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Alasdair mac Mhaighstir Alasdair

Alasdair mac Mhaighstir Alasdair (c. 1698–1770), legal name Alexander MacDonald,[1] or, in Gaelic Alasdair MacDhòmhnaill, was a Scottish war poet, satirist, lexicographer, and memoirist.

He was born at Dalilea into the Scottish nobility (Scottish Gaelic: flath) and Clan MacDonald of Clanranald (Scottish Gaelic: Clann Raghnaill) and is believed to have been homeschooled in Celtic mythology, Irish bardic poetry, Classics, and the Western canon, before briefly attending university. MacDhòmhnaill was multilingual and had the rare skill at the time[2] of literacy in the vernacular Scottish Gaelic language. Drawing upon his own culture and the literature in the other languages he knew, Alasdair MacDhòmhnaill began composing Gaelic poetry while teaching at a Protestant school at Kilchoan, run by the Society in Scotland for Propagating Christian Knowledge. The bard published the first secular book in Scottish Gaelic, the glossary Leabhar a Theagasc Ainminnin (1741).[3]

Hearing MacDhòmhnaill's Jacobite poetry read aloud by one of the Seven Men of Moidart was credited by Gaelic literary scholar John Mackenzie with helping persuade Prince Charles Edward Stuart to sail from France to Scotland and begin the Rising of 1745.[4] MacDhòmhnaill fought as a captain in the Jacobite Army. The Clanranald Bard, as he has since been dubbed by Hamish Henderson,[5] was also chosen to teach Gaelic to the Prince.[6][7]

After the Battle of Culloden, Alasdair MacDhòmhnaill, his wife, and children remained in hiding until the Act of Indemnity was passed.[8] He then served, under the name, "Captain Alexander MacDonald, brother german of Æneas or Angus MacDonald of Dalely (sic) in Moidart, of the family of Clanranald, and full cousin-german to Miss Flora MacDonald",[9] as a source about the rising and it's aftermath for non-juring Episcopal Bishop Robert Forbes' 3 Volume primary source collection The Lyon in Mourning.[10][11][12]

In 1751, MacDhòmhnaill published the second secular book in the Gaelic language, Ais-Eiridh na Sean Chánoin Albannaich (The Resurrection of the Old Scottish Language); a poetry collection. Due to his frank treatment of sexuality and vocal attacks in verse against the House of Hanover and the ruling Whig political party, all known copies were publicly burned at the Mercat Cross in Edinburgh.[13] Even so, twelve copies of the first edition still survive.

After another two decades of composing Gaelic poetry, Alasdair Mac Mhaighstir Alasdair died at Arisaig and was buried locally in St Máel Ruba's Roman Catholic cemetery in 1770.[14] His last direct descendant, Capt. Angus R. McDonald (1832-1879), emigrated from Eigg to the United States and fought in the Union Army during the American Civil War,[15] after which he was known throughout Wisconsin as "the hero of Fort Blakely."[16][17]

Alasdair MacDhòmhnaill and 20th-century Symbolist Bard Sorley MacLean are considered the twin pinnacles of Scottish Gaelic literature. 21st-century Celticist Robert Dunbar called Alasdair mac Mhaighstir Alasdair, "the greatest poet of the eighteenth century Golden Age of Gaelic poets", and the 1751 publication of Ais-eridh na Sean Chánoin Albannaich inspired, "an increasing number of important collections of Gaelic poetry."[18]

Due to the very high praise of literary scholar John Lorne Campbell beginning in the 1930s, the British folk revival in the 1950s, Scottish devolution in the 1990s, and the growth of Scottish Gaelic-medium education as a tool of heritage language revival, interest in Alasdair MacDhòmhnuill has also been revived. He has even been promoted as Scotland's other national poet and even as a complimentary figure to Robert Burns.[19][20][21][22] After over two centuries of bowdlerisation, the first complete and uncensored collection of MacDhòmhnaill's poetry was published at West Montrose, Ontario in 2020.[23]

