the backgrounds of the musicians in the subgenre are diverse, from tim (mill a h-uile rud), who hails from seattle in the united states, to anna rothach (nad aislingean and oi polloi), who was born and raised in south uist. the uniting feature of all of these bands is that most of the gaelic-speaking members have spent some time at sabhal mòr ostaig, a gaelic college on the isle of skye. in diy-punk style, the gaelic punks started out by teaching each other the language at "gaelic for punks" classes; first held at the "edinburgh european city of punk" festival in 1997. after these individuals gained fluency, they took advantage of scholarships available at sabhal mòr ostaig, and there has been a small, but steady, stream of punks at the college ever since.