Coinneach Mòr – a Gaelic radio institution

And with that we both laugh. Firstly, it demonstrates his remarkable powers of recall; it’s over 30 years since he was editor of this publication but clearly it’s still indelibly etched in his psyche.

And, secondly, it displays his mischievous side. He knows as much as anyone how much the journalism trade has changed over that period and it’s been quite a few years now since the previous owners of this paper closed the town centre premises on Francis Street to which he refers.

When our conversation takes place the following day, as it happens just opposite the old Gazette offices in An Lanntair’s cafe, Coinneach is ready to reflect on a remarkable career.

His daily morning programme on Radio nan Gaidheal has now come to an end, suitably enough 50 years after he walked into the BBC in Glasgow as a fresh-faced graduate, with little concept of the long broadcasting journey that lay ahead.

After graduating from Aberdeen University with a degree in Gaelic, Coinneach was considering going on to study (of all things) personnel management, but saw a job advert with the BBC and applied on a whim.

“The thing is I had heard someone else had got the job so I wasn’t even going to go to the interview, but then I met Fred MacAulay’s nephew the night before and told him I wasn’t going and he said. ‘Oh, you must at least go’. So I did and I went in there not really worrying, carefree, because as far as I was concerned there was no job, but I ended up being offered it.”

That was in 1972 when Gaelic broadcasting was still very much in its infancy and little in the way of the extensive coverage that we see across all platforms today.

“It was only a very small department then, tucked away up in the corner of the building. Fred MacAulay was there; Neil Fraser also, although he was starting to move towards television; Jo MacDonald, who had gone there the year before, and myself. That was it.”

There was, he says, “a lot of freedom” as the output was minimal, but it wasn't a situation that suited the impatient boy from Back.

“I felt that, and still do, broadcasting should be from where the source is. While there was plenty of Gaelic in the various organisations in Glasgow, Glasgow wasn’t going to keep Gaelic alive. My concern was that we were parachuting in and out of the places that spoke Gaelic and using the community.

“After a couple of years, I just left. People couldn’t believe it; imagine leaving a good job at the BBC!”

So, while still a young man, Coinneach turned his back on the bright lights and took a side-step away from the microphone (not for the last time) to take up a post in Stornoway as depute director of An Comunn Gaidhealach, best known for organising the Royal National Mod and at the time the only officially-recognised Gaelic organisation.

“I didn’t get much direction and wasn’t actually sure what I was supposed to be doing. But then I got the chance to go over to Ireland to the University College in Dublin as a lecturer for a year, so I went for it. That’s where I met so many interesting people and learnt Irish Gaelic and got to know Ireland so well.”

Back home, however, Gaelic broadcasting was far from at a standstill and about to enter a defining period. In 1976, the BBC launched Radio Highland from Inverness, providing for the first time a dedicated service for the Highlands and Islands region. At the time it was a radical departure and understandably piqued the interest of Coinneach. So, the bags were packed in Dublin and it was off to Inverness – not exactly the croft in Coll, but “at least closer to the roots”.

“We had one minute of Gaelic every morning and then a huge expansion - up to three minutes, and it was entirely up to yourself how you filled it.”

Then with the constant expansion of Gaelic came an opportunity which was to define the rest of his professional life. “We had to come up with two programme ideas and mine was ‘Ceum Ur, with pop music and all sorts of things, and ‘Coinnichidhmeid’, in which I went out to meet people and get their stories but, crucially, where they were themselves. I really enjoyed doing that.”

That early foundation, based on the basic journalistic principle of understanding that it’s the source of the story that matters, was to stand him in good stead – along with a natural propensity to put people of all ages and backgrounds at ease.

“I was in Inverness for only a year. I still wasn’t happy. We were still in and out of the communities that mattered, so I came home. I didn’t know what to do. We had a loom in the shed so I started weaving. But I managed to get my hands on a tape recorder and very soon a new routine began.”

