A Hebridean Tour: Séamus Ennis and Calum Maclean

On his very first collecting trip to the Western Isles (specifically Barra) in September 1946, Maclean was later joined by one of the Irish Folklore Commission’s best (and youngest) collectors: Séamus Ennis (Mac Aonghusa), a very gifted piper and traditional singer. Ennis was four years younger than Maclean; born in Jameston in Finglas, North County Dublin in 1919 and died in 1982. For a period of five years between 1942 and 1947, Ennis worked at the Irish Folklore Commission. A better job offer appeared on the horizon when RTÉ offered him a post and so he then left the Commission to pursue a broadcasting career.

Writing in 1953, Maclean recollecting his first crossing to Barra states that despite not knowing any of the islanders he approached the trip with an air of excitement and perhaps with even some amount of trepidation:

 

One September evening seven years ago I crossed the Minch for the first time on my way out to Barra. It was a beautifully calm evening – the only calm evening on which I have ever gone that way, and I have crossed the Minch often enough since then. I had heard much about Barra, but had no idea what type of material to expect there. Everywhere I had heard the same story. Tales and legends, old songs and such had now gone. The old folk had gone. I knew not one living soul in Barra: nor in any of the Outer Hebrides for that matter. Nevertheless I approached Barra with eager anticipation…

 

In the very same year he first visited Barra, Maclean later recalled his initial first impressions of what he was going to collect though as circumstances turned out it seemed as if he had many of those from whom he recorded material had only recently passed on:

 

I stayed in Castlebay during my first week, and gathered as much information as possible regarding possible tradition bearers. Here again I discovered that I had come too late. My friend, Miss Annie Johnston, spoke of the late Ealasaid Eachainn [Elizabeth MacKinnon] with her fund of song and story, of which only a very small part has been recorded. That was another mine of information irremediably lost. A noted storyteller, Murchadh an Eilein, died a year or two before; and Ruairi Iain Bhàin, an unsurpassed singer of folk-songs had gone to his grave also.

 

Recollecting their trip to Barra, Maclean of an evocative evening when they went to Eoligarry in the north part of the island:

 

In springtime my colleague Seumas Ennis, the folkmusic collector of our Commission, and I toured the islands, making gramophone recordings of speech and singing. One week we gave to Barra. It was a glorious week of sunny days and moonlit nights. We recorded for posterity the voices of Miss Annie Johnston, Seumas MacKinnon, the “Coddy,” Donald MacPhee of Brevig, and Neil Gillies of Castlebay. These speech recordings were made for the purposes of phonetic and dialect study, and also to illustrate the tradition bearer’s style of narration. One beautiful night we motored to Eoligarry schoolhouse. We were accompanied by Flora MacNeil of Castlebay, one of the many charming and attractive young ladies I have seen in the Isles. She sings well, and was to do recordings for us that night. That night also we recorded the singing of Mrs Buchanan, a daughter of the noted folksinger, the late Ruairidh Iain Bhàin. I can still see her standing in dim lamplight before the microphone and hear her singing the fairy song, “Chì mi ’n tomain coarainn, cuilinn.” That melody haunts me still.

 

Maclean noted down a similar visit in his diary that took place on Thursday the 6th of March 1947. At this time he kept wrote his diary in Irish Gaelic (later changing it to Scottish Gaelic and then eventually English) but which is given here in translation:

 

…Flora MacNeil was in our company. She was going to meet folk in Eoligarry. We left the recording gear at the house of the schoolmaster, Neil Angus MacDonald. We went to Morag Maclean’s house and took her back to the schoolhouse. Seámus took down Katie Buchanan and Flora MacNeil. We set up the recording gear and Katie Buchanan sang three or four songs. Flora MacNeil also sang a song. Then Neil Angus played the pipes. Neil’s father was an excellent piper and he excelled in ceòl mòr and especially in cainntaireachd. That is the way in which they sang the tune when it was being learnt. The old pipers never wrote music at all and they used canntaireachd to transmit the music. On this night Neil Angus recorded canntaireached, filling two records. He played two pieces of ceòl mòr, Cumha Mhàiri nighean Alasdair Ruaidh (Mary MacLeod’s Lament) and Fàilte MhicGilleChaluim Ratharsair (MacLeod of Rasaay’s Welome). He also sang a bit of Crònan na Caillich sa Bheinn Bhric (The Lullaby of the Old Women of Ben Breck) and played this on the pipes. He also gave a sample of Dance Music canntaireachd also. Seámus was very pleased how the night went. It was late enough before we reached home. It was an excellent night all around. The moon shone as brightly as it did during the day.

 

Perhaps the key element to Ennis’s fascination with collecting was music and he must have been rather astounded at what was to be found not only in Barra but also in South Uist, an island which had been a stronghold for piping over very many generations:

 

Seumas Ennis has come across from Dublin and had never before heard canntaireachd, the humming of pibroch and pipe music. That night, however, Neil Angus MacDonald, schoolmaster of Eoligarry, a piper also and the son of a piper, kindly made two complete records of cainntaireachd. I had lived long years in Ireland, but I had never seen an Irishman entranced until that night.

