Dòmhnall Ruadh Chorùna (Red Donald of Coruna; 9 July 1887 – 13 August 1967), legally Donald MacDonald or Dòmhnall MacDhòmhnaill, was a Scottish Gaelic bard, North Uist stonemason, and veteran of the First World War. Literary historian Ronald Black has called Dòmhnall Ruadh, "The Voice of the Trenches."An Tuil, page 740.
He wrote An Eala Bhàn ("The White Swan"), which he composed after being wounded in action on a mission in no man's land during the Battle of the Somme. An Eala Bhàn is a love song addressed to Magaidh NicLeòid of Lochmaddy, the woman whom he hoped to marry. In recent years, it has been recorded by artists as diverse as Calum Kennedy, Donnie Munro, Capercaillie, and Julie Fowlis.
Family background
When the poet was young, he was often told stories about the experiences of his maternal great-grandparents during the Napoleonic Wars.
According to the family's oral tradition, the bard's great-grandmother, Mór Chaimbeul ("Marion Campbell") of Skye, had given a last drink of water to Sir John Moore moments before he was fatally wounded at the Battle of Corunna in 1809. At the moment when Moore was wounded, Marion Campbell was holding the stirrup of his horse, was thrown up into the air, and landed on her back. According to Dòmhnall Ruadh, his great-grandmother never recovered from the ensuing injury and it caused her to die young.Dòmhnall Ruadh Choruna Comann Eachdraidh Uibhist a Tuath, 1995. Pages 18–19.
Marion lost her first husband a member of Clan MacLeod of Dunvegan, at the Battle of Corunna as well.Ronald Black (1999), An Tuil: Anthology of 20th Century Scottish Gaelic Verse, page 740. She then began living with another soldier who had fought in the Battle named Domhnall mac Mhurchaidh 'ic Iain 'ic Mhurchaidh ("Donald Ferguson") (1780–1845), moved with him to his native North Uist, and eventually married him there.
In later years, a Gaelic rhyme about Marion became popular in North Uist:
"Blàr mòr Chorùna, 1809 – Chaidh Mòr mhòr Chorùna A-null dhan an Fhraing"Dòmhnall Ruadh Choruna Comann Eachdraidh Uibhist a Tuath, 1995. Page xxv.
"The big Battle of Corunna, 1809 – Big Marion of Corunna Went over to France."Dòmhnall Ruadh Choruna Comann Eachdraidh Uibhist a Tuath, 1995. Page xxxiv.
After they arrived in North Uist, the local tacksman of the island's landlord, the Chief of Clan MacDonald of Sleat, granted Donald and Marion Ferguson a croft in the township of Claddach Baleshare. Unfortunately, Donald and Marion Ferguson had only girls, fell into arrears, and were evicted from their croft. The tacksman then moved the Fergusons into another croft in the same district, where Donald built a house that still stands. Due to the Fergusons' many stories about their experiences in the wars, their home became one of the most popular ceilidh houses on the island.
Dòmhnall Ruadh later said of Donald Ferguson, "He was the only soldier on the island except for one other over Sollas way by the name of Aonghas Moireasdan, and he got this place where I am today. So many visitors came to call in the evenings to get the tales of Corunna and India from him and the lads would say to each other, 'Let's go over tonight to Corùna to hear the stories.' And the name Corùna stuck to this day and will continue as long as the sun sails westwards."
In commenting on the bard's family history, Ronald Black has written, "As Fred Macauley points out, the poet's background thus contained a certain glorification of war which was to expire forever in the mud of France."
Early life Dòmhnall Ruadh Corùna was born in the house built by his maternal great-grandfather on 9 July 1887. There were three other children in his family, two boys and a girl.Domhnall Ruadh Choruna, (1995), page xvi.
His mother, Flòraidh Fhionnghuala Dhòmhnaill 'ic Mhurchaidh 'ic Iain 'ic Mhurchaidh, worked as a domestic servant. Her father, Dòmhnall mac Ailein 'ic Chaluim, is known to have been both a merchant seaman and a Gaelic poet. Dòmhnall Mac Ailein's sister, Maighread nighean Ailein, was the composer of the Gaelic love song, Ille dhuinn, is toil leam thu ("Brown-Haired Lad, I'm Fond of You"). For this reason, Ronald Black has written, "Poetry was in Dòmhnall Ruadh's blood."Ronald Black (1999), An Tuil: Anthology of 20th Century Scottish Gaelic Verse, page 739.
The poet's father, Dòmhnall MacDhòmhnaill, worked as a merchant seaman.
Towards the end of his life, Dòmhnall wrote a poem called Smuaintean nam Shean Aois ("Thoughts in Old Age"). Dòmhnall recalled that in his youth he had been very irreligious and that the strict observance of the Christian Sabbath on Presbyterian North Uist was extremely difficult for him to get through every week. This was something that he regretted very deeply in later years.Domhnall Ruadh Choruna, Edited by Fred Macauley (1995), pages 184–185.
Dòmhnall briefly attended a district school at Carinish.Lawson (2011), North Uist in History and Legend, pages 77–80. He would later describe his school days in the poem Òran Nan Sgoilearan ("The Schoolchildren's Song") and how all the students were "hungry, deprived, barefoot, bareheaded".Domhnall Ruadh Choruna, (1995), pages 144–147.
Due to the 1872 Education Act, only English was tolerated as a medium for education in the schools of the Highlands and Islands. As a result, the bard would never learn to read or write in Scottish Gaelic, and always had to compose letters in English.Domhnall Ruadh Choruna, (1995), page xlv. However, he began composing Gaelic poetry at the age of 13. His mother was reportedly impressed with his abilities and made him promise never to compose scurrilous or satirical verse. Dòmhnall had a very deep respect for his mother and it was a promise he always honoured. This, and the introspection caused by his experiences in World War I, sets him apart from other Scottish Gaelic poets.
