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(Alexander Macdonald) and the ’45

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Comann Eachdraidh Mhùideirt Alastair mac Mhaighstir Alastair (Alexander MacDonald) and the ’45 Ronald Black This lecture was given by Ronald Black to members of the Moidart Local History Group on Monday 13 November 2006. He is a well known academic, formerly a lecturer in Celtic in Glasgow and Edinburgh universities and is current Gaelic Editor of The Scotsman. It was therefore particularly appropriate that Ronald should have been invited to lecture on Alastair mac Mhaighstir to the Moidart Local History Group at this time. This came on the heels of research being done by them on a Journal recording Bonnie Prince Charlie’s ill-fated uprising, recently unearthed in the Drambuie Collection and, thought to have been written by Alastair. In brief, the lecture notes which follow, trace the life of the Gaelic Bard through written evidence presented in the form of about seventy slides, with captions – which are set out below. In addition to being a bard, Alastair mac Mhaighstir wrote a Gaelic/English dictionary and was a schoolmaster in Ardnamurchan. His poems, ranged from the bawdy to the philosophical and many were passionately allied to the Jacobite cause. He was intemperate in nature and alienated many by his outspokenness throughout his life. Ronald Black, like some other well-known literary figures before him, said he felt convinced that the bard was the writer of the Journal in the Lockhart Papers. However, unlike those before him, he had had the opportunity of seeing the original manuscript and this had made him even more convinced that Alastair was the writer. A month after the talk, an article appeared in the Scotsman recounting the discovery of the Journal – and this is reproduced elsewhere on the site. 1 Mac Mhgr Alastair and the ’45 The Sources 1. Mac Mhgr Alastair’s published works 2. His Gaelic manuscripts 3. Correspondence in English 4. Legal documents in English 5. Biographical works 6. His accounts of the ’45 The talk was grouped into these six main headings Mac Mhgr Alastair’s published works His Gaelic manuscripts Correspondence in English Legal documents in English Biographical works His accounts of the ’45 2 Mac Mhgr Alastair’s published works 3 (1a) A Galick and English Vocabulary . For the Use of the Charity- Schools, Founded and Endued in the Highlands of Scotland by the Honourable, the Society for Propagating Christian Knowledge, by Mr. Alexander McDonald Schoolmaster at Ardnamurchan in Argyleshire (Edinburgh, 1741). The Society paid the poet £10 sterling for the work. 3 Mac Mhgr Alastair’s published works 4 (1b) John Lorne Campbell, ‘The First Printed Gaelic Vocabulary’, The Scots Magazine , October 1937, p. 51 (beginning of article). 4 Mac Mhgr Alastair’s published works 5 (1c) Alexander Robertson of Struan, Esq., Poems, on Various Subjects and Occasions . Mostly Taken from his own Original Manuscripts , Edinburgh, 1751, pp. 202–03: ‘MacDonald the Bard’s Salutation to General Wade’. 5 Mac Mhgr Alastair’s published works 6 (1d) Ais-Eiridh na Sean Chánoin Albannaich . Le Alastair Mac-Dhonuill, Bailli Chana (“The Resurrection of the Ancient Scottish Tongue . By Alexander MacDonald, Factor of Canna”), 1751. This copy (NLS Hall 149.k) bears a note perhaps in the hand of Simon Fraser of Knockie: “Numerous Copies of this Collection were burnt by the hands of the Common Hangman in Edinburgh in 1752 by order of Government.” 6 Mac Mhgr Alastair’s published works 7 (1e) Second edition of the Ais-Eiridh , published by John Orr in Glasgow in 1764. Contains less poems than the first edition, but the main elements are still in place: nature, sedition, obscenity. 7 Mac Mhgr Alastair’s published works 8 (1f) Comh-Chruinneachidh Orannaigh Gaidhealach, le Raonuill MacDomhnuill, An ’N Eilean Eigg (“A Collection of Gaelic Songs, by Ronald MacDonald, in the Isle of Eigg”), 1776. Ronald was the poet’s only son. The book is an anthology of the Gaelic verse of the past three centuries. Only one volume ever appeared, but a new edition was published in 1809, shortly after Ronald’s death. Alastair wrote in the preface to the Ais-Eiridh that one reason for its publication was ‘to bespeak, if possible, the favour of the public, to a greater collection of poems of the same sort, in all kinds of poetry . from those of the earliest composition to modern times’. The ‘Eigg Collection’ is the son’s fulfilment of the father’s aims. 8 Mac Mhgr Alastair’s published works 9 (1g) Other editions of his poetry: 1802, 1834, 1835, 1839, 1851, 1874, 1892, 1924, 1996. This is the 1924 edition – Revs A. and A. Macdonald, The Poems of Alexander MacDonald (Inverness, 1924), title-page. 9 Mac Mhgr Alastair’s published works 10 (1h) Derick Thomson, ed., Alasdair Mac Mhaighstir Alasdair, Selected Poems (Scottish Gaelic Texts Society, 1996): title-page. Does not contain translations. 