Allan The Ridge MacDonald (1794 Allt an t-Srathain, Lochaber, Scotland – 1 April 1868 Antigonish County, Nova Scotia, Canada) was a bard, traditional singer, and seanchaidh who emigrated from the Gàidhealtachd of Scotland to Nova Scotia in 1816. He continued to compose Gaelic poetry on his two separate homesteads in Canada and remains a highly important figure in both Scottish Gaelic literature and in that of Canadian Gaelic. He is also, along with John The Bard MacLean, one of only two 19th-century North American Gaelic poets from whom a sizeable repertoire survives.

Early life Ailean MacDhòmhnaill was born at Allt an t-Srathan in Lochaber, in 1794. His mother, Mairi ni'n Dòmhnall 'ic Iain Duibh, was a member of Clan Campbell from Ach-a Mhadaidh in Glen Roy. Ailean's father, Alasdair Ruadh mac Aonghas 'ic Alasdair Bhàin, was descended from the tacksmen of Bohuntine. After emigrating to Canada, Alasdair Ruadh MacDhòmhnaill would inherit the mantle of being ceann-taigh ("Chief Representative", "Chief of the Kindred") of the MacDonalds of Bohuntine.Effie Rankin (2004), As a' Braighe/Beyond the Braes: The Gaelic Songs of Allan the Ridge MacDonald, Cape Breton University Press. Pages 7–8.

Alasdair Ruadh MacDhòmhnaill (d. 17, June 1831)Effie Rankin (2004), As a' Braighe/Beyond the Braes: The Gaelic Songs of Allan the Ridge MacDonald, Cape Breton University Press. Page 59. was a cattle drover who resided at Ach nan Comhaichean, on the south banks of the River Spean. According to tradition, Alasdair Ruadh was also a Gaelic poet of merit. None of his poetic compositions are known to survive.Effie Rankin (2004), As a' Braighe/Beyond the Braes: The Gaelic Songs of Allan the Ridge MacDonald, Cape Breton University Press. Pages 9–10.

In his youth, Ailean worked as a shepherd for a local kinsman, Iain Bàn Inse ("Fair John MacDonald of Inch"),Effie Rankin (2004), As a' Braighe/Beyond the Braes: The Gaelic Songs of Allan the Ridge MacDonald, Cape Breton University Press. Page 9. whom the poet was later to revile in verse as "fear a dhìobair an càirdeas" ("one who renounced the traditions of kinship")Effie Rankin (2004), As a' Braighe/Beyond the Braes: The Gaelic Songs of Allan the Ridge MacDonald, Cape Breton University Press. Page 15. in the poem, Duanag le Ailean Dòmhnallacha bha 'n Achadh-nan Comhaichean air dha miothlachd a ghabhail ri Iain Bàn Ìnnse ("A Song by Allan MacDonald of Ach-nan-Comhaichean when he was displeased with Iain Bàn of Inch").Effie Rankin (2004), As a'Braighe/Beyond the Braes: The Gaelic Songs of Allan the Ridge MacDonald, Cape Breton University Press. Page 57.

Furthermore, in his later poem Moladh Albainn Nuaidh ("In Praise of Nova Scotia"),Effie Rankin (2004), As a'Braighe/Beyond the Braes: The Gaelic Songs of Allan the Ridge MacDonald, Cape Breton University Press. Pages 76–81. Ailean a' Ridse would later deliver a, "bitter indictment of the working man's lot in Scotland", which has since caused his poem to be compared with the anti-landlord poetry composed by Màiri Mhòr nan Òran decades later to advance the agitation of the Highland Land League.Effie Rankin (2004), As a'Braighe/Beyond the Braes: The Gaelic Songs of Allan the Ridge MacDonald, Cape Breton University Press. Pages 13–14.