 

Unlike Maclean it would appear that Ennis never kept a diary of his Scottish trip. There are, however, a few extant letters that he wrote back to James Hamilton Delargy, Director of the Irish Folklore Commission, and to Sean O’ Sullivan, the Archivist there.

Maclean was fully conscious that collecting very much a race against time but although he may have felt daunted at times by the sheer amount of fieldwork that lay before him his enthusiasm seldom wavered. Writing in 1947, he offered the following observation with regard to collecting and also the opportunities which fieldwork afforded:

 

He always knows that he rescues something from oblivion. The discovery and recording of a beautiful song, or story, which might otherwise have perished is always a joy. But most valuable of all is the wealth of friendships that come his way. Between the collector and narrator a common interest serves to forge a link of comradeship. The collector finds it necessary to spend hours and hours in the company of some old person and, if he is sufficiently tactful and deferential, friendship is assured.

 

The collectors during their stint in the Hebrides took in Eigg, Barra, Raasay, Canna and South Uist. Ennis managed to pick up enough Scots Gaelic to enable him to transcribe much of the songs collected by John Lorne Campbell. Many of these beautifully transcribed pieces have been preserved and are in the keeping of the National Folklore Collection at University College Dublin. Some of them were reproduced in Campbell’s Songs Remembered in Exile (1990), his last and one of his most important books. Both Maclean and Campbell owed a great debt to Ennis and one which was repaid with the hospitality shown to the Irishman who never seemed to get fed up when asked either to play the pipes or to sing. Ennis probably relished the attention and also to give people some entertainment.

 

References:

NFC 1111: 267–68

NLS MS.29780

Calum Maclean, ‘In Search of Folklore in the Western Isles’, Scotland’s S.M.T. Magazine, vol. 40, no. 6 (1947), pp. 40–44

Ríonach uí Ógáin (ed.), Going to the Well for Water: the Séamus Ennis Field Diary 1942–1946 (Cork: Cork University Press, 2009) [first published as Mise an Fear Ceoil: Séamus Ennis–Dialann Taistil 1942–1946 (Gaillimh: Cló Iar-Chonnachta, 2007)]

 

Image:

Séamus Ennis in the 1950s

A Folklorist’s Uncle: Angus Nicolson of Raasay

Following the conclusion of the Second Word War, Professor James Hamilton Delargy (1899–1980), founding father and Director of the Irish Folklore Commission based in Dublin, sent Calum Maclean (1915–60) back to Scotland in order to collect the fast-dying Gaelic oral traditions of his native Raasay. Maclean had been in ‘exile’ for the past seven years in Ireland where he took the opportunity not only initially to further his studies but also latterly to join the Commission’s staff and to become one of their best collectors.

Maclean undertook a folklore pilot project from his home base in Churchton, Raasay, from the end of December until the 18 of February 1946. Such was the success of this trial run that Maclean would thenceforth take up permanent residence in Scotland and while still an employee of the Commission would, over next five years, collect a great deal of traditions mainly in the predominantly Catholic and Gaelic-speaking Southern Hebrides.

On arriving back in his native isle, Maclean confided in a diary entry what might be described as his mission statement:

I, Calum I. Maclean, began two days ago to collect the oral tradition of the island of Raasay…I was born and reared on this island. When I was young there were many people here who had tales and songs which had never been written down, and which never will be, since the old people are now dead, and all that they knew is with them in the grave. There are still some people alive who remember some of the songs and traditions of their forefathers, and as it seemed to me that there are more songs than anything else available, I decided to write down those which I could find.

Considering that Maclean’s own family were renowned tradition bearers, singers and pipers, it would have been rather churlish not to begin at home. And so, for the next two months, Maclean amassed a great deal of lore from his mother Christina, father Malcolm and brother Sorley. The lion’s share of material, however, was recorded from his maternal uncle, Angus Nicolson (1890–1965), styled Aonghas Shomhairle Iain ’ic Shomhairle and, his paternal aunt, Peggy MacLean (1869–1950), styled Peigi Chaluim Iain Ghairbh. Maclean’s Raasay collection was mainly songs along with associated stories about their provenance and background. In his memoir of Maclean, Hamish Henderson noted that: “His uncle Angus Nicolson was a fine singer with a wide repertoire, and both his father and aunt Peggy Maclean were singers too, so Calum’s interest in Gaelic traditional song was no doubt kindled in his earliest childhood.”

Angus Nicolson was then aged fifty-five and had been a shepherd all his working days at first in Lismore, then in a place near Oban in Argyll, followed by Ardgour in Inverness-shire, and finally in Glenlyon, Perthshire. After his lengthy stay on the mainland Scottish Highlands, Nicolson returned to Raasay in 1940 to take on the farm in Clachan, the largest on the island. Nicolson was born in Brae Trotternish in the isle of Skye within clear sight of Raasay and was brought up in the Braes at a place called Achnahanaid.

