Finlay J. Macdonald visits the Flannan Isles and their lighthouse

This television film about the Flannan Isles, their lighthouse and the mysterious disappearance of its three keepers in 1900 was made by Finlay J. Macdonald in 1970. The light went over to automatic operation the following year.

I once had bed and breakfast at Breasclete on the west coast of Lewis, and the owner was the grandson of one of the men aboard the Hesperus when it went out to the isles to see what was amiss with the light. It had not been seen to shine for 10 days.

The film will tell you what they found there.

Finlay J. Macdonald was a writer and broadcaster. He read his three books about growing up on Harris between the wars on BBC Radio 4 in the 1980s and they proved a great success.

I still recall his tale of a visiting school inspector being most impressed by the children's knowledge of the Bible. That was because she could not see their teacher, who was standing behind her and giving them the right answers by holding up her fingers.

Aidan O'Rourke: Mangersta Beach

I loved the Outer Hebrides and this music – Mangersta Beach is on the west coast of Lewis – captures the feel of a landscape that somehow feels half Scottish and half Irish. 

So it's no surprise to find Aidan O'Rourke saying in an interview:

My dad plays banjo - he had immersed himself in the Glasgow folk scene of the late 1960s, which was a hotbed of political fervour as well as music. When he left Glasgow and moved to Oban, he brought with him that interest in Irish and Scottish music, and a lot of the political affiliation within it. There were references from Woody Guthrie, Bob Dylan, as well as Irish republicanism, the Easter Rising, groups like the Dubliners, Planxty - all of which was politically charged. 

 

My mum is from Donegal. My dad is Scottish but his paternal grandfather was Irish, from Tyrone. I could feel that my bones were Irish. The Irish political situation was pretty full-on at that time. We would travel to see my family in Donegal and travel through the north of Ireland and experience all that tension. It was tangible, there was a war zone just across the water. 

Mangersta Beach is a track from his 2006 album Sirius.

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About 1 million 16- to 24-year-olds are not in employment, education or training – and the obstacles they face are bigger than ever. Sammy Gecsoyler talks to some who have been unemployed for a year or more about how they are coping.

Kitty Melrose interviews Nova Reid about the creeping spread of book censorship in the UK. Reid says: "Non-fiction books about racism written to help readers learn about the topic and explore approaches to reducing racial injustice are labelled 'racist' as the reason for their removal. By closing discussion of racial injustice, one perpetuates the systemic harms of racism. If injustice for one group is dismissed and ignored, it gives license for other social iniquities to be continued too."

"Years of criminal justice reform have left the state, several counties and towns, as well as the profit-driven private prison industry hungry to fill empty bed spaces or to explore new sources of revenue. Incarcerating and exploiting immigrants for ICE has proven to be an opportunistic and lucrative alternative." Greg Constantine takes us to the Oklahoma communities gutted by ICE.

Larue Leglise and James Scott Vandeventer look at the barriers facing community energy projects in the Outer Hebrides, including ageing turbines and an application process that favours large-scale projects.

Mathew Lyons reviews Nonesuch by Francis Spufford: "Childhood stories and myths suffuse the book: Nonesuch is steeped in Edwardiana, and not always charmingly so. Spufford's world takes the overlap between Nazism and the occult seriously, and the antecedents of both lay in the esotericism of the late-19th and early-20th century. The Edwardian imagination wasn’t all treasure-packed attics, cosy burrows and curious rabbit holes."

"Of all the medieval women I have researched and written about, Aethelflaed is by far my favorite." Susan Abernethy is an Aethelflaed, Lady of Mercia, stan.

The unique mice of St Kilda

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Here's something not a lot of people know: Hirta, the largest island in the St Kilda archipelago, once had two unique species of mice and one of them is still thriving.

Charles Foster explains in an essay for Aeon:

Evolutionary innovation happens at the edge of genetic orthodoxy, at the edge of an established population, and typically at the edge of a landmass: hence the exuberant biological creativity seen on islands, where new challenges are faced and old inhibitions relaxed. 

Take the St Kilda archipelago, for instance, in the heaving green sea off the outer isles of Scotland. It once housed a community of embattled farmers and seabird hunters. They were all evacuated in 1930, leaving behind two species of mice, both unique to the islands. 

The St Kilda house mouse, whose life depended on its coalition with the humans, went extinct within a few years. But the St Kilda field mouse, uninhibited by house mice, cats and humans, blossomed and changed. 

It doubled in size and became an enthusiastic flesh-eater, prowling the beaches and headlands for dead birds. Edges were fecund on St Kilda – at least for field mice. They always are. Indeed nothing else is.

I've also read that now St Kilda has a seasonal population of scientists, the field mice have began to fill the niche the house mice once occupied and moved into the scientists' living quarters.

