Iain Lom, the Keppoch Bard

Iain Lom, Bàrd na Ceapaich, or plain John MacDonald (c. 1624–c. 1710) is doubtlessly one of the most famous poets of seventeenth-century Gaeldom. He lived through turbulent times and witnessed the second battle of Inverlochy (1645) which saw the complete drubbing of the Clan Campbell. There was absolutely no love lost between Iain Lom and the Campbells; he would take every opportunity that came his way to demean and mock them. It is sometimes easy to forget that Iain Lom MacDonald was a great grandson of the deposed Keppoch chief Iain Àlainn (or ‘Handsome John’). His full patronymic, showing his descent, is Iain mac Dhòmhnaill mhic Iain mhic Dhòmhnaill mhic Iain Àlainn. Notwithstanding his outstanding verse such a noble background could have only bolstered his status among his clansfolk. This, however, did not help him when his outspoken political verse, in the wake of The Keppoch Murder (1663) made it expedient for him to leave the Braes until the situation had ‘cooled’ down. The following biographical sketch was collected by Calum Maclean from John MacDonald of Highbridge on the 21st of January 1951:

 

Thug e treis gu h-àrd ann am Bràigh Loch Abar. Chaidh e an sin a-mach gu deas agus nach robh e na bhàrd aig Teàrlach a Dhà, a thàinig air a’ chrùn dà bhliadhna na deaghaidh do Chromwell coachladh. Chaochail Cromwell anns an sia ceud deug agus a h-ochd thar an leth-cheud. Thàinig am fear eile ann dà bhliadhna an deaghaidh sin is thug e ceithir bliadhna fichead ann. Nuair a chaochail e dh’fhàg e duais aig Iain Lom. Is bha siud aig Iain Lom gus an do chaochail e.

Bha e na adhbhar a-rithist Iain Lom aig Murt na Ceapaich gun rachadh na daoine ann an Inbhir Làire a rinn am murt. Agus thachair sin ann an 1663. Agus bha Iain Lom an uair seo a’ tighinn gun a làthainean mu dheireadh aige fhèin agus e a’ fuireach gu h-àrd ann an Allt a’ Chaorainn. Chaidh a mhac a mharbhabh le Dòmhnall Donn Mac Fear Bhoth Chunndainn, far am biodh iad a’ togail nan creach. Bha iad ann an Srath Spèidh an dithist dhiubh, Dòmhnall Donna agus Mac Iain Luim. Agus a h-uile taigh anns an robh e a’ dol a-staigh, bha iad a’ faighneachd dheth:

“Cò am fear a tha leat an seo, a Dhòmhnaill?”

“Tha mac do dh’Iain Lom.”  

Ach mu dheireadh thàinig an rud gu connsachadh agus thuirt e:

“Dh’fhaodadh tu mise innseadh na b’ fheàrr na siud, na Mac Iain Luim ag ràdha.”

“O! ma-tà,” thuirt e, “na gabh nàire a t’ athair idir,” thuirt e, “ged a tha e cho lom sin is nach fhàsadh feusag air. ’S ann mar sin a thug iad Iain Lom air.”

Ach co-dhiù mharbh Dòmhnall Donn, mharbh e Mac Iain Luim leis a’ bhiodag. Agus rinn Iain Lom òran dà, aoireadh. Agus bheir mi dhuibh earann dheth:

 

“Is truagh nach fhaca mi air creag thu,

  Agus seillean nad chluais,

  Agus luch nad achlais,

  A’ cur a h-achanaich suas;

  Agus clach air a sparradh

  Nad bheul tarsaing mhì-stuaim,

  Nan tigeadh an fheannag

  Is bàrr na teangaidh a thoirt bhuat.”

 

Chaochail e ann an 1710 agus chaidh a thìodhlacadh ann an Cille Choirill. Theireadh iad Tom Aingeal ris. Latha an tìodhlacaidh cò bh’ ann ach Aonghas Alasdair Ruaidh à Gleanna Comhann, bàrd ainmeil.

“Cluinneam dè th’ agad ri ghràitinn,” thuirt Gilleasbui’ na Ceapaich ris a’ bhàrd Thuirt e na briathran seo:

 

“Bha mi an-diugh ann an Tom Aingeal

  Is chunna mi crìoch air m’ fhear-cinnidh;

  Iubhair nam bàrd, Righ na Filidh,

  A Dhia, a dhèanamh sìth ri t’ anam;

  B’ fhuath leat Màiri, b’ fhuath leat Uilleam,

  B’ fhuath leat luchd Siol Dhiarmaid uile.

