Gaelic-Speaking Saints Fans Launch Cup Final Song

It has been written by Eòghan Stewart, a Gaelic poet and broadcaster who runs a successful Gaelic learning Facebook page Gàidhlig Gu Leòr. He's been a lifelong St Johnstone fan having grown up in Strathmore before moving to Inverness at the age of ten.

The song was performed by Comann Naomh Eòin, this is a group of Gaelic speaking St Johnstone fans which includes Eoghan, Eilidh MacFadyen, Robert Paterson, alongside the Mad Ferret Band and Ian McLaren.

The song is available to download now on Bandcamp for £1 and should be available on all other platforms through the week for both streaming and download. All profits raised will be donated to the Saints Youth Development Fund.

Bandcamp link: https://comannnaomheoin.bandcamp.com/track/peairt-gu-br-th-come-on-you-saints

Speaking about the song, Eòghan said:

"It’s an incredible honour to have written and then help perform the Official Cup Final song for the club I’ve supported since I was a wee boy growing up in Meigle. I moved to the Highlands for secondary school, and although it can sometimes be a lonely business being a Saintee, you’ll always find a fellow Saintee somewhere. One of them was my great pal and the accordionist on the song, Eilidh MacFadyen.

"Eilidh and I had known each other for a couple of years when we were at a ceilidh in Skye a couple of months after Rosenborg and I just mentioned I’d been at the European games. It turned out she was a massive Saintee even though she grew up in Tiree because of her accordion tutor Gordon Connell who is a lifelong Saintee and an inductee in to the Scottish Traditional Music Hall of Fame.

"We made a pact that if Saints got to the cup final we’d go, and so we went to the Semi and the Final and Comann Naomh Eòin was born! We can’t go to the final this year but we hope the song will be a boost to Callum and the boys and that it’ll catch on.

"We’ve been turning up Gaelic speaking Saintees ever since, and Eilidh got Robert Paterson in to play the pipes and take lead vocals, and with the Mad Ferret Band and Ian McLaren getting involved it was a perfect blend of Highland and Lowland coming together - a bit like Perthshire itself.

"Gaelic is a really important element of Perthshire’s history and modern day as well, and it’s been great to work with Perth & Kinross Council’s Gaelic in Perthshire Project on this as well as some of the local Gaelic medium teachers and school children. We’ll be releasing another version of the track with them singing vocals later in the week hopefully. The Gaelic in the song is pretty straightforward to learn and to say, so hopefully it inspires a few people to pick up some more phrases and help continue reviving the language in Perth & Kinross.

"Thanks a million to the club for the opportunity, it really is a dream come true. Peairt Gu Bràth!"