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"Whether it is the private contractors paid enormous sums of public money to bring prisoners to court failing to bring prisoners to court, or technology procured at vast public expense simply not working, or entire court buildings being shut down because the roof is falling in, the Crown Courts every single day endure absurd, entirely-fixable inefficiencies which contribute significantly to the backlog of work." The Secret Barrister explains that abolishing most jury trials will not touch the main causes of delay in the legal system.

Paul Bernal argues that banning children from social media is a very bad idea: "For the most part, most kids, most of the time, are able to navigate the internet – and in particular social media – in ways that work. Rather than being a cesspit of trolling and misinformation, the internet mostly works. Just like for the grown-ups, the internet is simply part of their lives – how they organise themselves, how they get information, how the socialise, how they do their (home)work, how they find entertainment, how they listen to music and watch television and movies, how they date, how they shop and much more."

"You only have to take a look recent exam papers to see the problem. For example, when my colleague Catherine Gower and I surveyed 219 GCSE, AS and A-level history papers issued in the summer of 2023, we found only 6 per cent of 991 exam questions directed students to discuss women (37 per cent directed students to discuss men)." Natasha R, Hodgson shows that women are largely absent from the questions, sources, and mark schemes that shape how history is taught and assessed in schools in England.

Municipal Dreams reviews Ned Hewitt's Housing the People of Leicester: A History of Social Housing: "Spending cuts and a cross-party emphasis on rehousing slum dwellers (previously excluded from council housing dues to its relatively high rents) from 1930 had their own impact. The North Braunstone Estate, built as a slum clearance estate, is one of many across the country that reflected both these aspects and suffered a resultant social stigma."

National Museums Scotland tells the fascinating story of the Isle of Lewis chessmen and their discovery.

"Living in the Past was a song in five/four time, with jazz flute solos, and grumpy lyrics about how the hippie lifestyle, with protests about war and talk about revolution, wasn’t for Anderson, who was also very staunchly opposed to drug use, and in general found little common cause with the hippies, despite his bearded, long-haired, eccentric appearance." Andrew Hickey on the eccentric single that became Jethro Tull's biggest hit.

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'We cannot sit by as the left denigrate our history and pull down our monuments,' said Kemi Badenoch last week: she and her colleagues’ wilful neglect of museums shows that such talk is absurd." John Harris is angry about the assault on local museums since the election of David Cameron in 2010.

Erica Lamberg introduces to the concept of 'resenteeism', where lack of advancement opportunities, a toxic corporate culture, an excessive workload and feelings of burnout lead to people feeling trapped in jobs they do not want. Not surprisingly, this affects productivity.

More evidence that nothing works properly in Britain any more because it's underfunded: We Love Stornoway reports on the end of the tourism service on the Western Isles.

Simon Matthews looks at the 1949 film Now Barabbas Was a Robber, which was based on a play by William Douglas Home: "There are flashbacks to their lives before jail, the corrupting effect of the war is shown (a topic of much thought at the time, with talk of crime waves and a much readier resort to violence) and, indeed much of it, with its succession of interior scenes and wardens, plays like a POW film. The dialogue, and acting, are impressive."

Jon Hotten remembers Brian Close, the controversial Yorkshire and England captain: "The length of time that Richards and Botham spent talking about Brian Close spoke of his influence on the game and on their lives."

"Witchcraft, and the threat of such could be found from the collieries of East Shropshire through to the Clun and the distant agrarian places, whose names feel like an ode to Middle earth. Witchcraft was the hidden threat, the force that you could not control but also that which you turned to for comfort, or help." Amy Boucher on an important aspect of the county's social history and folklore.

The Lib Dems now have a local councillor in the Western Isles

The Liberal Democrats, says the Stornoway Gazette, have their first councillor on Comhairle nan Eilean Siar, the local authority that covers the Outer Hebrides.

Malcolm Macdonald, who represents the Stornoway North ward on Lewis, was elected as an Independent in the 2022 council election but has now adopted the Lib Dem label.

He told the newspaper:

“I am absolutely delighted to be representing the Western Isles as a Liberal Democrat councillor. As a party that champions communities and puts their needs first, they are a very natural fit for my own values.

“Whether it’s ferries, connectivity, health or population decline, people in the Western Isles feel that no one in government cares about the challenges in front of them. The SNP claim to be strong for Scotland, but they repeatedly ignore the issues that matter to people here.

“It doesn’t have to be like this. Liberal Democrats have a proud and long-standing tradition of standing up for rural communities. We are all about listening to people, understanding what they need and doing everything we can to make a difference for them. That’s exactly where my focus is as a Western Isles councillor."