  1. ^ Thomson, Derick (1998). "James Macpherson: The Gaelic Dimension". In Stafford, Fiona J.; Gaskill, Howard (eds.). From Gaelic to Romantic: Ossianic Translations. Rodopi. p. 17. ISBN 9789042007819.
  2. ^ When writing about MacDonald's close friend and contemporary, North Uist poet and seanchaidh Iain Mac Fhearchair, alias John MacCodrum, John Lorne Campbell explained that when a Highlander of the era was described as, "illiterate", "is to say that he never learned English. In MacCodrum's day little education was available for the Highlanders, and none at all in their own language." Campbell (1979), Highland Songs of the Forty-Five, page 246, footnote 1.
  3. ^ name="Campbell 1971 pp. 33">Campbell (1971), Highland Songs of the Forty-Five, pp. 33–34.
  4. ^ John Lorne Campbell (1979), Highland Songs of the Forty-Five, p. 35, footnote No. 3.
  5. ^ Edited by Eberhard Bort (2011), Tis Sixty Years Since: The 1951 Edinburgh People's Festival Ceilidh and the Scottish Folk Revival, page 206.
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference Campbell 1972 p. 36 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ Pininski, Peter (2010). A Life. Charlie. Amberley. p. 32. ISBN 978-1-84868-194-1.
  8. ^ MacDonald (2011), pp. 125–127.
  9. ^ Robert Forbes (1895), The Lyon in Mourning: Or a Collection of Speeches, Letters, Journals Etc., Relative to the Affairs of Prince Charles Edward Stuart. Volume I, Printed at the University Press by T. and A. Constable for the Scottish History Society. Pages 320-321.
  10. ^ Robert Forbes (1895), The Lyon in Mourning: Or a Collection of Speeches, Letters, Journals Etc., Relative to the Affairs of Prince Charles Edward Stuart. Volume I, Printed at the University Press by T. and A. Constable for the Scottish History Society. Pages 320-354.
  11. ^ Robert Forbes (1895), The Lyon in Mourning: Or a Collection of Speeches, Letters, Journals Etc., Relative to the Affairs of Prince Charles Edward Stuart. Volume II, Printed at the University Press by T. and A. Constable for the Scottish History Society. Pages 336-337.
  12. ^ Robert Forbes (1895), The Lyon in Mourning: Or a Collection of Speeches, Letters, Journals Etc., Relative to the Affairs of Prince Charles Edward Stuart. Volume III, Printed at the University Press by T. and A. Constable for the Scottish History Society. Pages 84-88, 89-90.
  13. ^ Campbell (1971), Highland Songs of the Forty-Five, p. 40.
  14. ^ Charles MacDonald (2011), Moidart: Among the Clanranalds, Birlinn Limited. p. 131.
  15. ^ Charles MacDonald (2011), Moidart: Among the Clanranalds, Birlinn Limited. pp. 133, 136-137.
  16. ^ Cite error: The named reference auto1 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  17. ^ Captain Angus R. McDonald, from the Mazomanie Historical Society, in Dane County, Wisconsin.
  18. ^ Edited by Natasha Sumner and Aidan Doyle (2020), North American Gaels: Speech, Song, and Story in the Diaspora, McGill-Queen's University Press. Page 287.
  19. ^ The Scottish Poetry Library interviews Alan Riach about Alasdair mac Mhaighstir Alasdair, June 2016.
  20. ^ Not Burns – Alasdair Mac Mhaighstir Alasdair! by Alan Riach, The National: The Newspaper that Supports an Independent Scotland, 11, February 2016.
  21. ^ A great Scot, too aft forgot: Alasdair mac Mhaighstir Alasdair by Hamish MacPherson, The National: The Newspaper that Supports an Independent Scotland, 13 January 2020.
  22. ^ It's time to embrace the legacy of this rebel poet, by Cailean Gallagher, The National: The Newspaper that Supports an Independent Scotland, 11 June 2023.
  23. ^ Edited by Sgàire Uallas (2020), Aiseirigh: Òrain le Alastair Mac Mhaighstir Alastair, An Clò Glas, West Montrose, Ontario.

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