Alasdair mac Mhaighstir Alasdair (c. 1698–1770), legal name Alexander MacDonald, or, in Gaelic Alasdair MacDhòmhnaill, was a Scottish poet, satirist, lexicographer, and memoirist.
He was born at Dalilea and is believed to have been homeschooled before briefly attending university. MacDhòmhnaill was multilingual literacy in the vernacular Scottish Gaelic language. Alasdair began composing Gaelic poetry while teaching at a Protestant school at Kilchoan, run by the Society in Scotland for Propagating Christian Knowledge. He published the first secular book in Scottish Gaelic, the glossary Leabhar a Theagasc Ainminnin (1741).name="Campbell 1971 pp. 33">Campbell (1971), Highland Songs of the Forty-Five, pp. 33–34. Hearing Alasdair 's Jacobite poetry read aloud was said to have helped persuade Prince Charles Edward Stuart to sail from France to Scotland and begin the Rising of 1745.John Lorne Campbell (1979), Highland Songs of the Forty-Five, p. 35, footnote No. 3. Alasdair fought as a captain in the Jacobite Army. HeEdited by Eberhard Bort (2011), Tis Sixty Years Since: The 1951 Edinburgh People's Festival Ceilidh and the Scottish Folk Revival, page 206. was chosen to teach Gaelic to the prince. After the Battle of Culloden, Alasdair, his wife, and children remained in hiding until the Act of Indemnity was passed.MacDonald (2011), pp. 125–127.
In 1751, Alasdair 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 Jacobitism, frank treatment of sexuality, and vocal attacks in verse against the House of Hanover and the ideology of the ruling Whig political party, all known copies were publicly burned at the Mercat Cross in Edinburgh.Campbell (1971), Highland Songs of the Forty-Five, p. 40. Even so, twelve copies of the first edition still survive. The 1751 publication of Ais-eridh na Sean Chánoin Albannaich inspired, "an increasing number of important collections of Gaelic poetry."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. 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.Charles MacDonald (2011), Moidart: Among the Clanranalds, Birlinn Limited. p. 131.
Alsasdair has been mentioned as one of Scotland's national poets and even as a complimentary figure to Robert Burns.The Scottish Poetry Library interviews Alan Riach about Alasdair mac Mhaighstir Alasdair, June 2016.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. After over two centuries of bowdlerisation, the first complete and uncensored collection of Alasdair's poetry was published at West Montrose, Ontario in 2020.Edited by Sgàire Uallas (2020), Aiseirigh: Òrain le Alastair Mac Mhaighstir Alastair, An Clò Glas, West Montrose, Ontario. Ballachulish-based vocalist Griogair Labhruidh has also recorded Alasdair's Òran Eile don Phrionnsa ("Another Song to the Prince"), titled by its first line Moch sa Mhadainn 's Mi a' Dùsgadh, as part of the soundtrack for the 2nd and 4th seasons of the TV series Outlander.Outlander star speaks out on 'underrepresented' Gaelic culture: 'A romanticised ideal' By KATIE PALMER, Express, 15:07, Sun, Mar 13, 2022.
Family background Alasdair mac Mhaighstir Alasdair was born around 1698, into both the Scottish nobility and Clan MacDonald of Clanranald. Through his great-grandmother Màiri, daughter of Angus MacDonald of Islay, he claimed descent from Scottish Kings Robert the Bruce and Robert II, the first monarch of the House of Stuart,Thomson, Derick S. The Companion to Gaelic Scotland, (Blackwell Reference 1987), page 184, as well as, like the rest of Clan Donald, from Somerled. Alasdair's father, Maighstir Alasdair MacDhòmhnaill, was a native of South Uist and was the fourth son of Ronald MacDonald, the tacksman of Milton. Through his oldest brother, Ranald MacDonald, who succeeded their father as tacksman of Milton and Balivanich, Maighstir Alasdair was the uncle of Flora MacDonald. He was also distantly related to The Captain of Clanranald (). He graduated from the University of Glasgow in 1674Derek S. Thomson (1983), The Companion to Gaelic Scotland, page 184.John Lorne Campbell, "Canna; Story of a Hebridean Island," p. 98. and shortly afterwards was assigned as a rector to the parish in Ardnamurchan. The poet's mother was a Maclachlan from Glencripesdale and the two came to reside at Dalilea at about the end of the 17th century.Charles MacDonald (2011), Moidart: Among the Clanranalds, Birlinn Unlisted. p. 117. Maighstir Alasdair is said to have died in the 1720s. He lies buried next to his wife on Finnan's Island in Loch Shiel, on the south side of the ruined chapel, underneath a gravestone on which a skeleton has been carved.MacDonald (2011), p. 123.