As young lad in the Braes, Angus would act as a messenger for an old neighbouring spinster called Mary MacIntosh, styled Màiri Iain ’ic Chaluim. She was constantly in demand if there was a luadh (waulking session) or a wedding in the district and would always be at the forefront of the singers. She was full of old lore and was very devoted to music and dancing. She was so keen on pipe-music that if she heard a piper then she would immediately start to dance even if she was in the middle of a potato field. One day, so it is said, she followed a passing steamer for three miles along the Braes shore, for on board there was a piper playing. As a kind gesture by the old woman, Angus picked up all the old songs from her singing. Although Mary MacIntosh died at an advanced age in the winter of 1917, not all her lore went with her to the grave. Angus later recalled an episode that he told his nephew:

He tells that on one very wet day he saw her crouching before the door of a byre. It was a miserably cold day and the rain dripped from her clothing. She was soaking wet, cold and uncomfortable, but, unaware that anyone was listening, she was singing:   

Cùl ri m’ leannan ’s e chuir mi ’n-diugh,

                        Rùn nan cailean tha mi an dèidh ort:

                        Cùl ri m’ leannan ’s e chuir mi ’n-diugh.

Throughout his life that has remained as one of the most vivid memories of Màiri Iain ’ic Chaluim…Fragments here and there are all that he now remembers of some of the songs. 

Almost all of Angus’s songs came from this one source but it is conceivable that his repertoire may have been augmented by others that he would have heard from other singers either in Skye or Raasay and perhaps in the places in which he had previously worked. Elsewhere Maclean writes about this uncle in the following terms:

Angus Nicolson…had also a large number of songs and sang them well. His voice was quite untrained, but in his singing he could differentiate between melodies which seemed so alike that it was difficult to know which was which. He had one beautiful little song…:

                                    My Duncan has gone to the mountain,

                                    My Duncan has gone to the mountain,

                                    My Duncan has gone to the mountain,

                                    And has returned not homewards.

                                    The blood of your heart and breast,

                                    The blood of your heart and breast,

                                    The blood of your heart and breast,

                                    Is in the folds of your tartan.

Maclean recorded over seventy individual items from his uncle’s repertoire, mainly songs but also a few short anecdotes. Of his fieldwork in Raasay, Maclean wrote to his brother, Sorley MacLean (1911–1996), the foremost Gaelic poet of his generation as well as being a tradition bearer in his own right:

But I enjoy my work very much. The folklore business became more interesting according [to] how you master the proper system of approach. Raasay is a wonderful type of place to work. It is small and sea-contained. It has fishermen and crofters, land and sea, birds, fish and animals, old ruins, groves, buailes, ghosts, fairies oral tradition, local history and everything that comes within our scope. It would take a good collector three years to cover it all...

It is something of a pity that Maclean could only spare a short period of time to collect the traditions of his native Raasay. Nevertheless, the riches that he uncovered from his uncle’s singing were to form the core of one of his papers, later published in The Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Inverness. Having proved the point that there was more than enough to collect; Maclean’s next move was to take him to Barra where a new vista of collecting was to occupy him for the next five months or so.

After concluding his successful fieldwork trip to his native Raasay, Maclean wrote in his diary:

I have now finished my first collection of Scots-Gaelic lore. There are many other songs still to be recorded. All of those which I have written down have associated airs, save one, and all of the tunes are different from one another. It is a great ‘sin’ that I was not born thirty years earlier, as the best of the lore has gone into the grave with those who had it. There is a terrible gale blowing here today.

References:

Calum I. Maclean, ‘Traditional Songs from Raasay and their value as Folk-Literature’, Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Inverness, vol. XXXIX/XL (1942–1950), pp. 176–92

Some examples, but by no means all, of Angus Nicolson’s singing may be heard on Tobar an Dualchais/Kist o Riches website [http://www.tobarandualchais.co.uk]

Image:

Angus Nicolson c. 1950, courtesy of Cailean Maclean

An Irish Perspective on the Highlands

On the appearance of Calum Maclean’s only book printed in the spring of 1959, The Irish Times may have been one of the very first papers to have reviewed it. The book had been delayed for quite a while because of Maclean’s illness and it would have delighted him when he read that reviews of his book were so positive and that they all highly recommended this book which had been more than six years in the making:

His heart’s in the Highlands

 

Calum I. Maclean, a Gaelic speaker from the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, made many friends during the years he spent in this country, studying and collecting folklore.

            They will be foremost among those who welcome his book *“The Highlands,” in which he has done for his own beloved land what, in some ways, Robin Flower and Synge did for parts of the West and South-West of this country.

            This is the book of a scholar and scientist trained in comparative folk-culture. It is also the book of a poet for whom the song, the legend, the tale of old times have their own colour and value and full-blooded life, not just their reference numbers and their exact places in filing cabinet or pigeon-hole.

            It is the book of a Highlander, with not sentiment or cant about him, who genuinely loves his own land and is never far removed from the melancholy fact that old ways have suffered, that the great glens are too empty and the people too few.

            Since the book is splendidly illustrated, the study of the text with an eye on the pictures, means that you have ─ almost been to the Highlands.

            The slightly sardonic “almost” is never far absent from Calum Maclean’s approach to the subject for he is very sensitive towards anything that might possibly be described as a stage-Scot or stage-Hielander.

            A couple of miles west from Callander he enters through the Pass of Leny, goes along the shore of lovely Loch Lubnaig and reflects on the beauty of bonnie Strathyre, and reflects also: “Most Scots, even if they have never seen the strath, have heard about its beauty because of the popular song ‘Bonny Strathyre.’”

