The Scots are coming - lock up your daughters. No, ignore the second part of that sentence. The Scots are indeed coming - but they bear no resemblance to the howling hordes Mel Gibson presented us in Braveheart. This "invasion" is annual and altogether more refined. Monday will see the continuation of a cultural exchange - An Chuairt - which has been growing quietly for almost 30 years.
Since 1971 Irish fili and Scottish baird have been making a week-long trip across the Sea of Moyle to visit and explore each other's artistic territories. Some of the finest poets writing in the Irish-language have made the journey and been enriched by the experience: Nuala Ni Dhomhnaill, Caitlin Maude, Mairtin O Direain, Miche al OhAirtneide and Liam O Muirthile to mention but a handful.
The Scots have been equally generous with their poets: Meg Bateman, Domhnall Mac Amhlaigh, Ruairidh MacThomais and, of course, the most famous of them all, Somhairle MacGill-Eain, are among those who have made the journey to Ireland.
MacGill-Eain was a man of Gaelic Scotland who fought and was wounded in north Africa while fighting Rommel's Afrika Korp and a poet of Gaelic Scotland who came to epitomise all that was native and rooted in a Scotland cast adrift in English nationalism.
His was a unique voice and it was from his work that the then president, Mary Robinson, quoted while visiting the Isle of Skye in 1997: "an fheile/Nach do reub an cuan/Nach do mhill mile bliadhna (The humanity/That the ocean could not break/That a thousand years has not severed.)
That visit was to be the catalyst for Iomairt Cholum Cille, a venture which seeks to rebuild sundered cultural links between Ireland and Scotland.
Robinson was moved to say during her visit: "for the future, Ireland and Scotland have much to learn from each other and to share. There are no two countries in western Europe which are as close: not only in a shared past but also in what we have in common today."
It is that shared culture which An Chuairt has sought to promote and re-establish. The format is simple: two poets, a musician and a singer tour and hold court as they pass through their host's land.
That straight-forward aim has led to friendships and understanding of a mutual plight which Bateman explores in one of her poems: "You gave me an intellectual grasp/of something unique dying out,/of a despoiling of humanity/for which there can be no reparation."
This year sees the return of the poets Domhnall MacAmhlaigh and Meg Bateman to these shores. MacAmhlaigh was born on the island of Bernera in the Scottish Gaeltacht and was professor of Celtic Studies in the University of Glasgow between 1991-1996. He has written extensively on Scottish culture.
Bateman, in contrast, was born in Edinburgh and learnt Scots Gaelic at Aberdeen University where she currently teaches. She has read throughout Europe and Ireland and her work is available in Gaelic, Irish and English.
The music will be supplied by the singer Christine Primrose and the piper Iain Mac a' Ghobhainn, both natives of Lewis. Primose has won many prizes for her renditions of traditional airs. She has sung in Britain, Ireland, Europe, Canada and the US. Iain Mac a' Ghobhainn has been piping since he was a child and is a recognised master of the art.
All events are free and will be conducted in Irish, Scots Gaelic and English. A booklet of the poetry will be available in Scots Gaelic and English. Information on dates and venues: 01-6794780