Manchester terror victim’s legacy... the gift of music
SCHOOLGIRL Eilidh MacLeod had been a keen piper who ‘lived for music’ until the Manchester Arena bombing cut short her life.
Now, the 14-year-old’s family have set up a charity in her name to help young musicians.
Eilidh was one of 22 people killed in the terror attack at an Ariana Grande concert on May 22 last year.
She had gone to the show with her friend Laura MacIntyre, then 15, who was badly injured.
Eilidh, from the Isle of Barra, in the Outer Hebrides, was the only Scots victim.
Her memory will be honoured through the Eilidh MacLeod Memorial Trust, which will help youngsters in rural Scotland access music education. A permanent memorial to her and the other bombing victims will also be created on Barra.
Miss MacLeod played the pipes with Sgoil Lionacleit Pipe Band and regularly travelled around the country for competitions.
The Trust was registered as a charity at the end of last month by Eilidh’s aunt, Margaret MacNeil.
Support has come from Scottish band Skipinnish, through the proceeds of their single Wishing Well.
Yesterday, Eilidh’s father Roddy MacLeod said: ‘Marion [Eilidh’s mother] and I have been working with a small group on the island to help us develop our ideas for the memorial.
‘We are very grateful for their continuing support in assisting us to achieve both the objectives and ambitions of the Trust.
‘We want the memorial to remember Eilidh and all the bereaved and injured from the tragic events in Manchester, but for it also to portray the love, support and resilience of not only the people of Barra and Vatersay, but all the people and communities who have helped us.
‘We would also like to thank our families and friends for their support and being instrumental in forming the Trust and for all the fundraising they have done.’
The Trust has also received support from the Ardonagh Community Trust, a charity of the Ardonagh Group, an independent insurance broking company. Mrs MacNeil is an Ardonagh employee.
More backing has come from artist Hope Blamire, Loganair, CalMac, the Heathbank, Craigard and Castlebay hotels on Barra, Hebridean Toffee, Mingulay boat trips and many others.
The Sgoil Lionacleit Pipe Band – made up of secondary school pupils from Uist and Barra – performed a moving tribute to Eilidh at the Scottish Schools Pipe Band Championships in March, even leaving a space to mark where she would have stood.
Event organisers also named a trophy in her honour, the Eilidh MacLeod Endeavour Award.
At the championships in Livingston, West Lothian, Eilidh’s greatuncle, Councillor Donald Manford, said: ‘Eilidh’s legacy, like the pipes and the music she loved, will long survive her journey in this life.’
Airline Loganair named an aircraft after the youngster in January and the Spirit of Eilidh links Barra, Tiree and Campbeltown with Glasgow.
Eilidh’s friend Miss MacIntyre was transferred to a Glasgow hospital after the bombing and returned to Barra in August last year.
The girls and thousands of others were leaving the concert when suicide bomber Salman Abedi, 22, detonated a device in his rucksack.
The youngest victim was an eightyear-old girl and the eldest a 51year-old woman.
‘Remember her and all the bereaved’