Meg Hyland
Thesis title: The Musical Cultures of Itinerant Gutters in the British and Irish Herring Industries, c. 1850 - c. 1975
Celtic and Scottish Studies
- Celtic and Scottish Studies
Contact details
- Email: M.A.Hyland@sms.ed.ac.uk
Background
Meg Hyland is a PhD candidate in Celtic and Scottish Studies. Her research focuses on the role of music and dance in the lives of itinerant herring gutters in the British and Irish fishing industries from the mid-19th to mid-20th centuries. She is supervised by Will Lamb and Lori Watson.
Awards and Honours:
- McCaig Trust award (2024)
- British Forum for Ethnomusicology Fieldwork Grant (2021)
- Moray Endowment Fund award (2020)
- McCaig Trust award (2020)
- LLC Masters Scholarship (2018)
- Institute of Scottish Historical Research Senior Honours Dissertation Prize (2017)
- John Adamson Honey Prize in Mediaeval History (2017)
- Samuel Rutherford Prize in Scottish History (2017)
- Principal’s Scholarship for Academic Excellence (2017)
- Connecting Scotland’s Sounds grant (2016)
- University Scholarship for Research and Leadership (2016)
- Abertay Student Prize in Scottish History (2016)
- Dr Robert Mackie Prize in Scottish History (2016)
- Mediaeval History Third Year Prize (2016)
- Cedric Thorpe Davies Award in Music (2015)
- James McGlashan Scott Memorial Prize in Church History (2015)
- School of History Bookprize (2015)
- Saltire Award for volunteering (2014)
- Warch Scholarship (2012)
- Wisconsin’s Academic Excellence Scholarship (2012)
Qualifications
- MA (Hons) Mediaeval History, University of St Andrews, 1st class
- MSc Celtic and Scottish Studies, University of Edinburgh, distinction
Responsibilities & affiliations
- Member of the British Forum for Ethnomusicology
- Member of the Disabled Academic Collective
- Member of the Traditional Song Forum
- Member of Women's History Scotland
Research summary
- Work song
- Musical cultures in Britain and Ireland, 19th and 20th centuries
- Scottish fishing industry
- Women's history in Scotland
Papers delivered
- “Recovering the Songs of Herring Gutters: Lessons from Scotland”, International Congress of Celtic Studies XVII, Utrecht (2023)
- “Irish and Scottish Song Exchange in the Scottish Herring Industry”, As I Roved Out: Traditional Songs, Singers and Collections of Britain, Ireland and Beyond, Irish World Academy of Music and Dance (2022)
- “‘They Soon Had Us Singing in Their Language’: The Macaronic Songs of Gaelic-Speaking Herring Gutters”, Celtic and Scottish Studies Seminar, University of Edinburgh (2021)
- “The Missing Herring Gutters in Gaelic Song Scholarship”, British Forum for Ethnomusicology and Royal Music Association Research Students’ Conference, University of Cambridge (2021)
- “Songs of the Herring Gutters: An Overlooked Genre of Gaelic Song”, Celtic Students Conference (2020)
- “Cross Slabs, Cists, and Cill-Names: The Early Medieval Church in the East Neuk of Fife”, Cambridge Colloquium in Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic (2019)
- “Cross Slabs, Cists, and Cill-Names: The Early Medieval Church in the East Neuk of Fife”, Pictish Arts Society (2017)
- “Research and engagement partnership”, Connecting Scotland’s Sounds (2016)
In the press
- “Gaelic Songs in Fife and the Herring Gutters”, World Gaelic Week, Anstruther (2024)
- “Gut-Along, Sing-Along: Gaelic Working Songs Community Workshop”, World Gaelic Week, Scottish Fisheries Museum, Anstruther (2024)
- “Intangible Cultural Heritage”, Critical Conversations podcast, Museums of the University of St Andrews (2023)
- “Little Rhymes in the Manx: Music and Herring Workers in the Isle of Man”, annual Ian O’ Leary lecture, Yn Chruinnaght (2022)
- “Disability Identity and Connections to Research” panelist, Summer Speaker Series, Disabled Academic Collective (2022)
- “Song and Dance in the Lives of Herring Gutters”, Guts Galore!, Scottish Fisheries Museum (2022)
- “”I Sometimes Think We Sang to Stop Ourselves from Crying”: Singing at Work Among Herring Gutters and Packers”, Traditional Song Forum (2022)
- “Gaelic and Jamaican” panelist, International Mother Language Day, Digital History (2021)
- “Gaelic Work Songs with Meg Hyland”, AskHistorians Podcast (2021)
- “Gaelic Herring Gutters’ Songs”, Anster Nicht In (2020)
- “The Gaelic Songs of Herring Gutters”, Previously… Scotland’s History Festival (2019)
- “Gaelic Songs of the Herring Lassies”, Scottish Fisheries Museum (2019)
- “Memories of Scottish Fishing Music”, Crail History Society (2017)
- “Memories of Scottish Fishing Music”, Anster Nichts (2016)
- “A Cran of Songs: Memories of Scottish Fishing Music”, Scottish Fisheries Museum (2016)