some of the juicier headlines) I fail to understand how a ferry can create a veritable Sodom and Gomorrah between Stornoway and Back.
BTW the live music in the Narrows provided by some religious group was an example of how NOT to engage the young; an absence of melody, harmony and personality does not compensate for a soup kitchen and a sincere message.
Conversely, I am told that an equal number of devil worshippers, communists and recidivist ex-members of the Free Church are waiting on the OTHER SIDE to bring death, plague and war to the sober citizens of Lewis, as prophesied by many in the know.
Having seen a vast number of youngsters stagger past tonight, planning goodness knows what adventures for the evening (although the Court reports will have some of the juicier headlines) I fail to understand how a ferry can create a veritable Sodom and Gomorrah between Stornoway and Back.
BTW the live music in the Narrows provided by some religious group was an example of how NOT to engage the young; an absence of melody, harmony and personality does not compensate for a soup kitchen and a sincere message.
29 comments:
If, like me, you are several thousand miles away and without access to military satellites, you can follow the progress of the Isle of Arran/Lewis here:
http://is.gd/1Dyx1
Have y'all seen the (only?) AP story on this subject:
_____
Ben McConville, AP Writer
An unholy row has broken out over a ferry company's decision to sail on Sunday between a remote Scottish island and the mainland.
Residents on the Isle of Lewis who keep a strict Sabbath — no television, no housework, no shopping — are angry that the Caledonian MacBrayne ferry company is to start running services between Stornoway, the island's capital, and Ullapool on the Scottish mainland.
The company, known as CalMac, says it has no choice because not to run the service would potentially put it in breach of European laws on equality. Presbyterian residents on the predominantly Gaelic-speaking island say the service is threatening both their faith and their lifestyle.
"This is an affront to the wishes and religious beliefs of the people of the island and CalMac has run roughshod over us," said John Roberts, spokesman for the Lord's Day Observance Society.
"The Sunday ferry service is a direct threat to this way of life which stands for Christian beliefs, the Bible and the word of God. We'll end up with Sundays like they are in the rest of the U.K. or the U.S. where it is just, go to church on Sunday morning and the rest of the day is yours."
That's not what Sundays on the island, part of the Hebrides archipelago about 250 miles (400 kilometers) northwest of Edinburgh, are for. The majority of the 18,000 islanders strictly adhere to the books of Genesis and Exodus from the Old Testament, in which God declared the seventh day reserved for rest and worship. So after church services, they don't use electricity, play games, shop or even hang out laundry to dry.
The fight to prevent the ferry from docking in Stornoway dates back decades. In 1965, the Rev. Angus Smith — a now-retired Free Church of Scotland minister — lay down on a pier to block a ferry from trying to dock on a Sunday. He predicted the Sabbath sailings will bring nothing but trouble.
"Church attendance will drop, shops will open and crime will go up," he said.
The ferry company, which is owned by the Scottish government, said it made the decision to start the Sunday sailings after community consultations. A positive response combined with the worry over breaching equality laws led to the decision.
It says it received legal advice that it would be unlawful to withhold a service because of the religious views of one part of a community.
Peter Timms, the company chairman, said the Sunday timetable was designed to avoid clashes with church services.
"We remain acutely aware of the sensitivities surrounding Sunday sailings, but we cannot operate unlawfully nor fail to provide lifeline services when there is a growing demonstrable demand from the communities we serve," Timms said.
At the ferry terminal on Ullapool pier, opinion was divided on the Sunday ferry service.
"It's quaint that people have these beliefs, but this is the 21st century and if I want a pint of milk on Sunday, I expect to get it," said Sandy Macrae, a mechanic from near Ullapool in Wester Ross. "Frankly, religious types are holding the rest of the community to ransom on this.
Roberts said the appeal of life on the islands — for both residents and tourists — is that it is removed from the fast pace of the modern world.
"The islands are unique," he said, "and those who live here and come to visit come precisely because it is unique.
"And they like the idea of Sunday being a day of rest and worship."
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Thank you, Ben McConville, for representing us as 19th century zealots. Sodding journos.
LDOS, the Free Church, the Free Church (Continuing), John MacLeod, John MacLeod (Endlessly Continuing) will all be so busy bickering, splitting and continuing that they won't notice the ferries coming in ...
"Isle of Arran" currently docking in Stornoway, Lewis, Outer Hebrides. First Sabbath ferry services there in modern times.
Screen dump of ship positions taken at 4am, Sunday 19th July, 2009:
All very sad. Not as sad however as seeing our MSP stood all alone at the HebCelt, on his Blackberry, trying to look busy most of the time. He clearly has no chums.
"So after church services, they don't use electricity, play games, shop or even hang out laundry to dry.