And that “routine” was what he had aspired to all along – getting the stories of the community from the heart of the community. “I was the first to be doing this, in broadcasting anyway. I was supplying Glasgow and Inverness with tapes, getting them over by plane. I’d be racing to the airport every day to get them on.

"I’d have great rows at the airport with the staff, trying to get my tapes on as they were closing the doors. It was very exciting, cause I’d be doing English and Gaelic so you were getting more than one hit on the same story. It was a great time.”

Constantly in the background things were evolving in terms of Gaelic broadcasting. In 1979, five years after Comhairle nan Eilean came into being, Radio nan Eilean was launched, a station based in Stornoway dedicated to Gaelic and the Western Isles.

With the new council finding its feet and exploring new opportunities, it was a time of excitement and potential, particularly for an established figure in Gaelic broadcasting like Coinneach.

“As well as all the freelance stuff I was actually elected to the comhairle in 78. I was only 27. It was strange being on the comhairle and being a reporter at the same time.

"I was re-elected in 1982 unopposed but I had just got married and realised I couldn’t afford to stay on the council. Unless you were of independent means, had a sympathetic employer or retired it was very difficult to be a councillor, financially. So I resigned in 83 to concentrate on the freelance work.”

Soon after came another career de-tour. In 1986 he stood for the newly formed Social Democratic Party in the General Election. “Labour had gone to the left and you had the Tories. I was middle-of-the-road and felt the SDP were the only ones offering that.”

It was not to be, however. The SDP failed to make a mark, locally and nationally and shortly after the party folded, signalling the end of a short-lived political experiment. “We were led down the garden path a wee bit,” said Coinneach.

While the door to a political career was slammed unceremoniously in his face, the old adage of another opening somewhere else was to become true, this time in the world of print journalism, becoming editor of this paper the year after.

It was a new challenge, a medium in which he had no experience, but as he says himself he “inherited a very experienced staff led by chief reporter Donnie Macinnes, who was such a big part of the Gazette for so many years. That made the transition from broadcasting to print easier than might have been the case.

"The Gazette had a huge status in the community. People were more scared of seeing their name appearing in the Gazette than they were of the sheriff.

“But if I’m honest I didn’t get on that well with the proprietor. I felt he was trying to milk the Gazette financially. I suppose it’s fair enough from a business point of view, but it went against the grain for me, so after three years I left.”

And so with that it was back to the BBC, first as freelance and then in 1993 he was offered his own morning live discussion programme, called Coinneach Mor. It’s not everyone that has the profile for an entire programme to be named after them.

Apart from brief episodes for holidays, every Monday to Friday, for one hour between 9am and 10am, from its launch to the summer of this year – all of 29 years – Coinneach and his vast array of contributors and subjects would regale an ever growing loyal audience, with subjects from the surreal and the humorous to the serious and the poignant.

“It was so stimulating. I’ve done live programmes from Land’s End to John O Groats, the Faroes, Washington, Vancouver, Brussels… I make no secret; I thoroughly enjoyed it.

“We built up a huge database of Gaelic speaking contacts all over the world: Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, South America, the United States, Canada, all over Europe and... Alaska!

“But I always had in mind that the programme was about the people sitting at home listening at that time of the day, a lot of them on their own, maybe lonely and were maybe not getting a laugh, so we used to try and do that, especially on our Friday programmes. We felt people appreciated that, but we did deal with the big issues as well.

“The programme was never about me. I was only the front man and I always had good teams around me. That’s what makes a programme and that’s what ensures it lasts.”

In addition. to the daily programme commitment, he served a second spell as a councillor for Loch-a-Tuath and was 23 years on the Stornoway Trust, six of them as chair.

The one thing that can definitely be said about Coinneach is that he has been far from idle – and, indeed, maybe he’s not entirely ready to step back from the beloved microphone just yet. The comeback kid may well have another chapter in him.

“That depends on others. When the BBC decided to discontinue me doing the programme they said that wasn’t the end of Coinneach for broadcasting. So, I await with interest to see what plans they have for me.”