            There is, perhaps, a gentle reproach implied just as there may be too a gentle reproach when he comes to the churchyard of Balquidder where Rob Roby MacGregor lies buried.

            “Gaelic,” he writes, “is still spoken in the Braes of Balquidder and this must be about the most southerly outpost of the language now. There is a profusion of beautiful placenames around Loch Vaoil and even in their Angicized form they sound well: Lochlarig, Ardcarnaig, Monachylemore, Craigruie, Murlagan, Strenvar, Achleskine, and Stronslaney. I am sure that only very few people in Balquidder now know what all these names mean. No doubt Rob Roy knew the meaning of them all.”

With learning, love and great beauty, this book reveals the Highlands. Naturally, it is meant, first before all, for Scotsmen. Secondly, it is meant for Irishmen, because of our links with Gaelic Scotland and because of many common problems.

After that it’s for everybody─who wants to know about one of the most impressive areas in these islands.

It’s a treasure of a book: to read, and re-read to look at with delight.

                                                                                                T. J.

*The Highlands: by Calum I. Maclean, (Batsford: 25/-)

References:
TJ, ‘His heart’s in the Highlands’, The Irish Times (25 April 1959), p. 5.

Image:
Cover of the first edition of The Highlands (London: Batsford, 1959), showing Glencoe, Argyllshire. The photograph was taken by Noel Habgood.

St Columba and Doran

Aristocrat, poet, miracle-worker, diplomat, politician but most of all Irish-born Columba (who died on the 9th of June 597) is remembered as the saint who founded the Abbey of Iona and who along with his twelve companions spread the message of Christianity throughout the Highlands and Islands. To celebrate the anniversary one of the most renowned Celtic saints, here is a short anecdote recorded on the 8th of January 1951 by Calum Maclean from the recitation of John MacDonald of Highbridge, Brae Lochaber, about St Columba and his brother Doran:

 

Bha bràthair aig Calum Cille ris an abradh iad Dòran. ’S e Dòran a bh’ aca air. Agus ma bha Calum Cille na dhuine math, bha Dòran an rathad eile. Bhiodh e a’ fiachann ri feadhainn a mhealladh agus innseadh dhaibh agus ga chur an aghaidh Calum. Ach cha robh sin gu diubhar. ’S ann a’ leanachd Calum Cille a bha a h-uile duine. Agus bha an chùis glè mhath gus an robh iad ga thìodhlacadh, a’ tìodhlacadh Dòran. Agus ’s ann an sin a dh’aithnich iad dè ’n duine a bh’ ann. Bha iad ga chur a sìos fon talamh agus thàinig glaodhadh a-mach às an uaigh agus thuirt e:

“Na bi sibh-se a’ creidsinn na chluinneas sibh. Chan eil Irinn na àite idir cho dona. ’S e th’ ann àite math.”

“Ma-tà,” thuirt Calum Cille is e na sheasamh air taobh na h-uaigh, “cuiribh ùir air sùil Dòran mun labhair e tuillidh còmhradh.”

 

And the translation goes something like this:

 

Columba had a brother called Doran; that’s the name they had for him. And if Columba was a good man then Doran was the complete opposite. He would try to deceive others by telling lies and turning them against St Columba. But that didn’t really matter as everyone followed St Columba. Everything was well until they buried Dòran and it was then that they knew what kind of a man he was. They were lowering him into the ground when a cry came out of the grave and he said:

“Don’t believe what you hear as hell is not a bad place at all. In fact it’s a good place.”

“Well,” said St Columba who was standing by the grave, “then put soil over Dòran’s eyes before he speaks anymore.” 

 

A different and a fuller version of this tale was collected by Fr Allan McDonald (1859–1905), styled Maighstir Ailein, a fellow Lochaber man, when he was a resident priest in Eriskay. In this particular version Doran’s motivation is completely different for he volunteered to be buried alive so the Iona could be saved. It was the ultimate sacrifice that he was willing to make for the sake of his brother, Columba:

 

Bha Dobhran bochd a bhrathair ann an iomall an t-sluaigh. Thain’ e nall agus sheas e air culaibh Chaluim-chille a bhrathair agus thuirt e gun robh esan uile dheonach a bhi air a thiodhlacadh uile bheo fo’n talamh air chumhnanta gu’n gabhadh an I togail do Chaluim-chille a bhrathair naomh, agus e toirt creideas do Chaluim-chille gu’m biodh anam sabhailte le ordadh Dhia.

Arsa Calum-cille, ’ged nach ’eil brathair agam ach Dobhran bochd tha mi toilichte gur e a dheonaich a dhol dha’n t-sloc.’ Agus nach motha na sin a chite a bhiast a tighinn thun a chladaich gu brath.

Rinneadh an sloc seachd airdead duine. Nuair a chunnaic Dobhran an t-sloc thionndaidh e ri Calum-cille, ’s dh’iarr e mar fhabhar ceann a chuir air an t-sloc agus esan fhagail na sheasamh cho fada ’s a thogradh Dia fhagail beo.

Fhuair e iarrtas, a chuir sios beo dha’n t-sloc. Dh’fhagadh an so e.