As he later recalled in his war poem Che b' e Gunna mo Nàmhaid ("It Was Not My Enemy's Gun"), a young Dòmhnall was fond of roaming the countryside of North Uist with a muzzle-loading musket, which he used for poaching game birds and red deer, while carefully trying to avoid the factorsDomhnall Ruadh Choruna, Edited by Fred Macauley (1995), pages 12–17. of the Anglo-Scottish Campbell-Orde family, who had been the widely hated landlords of North Uist since buying the island in 1855.Bill Lawson (2011), North Uist in History and Legend, Birlinn. Pages 207–208.
In the same poem, however, Dòmhnall recalled, "Is beag a shaoilinn an uair ud Gu robh 'n cruas seo gam ionnsaigh. 'S e gaol na mosgaid a dh'fhàg Fo ghlas-làmh aig a' Chrùn mi, An gaol a thug mi nam òige A bhith 'n còmhnaidh ga stiùreadh."Domhnall Ruadh Choruna, Edited by Fred Macauley (1995), page 16.
"Little did I guess then That this hardship was ahead. It was my love for the musket That left me fettered to the Crown, The fascination from my youth Of aiming it."Domhnall Ruadh Choruna, Edited by Fred Macauley (1995), page 17.
World War I Dòmhnall Ruadh joined the Inverness-shire unit of the King's Militia when he was seventeen. On the outbreak of World War I in 1914, he joined the Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders and served under the command of Colonel Donald Walter Cameron of Lochiel. Following combat training at Hunstanton, Norfolk, he was assigned to the regiment's 7th Service Battalion and landed in July 1915 at Boulogne-sur-Mer as part of the 44th Brigade in the 15th (Scottish) Division.A researched account of units' training in Norfolk in 1915 has been published in conjunction with the Highlanders' Museum: Mary Mackie: Hunstanton's Highland Heroes: West Norfolk 1915 (King's Lynn: Morningside Publishers, 2018. . He was sent into active service in the trench warfare of the Western Front.
Active service
Dòmhnall Ruadh Chorùna's battalion first saw combat on September 25, 1915; the first day of the Battle of Loos. One of the regimental bagpipers who led the Cameron Highlanders over the top was Berneray-born bush poet Iain Eairdsidh MacAsgaill, who is also an important figure in modern Scottish Gaelic literature.
On the first day, the 15th (Scottish) Division captured the village of Loos-en-Gohelle and Hill 70. Theirs was the furthest advance by any of the six British divisions involved in the first day of the battle, but it could not be exploited by the Allied forces.
Unlike more famous war poets like Wilfred Owen, Siegfried Sassoon, and Charles Sorley, Dòmhnall Ruadh Chorùna believed himself to be fighting a just war against a truly terrible enemy.
During his baptism of fire at the Battle of Loos, Dòmhnall experienced what he always thought was one of the first uses of poison gas by the Imperial German Army on the Western Front. In his poem Òran a' Phuinnsein ("The Song of the Poison"), he recalled how terrible the effects of the gas were and how he and his fellow soldiers had no defence against it. Dòmhnall concluded the poem by saying that he wished he could summon fire from heaven, like that which fell upon Sodom and Gomorrah, to also fall upon the German Empire and the German people to melt both without mercy.Domhnall Ruadh Choruna (1995), page 40-41.
Unbeknownst to Dòmhnall, he was actually describing the first use of poison gas by the British Army on the Western Front and one of the most disastrous friendly fire incidents of the First World War. On the first day of the Battle of Loos, chlorine gas, codenamed Red Star, was deployed (140 tons) and aimed at the German Sixth Army's positions on the Hohenzollern Redoubt. The wind proved fickle and the gas either lingered in no man's land or blew right back into British trenches. Escalating the situation, an extremely well-aimed and retaliatory artillery barrage resulted in German shells exploding upon the unused gas cylinders and releasing even more poison gas throughout British lines. The use of poison gas during the Battle of Loos caused 10 deaths and at least 2,000 cases of serious injury to British soldiers. Listverse article, "8 worst cases of friendly fire. The use of poison gas by all sides violated the 1899 Hague Declaration Concerning Asphyxiating Gases and the 1907 Hague Convention on Land Warfare.
In his poem Tha Mi Duilich, Cianail, Duilich ("I am Sad, Lamenting, and Full of Sorrow") Dòmhnall expresses grief for his friends who have fallen. He recalls their ceilidhs and how they sang Gaelic songs together. He adds that now they are now torn to pieces, lying in no man's land, or buried beneath crosses. Then, Dòmhnall speaks of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ and how one day all the men who fell in the war will also arise and be reunited with their loved ones. Dòmhnall concluded, however, by saying that as long as he lives, the images of his fallen friends and the horrors of war will be forever burned into his heart and his vision.Domhnall Ruadh Choruna (1995), page 24-27.
In the poem Dh'fhalbh na Gillean Grinn ("Off Went the Handsome Lads"), Dòmhnall describes both the exhilaration and the rage of going on a Highland charge against German trenches, the hatred he would feel for the enemy when seeing his friends fall, and the extreme satisfaction he would feel only moments later, while overrunning the enemy's trench and killing many German soldiers in close combat. The poem ends, however, with Dòmhnall and his fellow soldiers being awakened to grief, as their officers as for and then take down the name of the enormous number of Cameron Highlanders who were killed during the same attack.Domhnall Ruadh Chorùna (1995), page 36-39.