Shetland ForWirds recently held its AGM during which Davy Cooper was elected as the new chair in place of Mary Blance. Davy was a co-founder of the group back in 2004 and said that he was particularly looking forward to encouraging the use of the dialect among the younger generations. He is well known as a storyteller and has worked in the heritage sector as a volunteer.

Mary Blance also recently received recognition of her work promoting the dialect. A native of North Roe, she has also studied at Aberdeen University, and, in 1978, joined the then recently established Radio Shetland. She eventually became senior producer and presenter. At an event held in Edinburgh last month Mary was presented with an Honorary Fellowship of Association for Scottish Literary Studies for her work in broadcasting and in promoting Shetland dialect. Mary expressed her surprise when first told, commenting that someone must have put her name forward, but she was “brawly excited.”