Online Condolence Register for victims of Islay road accident now has 80 responses

The online Condolence Register was set up by the Islay Weblog after the deaths in a road accident near Bridgend on 2nd December 2008 of Neil MacFadyen, Dougie MacTaggart and his ten year-old son, Jamie.

It now has eighty responses from all over the island, the UK mainland, the other Scottish islands of Skye, Orkney and Shetland and from Dublin in the repub;ic of Ireland, the Netherlands, Ottawa in Canada and New Zealand.

Many are exiled Ileachs, touchingly adding maiden names and nicknames to their messages to reinforce thier connection with the suffering in their home place. Some are from people who come to Islay to study Gaelic at the college there. There are sympathies to the island from regular holidaymakers and from fellow human beings everywhere who simply understand how numb the families and friends on Islay will be and want to offer what they can to help.

One message is from Ballycastle on the north coast of Northern Island, sent by someone from Islay who now lives over there. If you know the territory you will also know that from Ballycastle you can see Islay with the Paps of Jura rising behind it. For an Ileach, this must be a very poignant view just now.