10 Mac Mhgr Alastair’s published works 11 (1i) Title-page of an English translation of mac Mhgr Alastair’s epic poem ‘Birlinn Chlann Raghnaill’ by Hugh MacDiarmid (Christopher Grieve), St Andrews, 1935. 11 Mac Mhgr Alastair and the ’45 2. His Gaelic manuscripts His Gaelic manuscripts 12 His Gaelic manuscripts 13 (2a) NLS Adv. ms 72.1.39, ff. 16v–17r. A seventeenth-century MacMhuirich manuscript containing, in Gaelic script, the tale of the Seven Wise Masters followed by a collection of poems. A certain Alexander MacDonald has made jottings in English related to a journey through Rannoch in the winter of 1738-39. His signature appears here three times. Top: “writen by my hand Alexr McD / Alexr McDonald aught this”. Left: “Discharge Alexr McDonald to Duncan Kenedy / for the sume of two Hundred merks Scots Money / Fionart Janury the twenty fouth 1739 years”. Upside-down, foot: “The fear of the fear of the Lord”. Top right: “Alexander McDonald”. The discharge (receipt) shows that Kennedy has given MacDonald 200 merks (£10 sterling). 13 His Gaelic manuscripts 14 (2b) NLS Adv. ms 72.1.39, ff. 22v–23r. This is a bill of exchange in MacDonald’s hand: “Sir against the term of mertimas next / Sir, Fioinart nomr Janr 20 5 1739 / Aganst the term of mertimas next to Come / plase pay to me Duncan Kenedy son to / Donald oge Kennedy in wester Finard or my / order within the House of George Small / Writter in Dull thee sume of twenty merks / Scots money the value Recived of mine in your / hand hands make thankfull paymt and obli.” In other words MacDonald now owes Kennedy 20 merks (£1 sterling), his credit with Small is reckoned good, and Small is to pay Kennedy that amount from MacDonald’s account. 14 His Gaelic manuscripts 15 (2c) NLS Adv. ms 72.1.39, ff. 27v–28r. Here MacDonald jots down a Gaelic song. It’s badly spelt and hard to make out, but by comparing it with another eighteenth-century version in the MacLagan collection in Glasgow University, I was able to read it and make a translation. 15 His Gaelic manuscripts 16 (2d) Ronald Black, ‘Mac Mhaighstir Alastair in Rannoch: A Reconstruction’, Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Inverness , vol. 59 (1994–96), pp. 378–79 (the song). 16 His Gaelic manuscripts 17 (2e) NLS Adv. ms 72.2.11, pp. 2–3. This manuscript consists entirely of the traditional story Cath Fionntràgha (“The Battle of Ventry”), taken down by the poet in Gaelic script from (I suspect) the dictation of his fellow poet Iain MacCodrum in North Uist, whom we know Alastair visited and who was one of the most celebrated tellers of such stories in his day. 17 His Gaelic manuscripts 18 (2f) Royal Irish Academy ms E.ii.1 (746), papers of the antiquarian Charles O’Conor of Belanagare (1710–91): John Lorne Campbell, ‘The Royal Irish Academy Text of “Birlinn Chlann Raghnaill”’, Scottish Gaelic Studies , vol. 9 (1961–62), pp. 52–53, showing a page of the manuscript. 18 His Gaelic manuscripts 19 (2g) NLS Adv. ms 72.2.11, p. 1, and NLS Adv. ms 72.2.13, p. 118 (the first surviving page), showing part of Òran Luaidh no Fùcaidh ‘The Waulking or Fulling Song’. This is what’s left of the poet’s manuscript of his own poems, an invaluable source, probably written in the 1760s, as in one place it mentions the coming of sheep-farming to Cowal. It now has fifty pages but originally had at least 184. It contains eighteen of the sixty-odd poems which Alastair is known to have composed. Of these eighteen, four are extended or alternative versions of items in the Ais-Eiridh , while the other fourteen are unique. 19 His Gaelic manuscripts 20 (2h) NLS ms 72.2.13 (“Gaelic ms 63”), p. 120, showing end of Òran Luaidh no Fùcaidh ‘The Waulking or Fulling Song’ and beginning of Òran Bachail ‘Drinking Song’ (both Jacobite). 20 His Gaelic manuscripts 21 (2i) Donald Mackinnon, ‘Unpublished Poems by Alexander MacDonald (Mac Mhaighstir Alastair)’, The Celtic Review , vol. 4 (1907–08), p. 289 (beginning of article). 21 His Gaelic manuscripts 22 (2j) John Lorne Campbell, ‘Gaelic MS. 63 of the National Library’, Scottish Gaelic Studies , vol. 4 (1934–35), p. 70 (beginning of article). 22 His Gaelic manuscripts 23 (2k) John Lorne Campbell, ‘Gaelic MS. 63 of the National Library’, Scottish Gaelic Studies , vol. 4 (1934–35), p. 169 (showing a page of the manuscript). 23 His Gaelic manuscripts 24 (2l) John Lorne Campbell, ‘Gaelic MS. 63 of the National Library’, Scottish Gaelic Studies , vol. 4 (1934–35), p. 191 (beginning of Bha Seumas Caimbeul san àm). 24 His Gaelic manuscripts 25 (2m) Donald Mackinnon, ‘Unpublished Poems by Alexander MacDonald (Mac Mhaighstir Alastair)’, The Celtic Review , vol.
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