Thainig Calum-cille is thoisich e air an I ’s bha e fichead la ag obair ’s bha an I a dol air aghaidh uamhasach. Bha e toilichte an ghnothach a bhi dol leis.

Ann an ceann an fhichead latha ’nuair a bha h-uile ni air thuairim a bhi dol air aghart gu math, thuirt e gu’m bu choir sealltain de chrioch a chaidh air Dobhran bochd, agus an sloc fhosgladh.

Bha Dobhran a coiseachd air urlar an t-sluic. ’Nuair a chunnaic Dobhran gu’n do dh’fhosgladh an t-sloc ’s a mhuthaich e ’n saoghal gu leir mu choinneamh thug e cruinn leum as gu bial an t-sluic ’s chuir e dha bhois air bial an t-sluic gu h-ard. Chroch e e-fhein ris an t-sloc. Bha lianadh mhor reidh suas ’o ’n I agus moran luachrach oirre. Na chunnaic Dobhran dhe’n luachar dh’fhas e ruadh agus tha am barr beag ruadh sin air an luachar riamh.

Dh’eubh Calum-cille ’s e thall–‘Uir, uir, air suil Dhobhran mu’n faic e’n corr dhe’n t-saoghal ’s dhe ’n pheacadh.’ Chuir iad an uir air agus thill iad a dh’ionnsaidh an cuid obrach. ’S cha deachaidh car an aghaidh Calum-cille tuilleadh gus an d’fhuair e crioch air I.

 

And the translation goes something like this:

 

Doran his poor brother was at the outskirts of the assembly. He came over and stood at the back of Columba, his brother, and he stated that he was more than willing to be buried alive so that Iona could be built for his holy brother Columba, and he gave belief to Columba that his soul was safe by God’s will.

Columba said, ‘I although I have only one brother in poor Doran I am pleased that he is willing to go into the pit.’ And even better than that the beast will never be seen again coming ashore.

The pit was dug down seven times the height of a man. When Doran saw the pit he turned towards Columba and asked him a favour: for the pit to be covered over and to be left standing as long as God was willing to keep him alive.

He received his wish – to be put alive into the pit. He was left like that.

Columba went over and he began work on Iona. He spent a score of days working and Iona was making good progress. He was pleased that things were working out so well.

At the end of the twentieth day was everything was more or less going well, he said that he should go over and see what had happened to poor Doran and so opened up the pit.

Doran was pacing up and down on the pit bottom. When Doran saw that the pit has opened he noticed the whole wide world was in view and he leaped up to the pit mouth and he put both his hands on the pit opening. He hung there in the pit. There was a large, smooth green up from Iona which contained plenty of rushes. That which Doran saw of these rushes turned red and from then on they still have small patches of red on their tops.

Columba shouted over by – ‘Soil, soil, on Doran’s eyes before he sees the rest of the world and it sins.’ They placed soil over him and they then returned to their work. Nothing ever went against Columba until Iona was completed.

 

References:

Fr. Allan McDonald (of Eriskay), ‘Calum-Cille agus Dobhran a Bhrathair’, The Celtic Review, vol. V (1908–09), pp. 107–09

SSS, NB 7, pp. 616–17

 

Image:
St Columba / Calum Cille / Colmcille potrayed as an Apostle to the Picts at King Bridei’s Fort

 

A Folklorist’s Aunt: Peggy MacLean of Raasay

By sending Calum Maclean back home in order to collect traditions in his native Raasay may have been one of the best decisions ever made by the Irish Folklore Commission based in Dublin. The Commission, established in 1935 by Professor James Hamilton Delargy (1899–1980), was charged with a broad remit of collecting Ireland’s intangible cultural heritage. Between Maclean began working as a part-time collector in 1942, mainly in the Irish-speaking part of Connemara, and eventually becoming a full-time member of staff in 1945, the remit had broadened to take in Gaelic-speaking Scotland as well. Although Delargy’s decision to send his only Scottish collector back home went somewhat against Maclean’s wishes, he knew full-well the importance of the role that had been bestowed upon him, for he wrote:

 

 

…that the time is ripe to begin the systematic collection of Scottish and Gaelic folklore under the aegis of the Irish Folklore Commission. I have no doubt that the help of so many people in Scotland will be forthcoming. Naturally a Scottish Folklore Institute would be the ideal aim, but, at the present juncture, Scottish Gaels would welcome the support of the Irish Folklore Commission.  

 

Maclean undertook this pilot project from his home base in Churchton, Raasay, from the end of December until the 18 of February 1946. Such was the success of this trial run that Maclean would thenceforth take up permanent residence in Scotland and while still an employee of the Commission would, over next five years, collect a great deal of traditions mainly in the predominantly Catholic and Gaelic-speaking Southern Hebrides.