  A h-uile neach nach biodh rìoghail.

  Dh’innseadh tu dhaibh e gun iarraidh:

  Gaol an leoghainn is fuath an tuirc

  Anns an uaigh ’s a bheil do chorp.

  Dhia thoirt mathanas dhut,

  Bha thu dioltach anns an olc.”

 

And the translation goes something like the following:  
              

He spent a good deal of time in Brae Lochaber. He then went down south and he was the poet laureate of King Charles II, that came to the crown two years after the death of Cromwell in 1658. The other one came two years after that and he spent twenty-four years [on the throne]. When he died he left this prize for Iain Lom and he had this until his own death.

It was a reason enough for Iain Lom at the time of the Keppoch Murder that men would go to Inverlair to avenger the murders. That happened in 1663. And Iain Lom was coming to the end of this days and he was staying in Allt a’  Chaorainn. His son was murdered by Donald Donn the son of the Taksman of Bothuntine when they were cattle raiding. The two of them were in Strathspey, Donald Donn and Iain Lom’s son. And every house that they visited they asked:

“Who is the man along with you, Donald?”

“It is Iain Lom’s son.”

But eventually things reached a head and he said:

“You could introduce me better than that, than by saying the son of Iain Lom.”

“Oh, then,” he said, “don’t be ashamed of your father at all even though he is so bald he can’t grow a beard. That’s way they called him Iain Lom (‘Bare John’).

But in any event Donald Donn murdered the son of Iain Lom with a dagger. And Iain Lom composed a song to him, a satire. And I’ll give you a bit of it:

 

“It’s a pity that I have not seen you on a rock

With bees buzzing in your ears

And a mouse in your oxter

That would force your armpits up,

And a stone thrust

Across your immodest mouth

And if a raven came

It would take the tip of your tongue off.”

 

He died in 1710 and was buried in Cille Choirill in a place they named Tom Aingeal. On the day of the burial who made an appearance but Aonghas Alasdair Ruaidh from Glencoe, a renowned bard.

“Let me hear what you have to say,” said Archibald of Keppoch to the bard. And so he related the following verse:

 

  “I was in Tom Aingeal today

                           Where I saw the end of my kinsman;

                            Key of the bards, King of the Poets,

                           God, let his soul rest in peace;

                           You hated Queen Mary, and you hated King William,

                            You hated the whole of Clan Campbell.

                           Every one who was not royal.

                           You would tell them without asking:

                           Love of the lion and hatred of boar

                           In the grave there lies you corpse

                           God have mercy on you,

                           You were ever spiteful in vengeance.”

 

A monument was placed by the Liberal MP Charles Fraser-MacKintosh to commemorate the bard's memory in the early part of the twentieth century. Unfortunately, it was mistakenly placed over the grave of another Lochaber bard, Dòmhnall Mac Fhionnlaigh nan Dàn, which lies near the entrance to Cille Choirill. Iain Lom MacDonald’s grave which was pointed out many years ago, further up on the hill known as Tom Aingeal, has been forgotten now. This is verified by the following information that Calum Maclean collected which he later wrote about in his book The Highlands (1959):

 

Farther on to the right is the church of St Cyril (Cille Choirill). It stands high on the slope of a hill overlooking the railway line. Here it is that lain Lom, the Bard of Keppoch, has found his last resting-place. The tradition is that he expressed a wish to be buried with his face towards his beloved Corrour. A stone taller than all others in the graveyard has been raised in his honour. All other headstones face due east; lain Lom’s headstone looks southwards to Corrour. The actual spot where his remains lie is not known now. It will never be known, for the last tradition bearer who knew for certain is long dead. My kind friend, Mr Archibald Maclnnes, caretaker of the graveyard and the most accurate authority on the history of Lochaber, does not know where lain Lom lies although he knows every other grave marked and unmarked in St Cyril’s.

 

References:

Anne M. MacKenzie (ed.), Òrain Iain Luim: Songs of John MacDonald, Bard of Keppoch (Edinburgh: Oliver & Boyd, 1964)
Calum I. Maclean, The Highlands (London: Batsford, 1959)

Donald C. MacPherson, ‘The Clan Donald of Keppoch’, The Celtic Magazine, vol. 4 (1878), pp. 368–75

SSS NB 22, pp. 118–21

Rev. Allan Sinclair, ‘John MacDonald, The Lochaber Bard, and his Times’, The Celtic Review, vol. V, no. LI (January 1880), pp. 97–104

 

Image:

Iain Lom MacDonald’s headstone, Cille Choirill, Brae Lochaber.