33 John Holliday - Tiree

What We Do In The Winter

This episode takes you away from Mull and over to Tiree where I talk with John Holliday. John was the doctor on the island for 30 years and is often known as 'Doc'. Originally from the England, John lived in Australia before settling on Tiree. We talk about his work in Australia with the Pintupi people, the choice of coming to live and work on Tiree, the nature of rural locations, his engagement with local Gaelic culture, the place names of the island and the remarkable Ringing Stone, a feature of the island which has had 6 thousand years of continuous human use. There’s also a section in Gaelic, in which we talk about characters of the island, which then leads us into place names. Throughout the episode you’ll hear a tune that John wrote for his son, called Michael John’s Reel. The tune was recorded in 2018 at the Tiree Fèis Tutor's Ceilidh. It features the wonderful Màrtainn Skene on the box, Dr John Holliday on flute, Kenny Rankin on guitar and Anna Garvin on keys. John's daughter Sarah has a podcast, too, it's called Utopia Dispatch. It "takes on the small task of radically reimagining the future of human society, while somehow managing to keep our spirits up at the same time. [They] talk to thinkers with ideas that break the mould, and to citizens taking radical action for a better future, to bring you closer to a vision of the future we actually all want, and we might even have a few laughs along the way." It can be found here: http://utopiadispatch.com/ I was across on Tiree to work with https://feis-thiriodh.com/ Check them out, they do great work! Episode links and more can be found on www.whatwedointhewinter.com Thanks for listening!