 

Maclean’s own family were renowned tradition bearers, with talented singers, pipers and storytellers. Not to have begun at home would have been deemed rather churlish and thus he did not have to look far in order to garner materials.  And so, for the next two months, Maclean amassed a great deal of lore from his own relations such as his mother, Christina, father, Malcolm and brother, Sorley. The lion’s share of material, however, was recorded from his maternal uncle, Angus Nicolson, styled Aonghas Shomhairle Iain ’ic Shomhairle (1890–1965) and, his paternal aunt, Peggy MacLean, styled Peigi Chaluim Iain Ghairbh (1869–1950). Maclean’s Raasay collection was mainly songs along with associated stories about their provenance and background. In his memoir of Maclean, Hamish Henderson noted that: “His uncle Angus Nicolson was a fine singer with a wide repertoire, and both his father and aunt Peggy Maclean were singers too, so Calum’s interest in Gaelic traditional song was no doubt kindled in his earliest childhood.”

 

In 1946 Peggy Maclean was aged around seventy-seven and was born in Baile Chùirn, Raasay, in 1869, the eldest sister of Malcolm MacLean, styled Calum Iain Gairbh, a crofter-fisherman. After attending school in nearby Churchton, Peggy then found work on the farm there. Wishing to expand her horizons further, she then entered the catering trade at a fairly young age and travelled to many parts of the world. Such places included stints in Scotland, Ireland, England as well as America. No matter how far her work took her she would invariably return home to Raasay for her annual fortnight’s holiday. She served as an army cook from 1914 to 1921 and, as she told her nephew, that although she may not have carried a gun she thought she might have killed a few people. Her nephew would no doubt have enjoyed this kind of self-deprecating humour. Peggy remained unmarried and probably retired home to Raasay in the mid-1930s.

 

Maclean in an article published in the scholarly Irish periodical Béaloideas, dedicated to oral tradition, recollected his aunt in the following terms:

 

Most of my work during a month in Raasay was done with Peggy MacLean. Miss MacLean had been a cook, most of her life and had travelled a good deal. She is now close on eighty years of age, and her memory is rapidly failing. She had several stories, although it is unusual for a woman to have lore of this type. There had been storytellers on the island in her youth, but now story-telling had ceased to be a part of the life of the community. 

 

The sources of her singing repertoire stemmed from her aunt Isobel, who stayed in Baile Chùirn and who died in 1918, and from her mother, Mary, who died in 1923 at the age of 86. Peggy learned all her stories from latter named apart from one:

 

Her people had had songs in plenty and she remembered them. As a young woman she had gone to the luaidh (meetings of women-folk for the purpose of waulking or fulling cloth). At these she learned many songs composed mostly by women for men, men with flowing yellow hair, hunters of the hill and sailors of the green ocean waters. Last summer her voice was beginning to fail, and it was almost impossible to have the melodies recorded. She did give more than four score songs, and some had beautiful melodies.

 

Maclean noted that Peggy’s memory was perhaps not as good as it used to be and that her increasing frailty and work-related back problems did not help matters either. But despite such concerns, Maclean still managed to record around one hundred and twenty-three individual items from his aunt’s recitation, more than thirty stories including a few international tales, some ninety songs, including some thirty waulking-type songs and forty short pieces of puirt-à-beul or mouth-music.

 

Sorley MacLean recalled that Peggy used to delight in fishing and, as a young man, he would take his aunt out in the boat and while he rowed he was regaled by her singing. It also would have had the desired effect of lightening the physical task of propelling the boat through the sea. Calum later wrote to Sorley in a letter of 1946 of his folklore collecting in Raasay:

 

But I enjoy my work very much. The folklore business became more interesting according [to] how you master the proper system of approach. Raasay is a wonderful type of place to work. It is small and sea-contained. It has fishermen and crofters, land and sea, birds, fish and animals, old ruins, groves, buailes, ghosts, fairies oral tradition, local history and everything that comes within our scope. It would take a good collector three years to cover it all...

 

It is something of a pity that Maclean could only spare a short period of time to collect the traditions of his native Raasay. Having proved the point that there was more than enough to collect, Maclean’s next move was to take him to the isle of Barra where a new vista of collecting was to occupy him for the next five months or so.

 

If it were not for Maclean’s efforts to collect in Raasay as well as elsewhere then our understanding of oral tradition in the mid-twentieth century would be far poorer. After concluding his successful fieldwork trip to his native Raasay, Maclean wrote in his diary:

 

I have now finished my first collection of Scots-Gaelic lore. There are many other songs still to be recorded. All of those which I have written down have associated airs, save one, and all of the tunes are different from one another. It is a great ‘sin’ that I was not born thirty years earlier, as the best of the lore has gone into the grave with those who had it. There is a terrible gale blowing here today.

 

Reference:

MacGilleathain, Calum I., ‘Sgéalta as Albain’, Béaloideas: The Journal of the Folklore of Ireland Society, vol. XV (1945), pp. 237–48

 

Image:

Photograph of family portrait, Malcolm and Peggy, along with a young Calum. c. 1920. Courtesy of Cailean Maclean

A Report from Raasay

After having spent seven years in ‘exile’ in Ireland, Calum Maclean returned to his native isle of Raasay to undertake a pilot project of collecting oral materials mainly from his own relations. Maclean was fully conscious of the task that lay before him and applied himself to his work with gusto. An entry from a diary, which he wrote in Scottish Gaelic, gives an insight into his work as an ethnographer at this time: 