Until the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815, demand for beef was very high and Alasdair Ruadh MacDhòmhnaill, as a cattle drover in Glen Spean, would have been fairly well off compared to other Lochaber Gaels. In addition to the constant threat of eviction by the landlord, the economic downturn that followed the Battle of Waterloo, would have been financially devastating to the MacDhòmhnaill family; particularly as large numbers of demobilized soldiers returned to Lochaber and became their competitors for food, land, and employment. These are believed to have been the reasons why Alasdair Ruadh MacDhòmhnaill decided to bring his whole family to Nova ScotiaEffie Rankin (2004), As a'Braighe/Beyond the Braes: The Gaelic Songs of Allan the Ridge MacDonald, Cape Breton University Press. Page 13. in 1816.Edited by Natasha Sumner and Aidan Doyle (2020), North American Gaels: Speech, Song, and Story in the Diaspora, McGill-Queen's University Press. Pages 14–16.

Nova Scotia Although no documentation survives regarding which ship they sailed for Nova Scotia on, it is known to have been one of the five emigrant ships from Aberdeen that arrived at the port of Pictou in 1816.Effie Rankin (2004), As a'Braighe/Beyond the Braes: The Gaelic Songs of Allan the Ridge MacDonald, Cape Breton University Press. Page 17.

At the age of only 22, Ailean a' Ridse versified the story of his family's voyage to Nova Scotia in his poem, Tighinn do dh' America ("Coming to America"), which the Bard set to the tune, Sàil Beinn Mhic Duibhe.Effie Rankin (2004), As a'Braighe/Beyond the Braes: The Gaelic Songs of Allan the Ridge MacDonald, Cape Breton University Press. Pages 74–77. Effie Rankin has called the result, "a remarkable song which resonates with the dynamic energy of sailing ships and stormy seas."

According an account passed down within the family oral tradition and later written down by Mary A. MacDonald (d. 1951) as "Grandfather's Perilous Adventure",Effie Rankin (2004), As a'Braighe/Beyond the Braes: The Gaelic Songs of Allan the Ridge MacDonald, Cape Breton University Press. Page 58. the year after their arrival in Pictou, the MacDonald family hired a shallop to sail them across the Northumberland Strait to Port Hood, Cape Breton.Effie Rankin (2004), As a'Braighe/Beyond the Braes: The Gaelic Songs of Allan the Ridge MacDonald, Cape Breton University Press. Page 18.

According to Mary MacDonald, the shallop was passing Arisaig, Nova Scotia on 31 October 1817 when a violent snowstorm blew them off course. During the ensuing storm, every passenger except Ailean was in the hold. Moments before being swept overboard, Ailean grabbed ahold of a loom and, while holding the loom and gripping his plaid between his teeth, he swam to the shore of Cape Breton. When the other passengers and crew also made it to shore, local people took them in and feasted them with potatoes, herring, and tea.

The Ridge of Mabou As other Roman Catholic Gaels from Lochaber had been doing since at least 1800,Effie Rankin (2004), As a'Braighe/Beyond the Braes: The Gaelic Songs of Allan the Ridge MacDonald, Cape Breton University Press. Pages 18–19. the MacDonald family settled on a homestead upon the Southwest Ridge near Mabou, Nova Scotia (). On, an Ridse ("The Ridge"), from whence their descendants continue to take their name, MacDonald lived for more than thirty years and continued to compose Gaelic poetry.

Like the other MacDonalds of the Ridge, Ailean is said at first to have enjoyed composing Òrain magaidh ("Mocking songs"), or satirical poetry.Effie Rankin (2004), As a' Braighe/Beyond the Braes: The Gaelic Songs of Allan the Ridge MacDonald, Cape Breton University Press. Page 24.

The first is Òran Dhòmhnaill Mhòr ("Big Donald's Satire"), which Ailean a' Ridse composed to the air Latha Raon Ruairidh,Effie Rankin (2004), As a' Braighe/Beyond the Braes: The Gaelic Songs of Allan the Ridge MacDonald, Cape Breton University Press. Page 92-93. after a local immigrant from Bornish, South Uist, who was notorious for both his cowardice and physical ugliness, was beaten up in a fight and then went on the run from the police after being charged with swindling a local merchant.Effie Rankin (2004), As a' Braighe/Beyond the Braes: The Gaelic Songs of Allan the Ridge MacDonald, Cape Breton University Press. Page 164.