Early life Alasdair mac Mhaighstir Alasdair, was born at Dalilea at the beginning of the 18th century.MacDonald (2011), p. 128. The old part of Dalilea House, which is believed to date from the 15th century and where Alasdair was born, is still extant. So, in fact, is an oak which Alasdair is said to have planted in his youth.Charles MacDonald (2011), Moidart: Among the Clanranalds, Birlinn Limited. pp. 132-133. There were no schools in the area and so it is thought that the younger Alasdair was educated by his father throughout his early years. However, bishop Robert Forbes later wrote of Alasdair, "He is a very smart, acute man, remarkably well skilled in the Erse, for he can both read and write the Irish language in its original character, a piece of knowledge almost quite lost in the Highlands of Scotland, there being exceedingly few that have any skill at all in that way. For the Captain told me that he did not know another person (old Clanranald excepted) that knew anything of the first tongue in its original character... Several of the Captain's acquaintances have told me that he is by far the best Erse poet in all Scotland, and that he has written many songs in the pure Irish."Campbell (1971), Highland Songs of the Forty-Five, Dropbox download here pp. 37–38.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. Page 354. Even though he would have been only a teenager at the time, according to Derrick S. Thomson, "from one or two references there it could be thought that he", had also taken part in the Jacobite rising of 1715.
Alasdair followed in the footsteps of his father and attended the University of Glasgow, and the University of Edinburgh, at a time when Scottish songs were gaining huge popularity. He is said to have left without receiving a degree. He is known, however, to have later set several of his poems to the airs played upon the steeple of the Glasgow Tolbooth, near the Old College. Derick Thomson suggests that his departure may have been due to his having married Jane MacDonald of Dalness (Sine Nic Dhòmhnaill). Derick S. Thomson writes that Jane's family, the MacDonalds of Dalness, "had strong literary interests". Her father had composed a verse dialogue between Queen Anne and the Chief of Clan Stewart of Appin. Furthermore, the Gaelic song Tha mise seo 'm laighe is attributed to Jane's brother.Derek S. Thomson (1983), The Companion to Gaelic Scotland, pages 169–170. Alasdair later wrote the poem Òran d'a chéile nuadh-phósda in praise of his bride and referred to his father in law as, "The Rhymer". Another account states that Alasdair left the university because his family could not afford the price of attending. However, according to John Lorne Campbell, "In any case, Glasgow University has no record of Alexander MacDonald, son of 'Maighstir Alasdair', as a student."John Lorne Campbell (1984), Canna; The Story of a Hebridean Island, Oxford University Press. p. 98. Alasdair was described as a fine singer, of tall height and broad chest, handsome in feature and fair in hair. Among his attributes were sincerity, honesty, loyalty to his friends and to his own convictions.Alasdair Mac Mhaighstir Alasdair – Alexander Macdonald, The Jacobite Bard of Clanranald, Clan Donald Magazine, No 9 (1981), By Norman H. MacDonald.
Protestant missioner
In 1729, Alasdair was appointed to a school at Finnan Island, at the head of Loch Shiel and only a few miles from Alasdair's ancestral home at Dalilea, as a teacher by the Society in Scotland for Propagating Christian Knowledge (SPCK). He was the catechist of the same parish under the Royal Bounty Committee of the Church of Scotland; his position required him to teach at various locations throughout Moidart. From 1738 to 1744, Alasdair MacDhòmhnaill taught at the school attached to his father's former parish church at Kilchoan. He also supplemented his salary of £16 a year by renting the farm at Allt Coire Mhuilinn, about which he later composed one of his most famous poems: Allt an t-Siùcar (The Sugar Brook), which remains, according to Scottish nationalist literary scholar Cailean Gallagher, "a favourite at Mòds and ceilidhs to this day."It's time to embrace the legacy of this rebel poet, by Cailean Gallagher, The National, 11 June 2023.
In 1741, Alasdair compiled a 200-page Gaelic-English vocabulary at the request of the Society, which published it with a dedication to the Marquess of Lothian. As source material and a model for his spelling, Alasdair used the existing Irish language translations of the "Confession of Faith", the Westminster Shorter Catechism, and the Book of Common Prayer.Campbell (1971), Highland Songs of the Forty-Five, pp. 33–34. In his dedication to the volume, Alasdair wrote, "It seems to have been reserved for you to be the happy instruments of bringing about the Reformation of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, diverse places of which are remote from the means of obtaining instruction; and indeed when we consider the situation of the inhabitants, their ignorance, their inclinations to follow the customs, fashions, and superstitions of their forefathers, the number of Popish Emissaries in many places of these countries; and add to that their way of life, the unfrequented passes and the distance of their houses from one another, one would not think, but that an attempt to reform them would be a very arduous task to be brought about, even by the most desirable means."Campbell (1971), p. 34. The writer Alan Riach expressed the belief that compiling the first Gaelic dictionary convinced Alasdair mac Mhaighstir Alasdair that the Gaelic language deserved preservation and that this new belief caused him to turn against the S.S.P.K. and everything it stood for.Not Burns – Alasdair Mac Mhaighstir Alasdair! by Alan Riach, The National: The Newspaper that Supports an Independent Scotland, 11, February 2016.