THERE was no question over the depth of feeling on Skye in 1965 in relation to a new Sunday ferry service between Kyle of Lochalsh and Kyleakin.
Scottish Secretary of State Willie Ross had rejected an appeal from Skye District Council to intervene in the dispute which had been brewing for a while. Some island ministers said that while they accepted that the service would now run, they would ask their congregations to “cold-shoulder” any Sunday visitors. Rev Norman MacLeod, of Portree Free Church, said a forthcoming rally would “boost the spiritual and moral fibre of the community against any demoralising influences from the running of the ferry”.
On June 4, two days before the first sailing, more than 100 islanders pledged to form a human barrier at the approaches to the Kyleakin to prevent the ferry from sailing. Rev Angus Smith, of Snizort Free Church, said that if the islanders went to the ferry on Sunday, the “furore and uproar” would extend throughout the kingdom and ensure that the ferry would not sail in future. If he had 200 men with him, he added, no vehicle would pass.
The protests on June 6, attracted considerable attention and a sizeable police presence (photographs by Harry Moyes). Fourteen men, including Rev Smith, who were part of a 50-strong barrier were forcibly removed from the quay by police and charged with breach of the peace. It took seven officers to remove one protester, a 20-stone butcher from Dunvegan. One eyewitness, a tourist from Dallas, Texas, remarked, “The last time I saw so many police was when President Kennedy was assassinated”.
A Church of Scotland minister on Skye described the men’s actions as “the most massive breach of the Lord’s Day that Skye has ever known”.
Read more: Herald Diary
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