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FM announces new digital features and invites input from Burns enthusiasts.

Burns enthusiasts have been invited to share their favourite tales of Robert Burns to help build an interactive digital timeline portraying the life and works of our national bard.

This new initiative will be used to provide an update to the highly successful Burns app, which has seen 29,000 download to date, from as far afield as Venezuela to the Vietnam. As part of the Homecoming 2014 celebrations, the timeline project will also call for modern day significant events that capture the worldwide appreciation of Burns.

First Minister Alex Salmond last night delivered the Immortal Memory of Robert Burns at Dunblane Youth Burns Club’s Burns Supper and hailed the event as a ‘spectacular celebration.’ The Burns Supper kicks-off a programme of events marking the Dunblane Centre’s 10th anniversary year.

A Guide to Burns Night, guest chef recipes and an Ultimate Burns Quiz are among the new online features announced by the First Minister, available for free to enrich Burns Night 2014 celebrations.

The First Minister said:

“Robert Burns is an worldwide cultural icon, loved the world o’er, and these new online features appeal to existing admirers of Burns while bringing his works and humanitarian ethos to a whole new audience. It is a great platform to celebrate and promote our national bard on the international stage as well as reaching the next generation of Burns enthusiasts.

“It’s fantastic to see younger generations fully appreciate the global contribution of Robert Burns and I hope that all members of the Dunblane Youth Burns Club will submit their own personal favourite stories of Burns to our new interactive timeline project.

“The Dunblane Youth Burns Club’s Burns Supper is one of many thousands of Burns Suppers taking place across the world - from Brisbane to Boston to Beijing, and from Dunedin to Delhi to Dunblane. That’s a testimony to the fact that Burns’s work resonates with people on an international scale. He is the third most celebrated person around the world with more statues and monuments than any other figures of modern times – in fact, in the USA, there are more statues of Burns than there are of any American writer.

“I have no doubt that Robert Burns would be tweeting and blogging his ideas today and would be delighted to see the Burns app broadcasting to a worldwide audience. Modern day communications methods would be exactly what he’d use and approve of, and that is why the works and ideas of Robert Burns are immortal and resonate through the ages.”

Stewart Prodger, Trustee of the Dunblane Centre said:

“The seventh Dunblane Youth Burns Club Burns Supper was a roaring success and a fitting tribute to our national bard. Having the Frist Minister as the special guest made it all the more memorable given the year Scotland will have in 2014.

“Twenty of our Youth Burns Club members took part in last night’s festivities and we were very proud of the exceptional entertainment they put on for all the guests. This marks the start of the yearlong celebration commemorating the 10th anniversary of the Dunblane Centre, and I couldn’t think of a better way to kick it off than the Burns Supper.

“We’ll certainly be playing our part and contributing our favourite Burns moments to the Burn Homecoming Timeline and look forward to seeing the finished article when it’s launched.”

Notes to editors

To download the app, and to access all the other online Burns features, please visit www.scotland.org/burns

To submit your Robert Burns Timeline suggestions by February 28, please:

• Email – info@scotland.org using the subject: Burns Homecoming Timeline
• Post – Burns Homecoming Timeline, Communications 3W, St Andrew’s House, EH1 3DG
• Facebook – www.facebook.com/BurnsNight

Share Burns celebrations on www.facebook.com/BurnsNight or using the hashtag #BurnsNight

The Dunblane Centre was built as a direct result of the 1996 tragedy and operates as part of a charity, entirely without any statutory funding. Operating costs are around £220,000 pa and funded through a mix of activity, grant and events fundraising. The Centre is run by a Board of Trustees from the community, with over 100 volunteers and a handful of staff.