Thòisich mise, Calum I. Mac Gille Eathain, a’ cruinneachadh beul-airthris agus litreachas beóil ann an eilean Ratharsair am paraiste Phort-righeadh anns an Eilean Sgitheanach air an 19mh lá de ’n Dùdhlachd (Nodhlaig) 1945. Rugadh mi agus chaidh mo thogail anns an eilean seo. An uair a bha mise òg bha tòrr dhaoine anns an eilean seo aig a robh sgeulachdan agus seann-òrain nach deachaidh a sgrìobhadh sios riamh is nach téid a sgrìobhadh sios gu bràth. Tha an t-seann-fheadhainn an nis marbh agus thug iad gach rud a bha aca leotha do’n uaigh. Có dhiubh tha cuid de dhaoine ann fhathast a chuimhneachas bloighean de na h-òrain a bhiodh aca agus bloighean de’n t-seanchas eile cuideachd. Shaoil mi gun robh barrachd òran air am fàgail anns an eilean seo na bha de aon rud eile. Uime sin chuir mi romham na h-òrain a sgrìobhadh sios uile mar a chuala mi aig na daoine iad. Ach sgrìobh mi sios cuideachd gach rud a thachair rium. Tha fhios agam gum bheil sinn tri fichead bliadhna ro anamoch gu tòiseachadh air an obair seo, ach dh’fhaoite gu sàbhail sinn rud air chor eigin fhathast, mun téid e uile a dhìth...

I, Calum I. Maclean, began two days ago to collect the oral tradition of the island of Raasay. I was born and reared on this island. When I was young there were many people here who had tales and songs which had never been written down, and which never will be, since the old people are now dead, and all that they knew is with them in the grave. There are still some people alive who remember some of the songs and traditions of their forefathers, and as it seemed to me that there are more songs than anything else available, I decided to write down those which I could find. I realize that we are sixty years late in beginning this work of collection, but we may be able to save at least some of the traditional lore before it dies out…
 

Maclean later wrote to his brother, Sorley, reflected upon his experience of collecting in Raasay:

But I enjoy my work very much. The folklore business became more interesting according [to] how you master the proper system of approach. Raasay is a wonderful type of place to work. It is small and sea-contained. It has fishermen and crofters, land and sea, birds, fish and animals, old ruins, groves, buailes, ghosts, fairies oral tradition, local history and everything that comes within our scope. It would take a good collector three years to cover it all.
 

After Maclean’s successful sortie in collecting traditions in his native Raasay, the Director of the Irish Folklore Commission, James Hamilton Delargy, took the decision, in 1946, to send Maclean back to his native homeland so that he could continue to collect the fast-dying Gaelic traditions of the Hebrides and the mainland Highlands on a full-time basis. Thenceforth Maclean would take up permanent residence in Scotland. By February 1946, Maclean had amassed a great deal of lore from his own relations, mainly from his maternal uncle, Angus Nicolson (1890–1965), styled Aonghas Shomhairle Iain ’ic Shomhairle  and, his paternal aunt, Peggy MacLean (1869–1950), styled Peigi Chaluim Iain Ghairbh. Maclean’s Raasay collection was mainly songs along with associated stories about their provenance and background (NFC MS 1026–1027). Based up this collecting trip, Maclean would later make a contribution to the Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Inverness. It is noteworthy that Maclean collected these rather than long romantic tales that were more or less no longer available. Maclean noted—perhaps due to the zeal of the convert—that the reason for this was that a strong Calvinistic streak pervaded the island at the time. Indeed, Maclean only encountered ‘living’ storytellers of the old school in the Southern Hebrides whose repertoires were representative of those collected by John Francis Campbell and his various collectors around a century before. Maclean noted in his diary, January 24, 1945, writing in Irish Gaelic, after his first fieldwork foray in his native island:

Táim anois a’ cur deire leis an gcéad leabhar a bhailigheas de bhéaloideas na h-Alban. Tá ana-chuid amhrán ins an leabhar seo ata críochnaí anois agam … Tá a thuille amhrán aca fós. Tá ceól ag dul le gach aon dán amháin. Nì h-é an ceól céadna atá le aon dá amhrán dá bhfhuil agam ins an leabhar seo. Is mór go deó an peacadh nár rugadh mé deith mbliadhna fichead níos túisce, ach deabhal neart air anois. Tá na daoine a raibh an t-adhbhar a b’ fhearr aca básuighthe uile anois … Tá gala uabhthasach annseo indiu. 

 

I have now finished my first collection of Scottish Gaelic lore. There are many songs in this book which I have now transcribed but there are many others songs still to be recorded. All of those which I have written down have associated airs, save one, and all of the tunes are different from one another … It is a great ‘sin’ that I was not born thirty years earlier, as the best of the lore has gone into the grave with those that had it … There is a terrible gale blowing here today.

 

At the conclusion of this fieldwork trip, Maclean wrote a three-page report for Delargy, his boss back at 82 St Stephen’s Green, Dublin where the headquarters of the Irish Folklore Commission had been established until the archive was moved to its present locality at University College Dublin in 1971:

 

REPORT ON VISIT TO SCOTLAND.

