Thank you for the reply. I ended up using a combination of php and jquery in the functions.php file to append the published date to the title. the galleries were being displayed through the album shortcode on a wordpress page. the method was kinda crude but it worked without having to upgrade to pro and not having to modify plugin files that would be overwritten on next update.
Found the problem. I had to uncheck force inline on the SVG plug in side and all is well in the world now.
For anyone else in this forum that runs into a similar issue.
Bingo, we have a winner!! unchecking the force inline fixed it. I don’t remember why it was checked so i’m sure the other foot’s gonna drop at some point and i’ll have to fix it without checking the box.
Thank you for the help!!