Ohahaha! I've never seen that one before. Pardon me while I do a Jean Claude van Damme-style dive up to the meter switch. I'll have to cook dinner on the camping Gaz stove from now on.
Divine retribution? Hardly. From the multitude of choices available, e.g. sinking the ferry in port or morphing the Captain into John MacLeod mid-voyage, giving the engines a wee bash with a spanner doesn't quite do it for me. Sounds to me suspiciously similar to the last time the 'Isle of Lewis' had, um, engine trouble.
The Independent published the above today :-(
Don't blame the journalists. If people don't have the bottle to stand up and be counted, well then its your own look out if the people who do speak on behalf of the islands are not to your taste.
I think this sums it up...
"There was no direct action yesterday, but around 20 silent protestors marked the occasion. They were outnumbered by 200 islanders who gathered to cheer the vessel out of port."
I never did get my John MacLeod abuse badge :-(
@11.40
There weren't many responses and no clear leader in the poll... oh decisions. Will revisit.
Ben McConville (AP Writer) appears to have us living in the dark ages. he totally misrepresented us in his writings. no wonder the rest of the UK has a laugh at our expense while people like him write this kind of rubbish about the islands.
Here is the email address of the independant newspaper if anybody wishes to voice an opinion on this article:
sundayletters@independent.co.uk
That AP article also appears in the Guardian so you could send any letters to them too (letters@guardian.co.uk) and also to Ben himself who is here:
http://www.electricscotland.com/history/articles/mcconville/
Its good to see respect is well and truly dead on the Isle of Lewis. As a young Islander its the attitude displayed by the pro-Sunday ferry lobby culminating in the display last Sunday that makes me want to leave and drives others away from the island not the lack of a Sunday ferry which will make no difference what so ever.
It is little wonder the we Leòdhasachs as so disliked by the rest of the islands!
9:32 Well, at least you can 'leave' on a Sunday now. Bye then.
9:32 AM
I totally fail to see how the provision of something (a ferry) would drive one away from the island. I can however, see how the lack of a ferry may be a tipping factor in making one leave an island.
If you leave the island because the ferry sails on a Sunday, where are you going to live, on the mainland with all the services provided on a sunday, or are you going to live on another island that doesnot have a Sunday (or possibly any) ferry service?
The emotions shown on Sunday were a spontaneous collective show. It wasn't planned. There was also a similar simultaneous scene at Ullapool.
Respect has to be earned and having certain members of the community being lambasted for daring to ask for a Sunday ferry doesnot instill respect toward the "opposition".
9:25most in the countryside don't hang their washing, there is no law against playing on a Sunday in the Bible, some stricter ones will not use electricity and most do not shop! You're not from these parts i take it?!
You can hardly blame the pro-ferry lobby for the unpopularity of the island. Until last Sunday they have had virtually no mass public profile and have only spoken up on one issue i.e that of the ferry. Hardly and issue likely to alienate people from other geographic regions, particularly as the majority also have Sunday ferries.
I also don't see how a good humoured gathering of citizens is a mark of disrespect. Demonstration is a basic right of UK citizens or would you rather the model offered by Iran or China?
2:29
Yes, I am.
I want to express my absolute outrage at the Sunday ferries leaving and docking in Stornoway - why is it that in Lewis you get them - and we in Harris have to suffer without?
Not happy, - come on Clamac - play the game you are not discriminating or absuing our human rights are you?
Fantastic, John Macleod is now forming an LDOS Continuing. That crowd are so busy in fighting they could not organise anything together, let alone a challange to Macsween/Macneil. like someone said- THIS WILL NOT HAPPEN :-)
i wasn't working this Sunday, i wasn't down the pier cheering or protesting. I had no family coming off the fery on Sunday and i didn't have reason to go on it myself. I didn't go to the pub, i didnt go to church either. I had a lovely normal Sunday totally unaffected or unspoiled by any of the headline news breaking in town.
This Sunday i am working, ah well cant have it all ways!
8:54 "LDOS Continuing" - love it :-)
Truly, the mind boggleth...
Any bets on when 'Isle of Lewis' will have the first 'technical breakdown' on a Sunday - Gourock code for 'Not enough passengers so fuck this sailing lark' Or to save face and annoy the traditionalists a Sat 'technical breakdown' miraculously fixed for a Sunday sailing. Quite soon I imagine
angus, i assume you want to stop every Christian going on holiday so they can still provide A soup kitchen, just for lil' ol' you?!
S math gu bheil adhartas air tighinn gu Leodhas!
Adhartas mo chac
It is not Sunday ferries that will drive people away... but the loss of Sunday... which most (whether christian or not) on the Island enjoy!
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