Dec. 7th 1945 – Feb. 17th 1946

 

I proceeded to Scotland on 7th Dec. 1945 with the express intention of enquiry into the possibilities of initiating the systematic collection of oral tradition in Scotland and, in particular, in the Gaelic-speaking western seaboard and islands. In Glasgow I met Mr. Alex Nicolson, M.A., Lecturer in Celtic at the University of Glasgow. I stated that the Irish Folklore Commission was prepared to initiate and to finance the collection of oral tradition in the Highlands and Western Isles and, in doing so, desired the co-operation of Scots pending the emergence in Scotland of a body competent to collect, record and catalogue oral tradition. Mr. Nicolson gave his assurance that this project would have his immediate support. We however maintained that it was almost too late to save much of value now, as the raconteurs and custodians of oral tradition had, to a large extent, gone.

 

I then proceeded to Inverness, where I interviewed Dr. D. J. Macleod, D.Litt., O.B.E. Dr. Macleod expressed complete approval for the Commission’s project and promised all moral and material support.

 

I also interviewed Mr. Hugh MacPhee, Director of Gaelic Programmes of the British Broadcasting Corporation. Mr. MacPhee considered that the offer of the Irish Folklore Commission was very generous indeed and would meet with all sympathy in Scotland. Mr. MacPhee made the suggestion that the Director of the Irish Folklore Commission should visit Scotland and address a meeting representative of people interested in folklore there. Mr. MacPhee maintained that finance was the main obstacle that confronted the collection of oral tradition in Scotland at present.

 

I subsequently met Rev. T. M. Murchison, M.A., a member of the Executive Council of An Cumunn Gàidhealach. He considered co-operation with the Irish Folklore Commission highly desirable. The Commission could advise and direct the collection of oral tradition in Scotland. He favoured the suggestion that the Director of the Commission should, in the near future, address a representative meeting of Scots interested in folklore.

 

I also interviewed Rev. M. Maclean, M.A., a noted writer and figure in the Gaelic movement. He considered that the Irish Folklore Commission should make it its business to collect the oral traditions of Gaelic Scotland. For the study of folklore Ireland and Gaelic Scotland would have to be treated as one. The Irish Folklore Commission was the only body competent to deal with Scottish oral traditions. He advised the Commission to proceed with the collection of folklore in Scotland as soon as possible and stated that the Commission would have his whole-hearted support, both moral and material. He advised the Commission to enlist the help of private individuals in Scotland rather than that of Gaelic societies.

 

I also interviewed Dr. John Cameron, Ph.D., of Glasgow. He was interested in the Commission’s project and wished it all success.

 

I spoke to various people in different walks of life in Scotland and have found among them genuine interest in the recording of the traditions of the people.

 

Many people in Scotland expressed admiration of the work done by the Irish Folklore Commission and commended the Irish Government for financing and encouraging that work.

 

I consider that the time is now ripe to begin the systematic collection of Scottish and Gaelic folklore under the aegis of the Irish Folklore Commission. I have no doubt that the help of many people in Scotland will be forthcoming. Naturally a Scottish Folklore Institute would be the ideal aim, but at the present juncture, Scottish Gaels would welcome the support of the Irish Folklore Commission.

 

As to existing oral traditions in Scotland, I spent seven weeks in the island of Raasay. It is a typical Gaelic-speaking island. The people there are mainly small-holders and fishermen. Their religious persuasion is Calvinistic. There I found that much oral tradition remains among the people. From one person alone I wrote the words of forty folk-songs, most of which have never appeared in print. All these songs had their distinct melodies and have still. From that person I noted down several fairy stories and stories of historical and local interest and many items of popular belief and practice. People here have remembered their songs better than anything else. From another person I wrote down several tales of the international folktale type and all the versions were good. From that same person I wrote down thirty folk-songs and was assured that I could get a hundred more, and may more stories as well. Other people gave me much valuable material and all seemed willing to give it readily. Little or no collection had ever been done in that district.

In Scotland there is an immense field to be covered and much more than I, at least, ever expected to be collected and committed to writing or recorded by the latest scientific devices.

                                       Colm Mac Gille Eathain

                                                                        27/2/46

 

On the basis of Maclean’s report, Delargy would later write on the 30th of May 1946 to the Secretary of the Department of Education in the following terms:

 

A most favourable opportunity exists for the extension of the work of collection to Scotland. Colm MacGilleathain, who has been trained in our cataloguing methods during the last fifteen months, is ready to go to Scotland and begin the work of collection in the Western Islands. During his holidays at Christmas he discussed the collection of Scottish-Gaelic folklore by our Commission with several influential Scots who welcomed the project as there is no hope that such work will be undertaken by a Scottish institution. He is confident that he will be able to enlist the help of several young Scots from various parts of the Highlands and Islands on a part-time basis. I need hardly say that the undertaking of collection in Scotland, besides being a necessary complement to collection in Ireland and a most valuable addition to international scholarship, will redound to the credit of the Irish Government.

 

References:

NAI, ED/25/15
NFC MS 1026: 1a; 95–96
NLS MS.29536: 25

Image:

James Hamilton Delargy [Séamus Ó Duilearga], c. 1965, at the entrance to the Irish Folklore Commission’s headquarters at St Stephen’s Green, Dublin. Courtesy of Cnuasach Bhéaloideas Éireann, Coláiste Ollscoile Baile Átha Cliath / National Folklore Collection, University College Dublin