Ailean a' Ridse MacDhòmhnaill

Like fellow Gaelic poet Iain Lom, Ailean a Ridse was born into both the Scottish nobility and Clan MacDonald of Keppoch.

Through his descent from Alasdair Carrach, 1st Chief of Keppoch, the future poet could trace his descent from Scottish King Robert the Bruce, whose granddaughter, Princess Margaret, married John of Islay, Lord of the Isles and became Alistair Carragh's mother.[1]

The first tacksman of Bohuntine and the poet's ancestor, Iain Dubh MacDhòmhnaill, was born illegitimately during the early 16th-century to Raghnall Mòr, 7th Chief of Keppoch, and a weaver woman from Clan Cameron whose name does not survive. Her father, however, was Lachuinn Mòr Mac a' Bhàird ("Big Lachuinn, son of the Poet").[2]

During the Battle of Boloyne against Clan Cameron in 1554, Alexander MacDonald, 8th of Keppoch, was wounded in the fray. In response, the Chief's half-brother, Iain Dubh MacDhòmhnaill of Bohuntine, took de facto command of the Keppoch forces and oversaw the defeat of the Camerons and the death and dismemberment of their Chief upon the battlefield.[3]

Over the centuries that followed, Iain Dubh's descendants, the tacksmen of Bohuntine, were referred to as Sliochd an Taighe ("The Family of the Household")[4] and as Sliochd na Ban-fhigich ("The Family of the Weaver-Woman").[5]

After the Battle of Culloden in 1746, the homeland of Clan MacDonald of Keppoch became the property of increasingly Anglicized landlords instead of the traditional clan chiefs. Particularly Sir Aeneas MacIntosh, who allegedly held a grudge against Clan Donald relating to the Battle of Mulroy in 1688, is famous for systematically evicting MacDonalds and replacing them with descendants of Clan MacIntosh. For this reason, the population of the Bard's native district in Scotland was decimated both by these early Highland Clearances and also by voluntary emigration.[6] So much so, that in 1900, the Bard's son, Alasdair a' Ridse MacDhòmhnaill, was to write, "They say the best singers and Seanachies left Scotland. They left Lochaber for certain."[7]

Despite this fact, in his poem Sliochd an Taighe, which Ailean set to the air Mìos deireannach an Fhoghair and composed upon the Ridge of Mabou in Nova Scotia, Ailean a' Ridse MacDhòmhnaill listed the proud warrior history of his ancestors. He related the courage and leadership shown upon the battlefield by Iain Dubh MacDhòmhnaill at Boloyne in 1554, by his descendants at the Battle of Mulroy against Clan MacIntosh in 1688, as Royalists during the English Civil War, and as warriors for the House of Stuart during the Jacobite risings. He ended by arguing that the House of Hanover was fortunate that the Scottish Gaels made their peace with them and that the Hanoverian monarchs are indebted to the Gaels for their subsequent victories against France during the Seven Years' War and the Napoleonic Wars, as Clan MacDonald of Keppoch was always accustomed to winning victory upon the battlefield.[8]

At the time, the genre of Scottish clan praise poetry in had long since ceased to be written in Gaelic. Ailean a' Ridse, however, was, "enclosed, as it were, in a time warp of his own choosing". Therefore, his poem, "resounds with the martial ardour of past centuries", and bears the influence of some of the best war poetry of Iain Lom and, most particularly, of Alasdair mac Mhaighstir Alasdair.[9]

According to Effie Rankin, even though the clan system had been completely destroyed following the Battle of Culloden, Ailean a' Ridse saw it as his duty as a Bard as to remind his people of their proud warrior past in order to urge them on in the fight to preserve the Gaelic language and what remained of their traditions and culture.[10]

Through their shared descent from the tacksmen of Bohuntine, Ailean a' Ridse was also a kinsman to Roman Catholic priest and fellow poet Fr. Allan MacDonald of Eriskay, who is similarly a highly important figure in Scottish Gaelic literature. In commenting upon their shared lineage, literary historian Effie Rankin has argued that Fr. Allan MacDonald and Ailean a' Ridse MacDhòmhnaill, "may rightfully be regarded as the foremost Keppoch bards of the nineteenth century."[11]

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") of the MacDonalds of Bohuntine.[12]

Alasdair Ruadh MacDhòmhnaill (d. 17, June 1831)[13] 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, however.[14]

In his youth, Ailean worked as a shepherd for a local kinsman, Iain Bàn Inse ("Fair John MacDonald of Inch"),[15] whom the poet was later to revile in verse as "fear a dhìobair an càirdeas" ("one who renounced the traditions of kinship")[16] 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").[17]

Furthermore, in his later poem Moladh Albainn Nuaidh ("In Praise of Nova Scotia"),[18] 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 in Gaelic decades later to advance the agitation of the Highland Land League.[19]

Until the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815, however, 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, however, the economic downturn that followed the Battle of Waterloo, however, 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 Scotia[20] in 1816.[21]

Although no documentation survives regarding which ship they sailed for the New World on, it is known to have been one of the five emigrant ships from Aberdeen that arrived at the port of Pictou in 1816.[22]

At the age of only 22, Ailean a' Ridse versified the story of his family's voyage to the New World[23] in his poem, Tighinn do dh' America ("Coming to America"), which the Bard set to the tune, Sàil Beinn Mhic Duibhe.[24] Effie Rankin has called the result, "a remarkable song which resonates with the dynamic energy of sailing ships and stormy seas."[25]

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",[26] 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.[27]

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.[28]

As other Roman Catholic Gaels from Lochaber had been doing since at least 1800,[29] 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.