With biting sarcasm, Ailean a' Ridse lampooned both Dòmhnaill Mòr and the cliches and excesses of Scottish clan praise poetry. The Bard called down a curse upon those responsible for the flight of Dòmhnaill Mòr from the police and his resulting absence from Cape Breton. He then pretended to praise Dòmhnaill Mòr, whom he called as courageous as the Jacobite Army during the Battle of Culloden. He mockingly added that neither Cuchulain, William Wallace, Robert the Bruce, The Great Montrose, nor even Fionn Mac Cumhail and his Fianna would ever match Dòmhnaill Mòr in a fight. The Bard then described Dòmhnaill Mòr as a man of great physical attractiveness and who was worshipped and adored by the local women, and who was, "equally comely below the rump."Effie Rankin (2004), As a' Braighe/Beyond the Braes: The Gaelic Songs of Allan the Ridge MacDonald, Cape Breton University Press. Pages 92–99.

The second satire poem is aimed at the local population of black bears, whom, as guns were scarce, plundered from the local population with impunity and were according both feared and intensely hated by the pioneer families of Mabou. Ailean a' Ridse is believed to have composed the songEffie Rankin (2004), As a' Braighe/Beyond the Braes: The Gaelic Songs of Allan the Ridge MacDonald, Cape Breton University Press. Page 166. Aoir a' Mhathain ("The Bear's Satire"), for which no known tune survives,Effie Rankin (2004), As a' Braighe/Beyond the Braes: The Gaelic Songs of Allan the Ridge MacDonald, Cape Breton University Press. Pages 98–99. following an incident at the adjacent homestead of his brother, Dòmhnaill a' Ridse.

One evening, Dòmhnaill witnessed a bear making off with one of his sheep. Despite being armed only with an axe and a firebrand, Dòmhnaill immediately gave chase. He hurled the firebrand at the bear's head and buried his axe blade to its handle in the bear's rump. The bear dropped the sheep and fled, but Dòmhnaill's axe, a priceless tool at the time, was considered lost. Only many months later was the rusted axe found in a pile of animal bones in the forest.

In response, Ailean a' Ridse decided to resort to the magical power attributed to satirical poetry to drive the bears away from the Ridge of Mabou. Modeling the poem that followed upon the well-established "rat satire" tradition in Scottish Gaelic literature, which was believed to drive away other kinds of vermin, Ailean called down a curse upon the bears for their thievery and banished them from Mabou to the United States. He urged the bears to steal everything they could possibly get from the Yankees () of New England, "and the ritual crossing of water is invoked to ensure success. Although a great number of bear songs exist throughout Nova Scotia, Òran a' Mhathain appears to surpass them all in sheer vituperative vocabulary."Effie Rankin (2004), As a' Braighe/Beyond the Braes: The Gaelic Songs of Allan the Ridge MacDonald, Cape Breton University Press. Page 24-25, 98–103.

After he composed such a poem, supernatural music was heard from the nearby forest, which was seen as a bad omen and caused both Ailean and the other MacDonalds of The Ridge to cease composing satirical poetry. This is the reason why only two satires by Ailean a' Ridse are known to survive.

In 1841, the first resident Roman Catholic priest, Maighstir Alasdair Mòr (Fr. Alexander MacDonald, 1801–1865) was assigned to Mabou, where he became, "a veritable chieftain and patron of poets." Fr. MacDonald was also a kinsman of the MacDonalds of the Ridge and was 8th in descent from Iain Dubh MacDhòmhnaill.Effie Rankin (2004), As a' Braighe/Beyond the Braes: The Gaelic Songs of Allan the Ridge MacDonald, Cape Breton University Press. Page 28, 62.

Antigonish County