courtesy of John Currie
I had a bit of what the Scots call Guid Luck when interviewing Alan T. McHale, president of the organizing committee for this weekend’s Highland Games and Festival in Dunedin.
McHale was on the go, so I interviewed him through an exchange of several e-mails. The Scotland native turned Florida resident was not only thorough with his answers but charming too. “I am a former snare drummer in a pipe band in Scotland, but that was a long time ago in a land far away, as they say,” he told me.
As I write in today’s Friday Extra in The Tampa Tribune, most people who want to sample the Scottish Highlands might have to hop a plane — or be like Claire, the British nurse from the Starz romantic drama series “Outlander,” who touches an ancient mystical stone and time-travels to 18th-century Scotland. We have only to head to Dunedin to get our tartan on.
On Saturday, the city hosts its 49th annual Highland Games and Festival, rich in Scottish traditions such as pipe bands, kilts, dances like the Scottish Lilt, record-setting athletic contests, and of course, foods like haggis, colcannon, shortbread, and drinks like the exclusive Edgewater Gaelic Ale.
My story has more about the games, which raise money for the Scottish arts programs in Dunedin. If you go, be sure to toast other revelers’ good health with a smile and a “slàinte” (pronounced SLAN-tee).