In 1841, the first resident Roman Catholic priest, Maighstir Alasdair Mòr (Fr. Alexander MacDonald, 1801-1865) was assigned to Mabou, where he was seen as, "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.[30]

In 1846, following a series of bad harvests caused by the same blight as the Great Irish and Highland potato famines, Ailean was clearing the land and burning brush when the form of a horse, or riochd eich, briefly became visible in the smoke. Viewing this as a very bad omen, Ailean and Catriona MacDonald joined an exodus of local Gaels from Mabou to Antigonish County.[31] In return for C£250,[32] Ailean sold their farm to his close friend, kinsman, fellow poet, and protege, Aonghas mac Alasdair, by whom the homestead was ever afterwards termed, Baile Bhàird ("The Farm of the Poet").[33]

Despite his devotion to the Catholic Faith, Ailean a' Ridse sharply opposed Bishop William Fraser's decision to institute the Total Abstinence Pledge in the Diocese of Arichat in 1841. Ailean a' Ridse's 1854 poem Òran dhan Deoch,[34] ("A Song to Drink"), which he set to the air Robai Dona Gòrach,[35] after he found that not a drop of whiskey was available to drink upon Christmas Eve.[36] In the poem, Ailean declared himself a believer in, "The creed of Bacchus". Ailean lamented the loss of merriment caused by the Church's ban against music and alcohol, while also lamenting the damage that he had seen alcoholism cause in his own family and among many other families like them.[37]

According to Effie Rankin, Ailean a' Ridse saw the Catholic temperance movement, "as something that had it's genesis in an alien culture and which was now posing a threat to traditional Gaelic values."[38]

Despite his disagreement with Bishop Fraser over alcohol, the Bard was heartbroken by the Bishop's death in 1851. In response, Ailean a' Ridse composed the poem Cumha do' n Easguig Friseal ("Lament for Bishop Fraser"), which he set to the air A' bliadhna leum dar milleadh.[39] In the poem, Ailean a' Ridse adapted the traditional iconography of a Highland clan mourning the death of their Chief to local Catholic Gaels mourning for the death of their Bishop.[40]

Although no documentation currently survives, it is known that Ailean a' Ridse married Catherine MacPherson, the daughter of Muireach MacPherson of Bohuntine, around 1822 or somewhat earlier. They went on to have seven sons and two daughters, four of whom died young. Their oldest son, Alasdair a' Ridse MacDhòmhnaill, was born on the Ridge of Mabou on February 27, 1823[41] and went on to become a prolific Canadian Gaelic poet and Seanchaidh in his own right.

According to tradition, Ailean a' Ridse composed his last song, Òran do dh' Aonghas mac Alasdair, upon his death bed. During his last illness, Ailean a' Ridse awoke from a dream in which he and his close friend, kinsman, fellow poet, and protege were together singing the Gaelic song, An cluinn thu mis' a charaide? ("Do you hear me my friend?"). In response, Ailean a' Ridse composed a new song set to the same air, which he addressed to Aonghas mac Alasdair. Ailean urged his young friend to continue to keep the traditions of a Highland Bard and to pass on the same traditions to the young. Ailean also expressed the hope of seeing his friend again, "before Beltane". This, however, was not to be.[42]

Ailean a' Ridse MacDhòmhnaill died of the palsy on 1 April 1868, at the age of 74. It is said that shortly before his death, he briefly rallied and recited a last poem,[43]

"Ged tha mi fàs nam sheann duine

Gun gabhainn dram is òran!"

"Though I am become an old man,

I can still handle a drink and a song!"[44]

According to Natasha Sumner and Aidan Doyle, "due to exceptional circumstances", John MacLean and Allan The Ridge are the only 19th century North American Gaelic Bards from whom, "sizeable repertoires", still exist. Unlike "The Bard MacLean", who wrote his own poetry down and successfully sought publishers for it, Allan The Ridge was well known as a poet and Seanchaidh, "but he was not a compiler of manuscripts." The Gaelic verse of Allan The Ridge was shared by its author only as oral literature and we owe its survival primarily to Canadian Gaelic literary scholar and Presbyterian minister Rev. Alexander MacLean Sinclair (1840-1924), who persuaded the Bard's son, Alasdair a' Ridse MacDhòmhnaill, to write down everything he had learned from his father.[45] A phrase that was to become a mantra in the letters and manuscripts of Alasdair a' Ridse was, "Sin Mar a' chuala mis' aig m' athair e", ("This is how I heard it from my father").[46]

So much of the traditions of Lochaber and the Gaelic poetry of his father were written down by Alasdair a' Ridse that Raasay-born poet Sorley MacLean, who along with Alasdair mac Mhaighstir Alasdair remains one of the two greatest figures in the history of Scottish Gaelic literature, was later to comment that Rev. Sinclair, "had no need to come or to write to Scotland, as there was in Nova Scotia a great Seanchaidh, Alexander MacDonald of Ridge."[47]

• Effie Rankin (2004), As a' Braighe/Beyond the Braes: The Gaelic Songs of Allan the Ridge MacDonald, Cape Breton University Press