A mach bho’n Ghrèigis agus bho’n Ghearmailtis chan ’eil cànain air bith eile ri fhaotainn, anns am fasa facail ùra a dheilbh na a’ Ghàidhlig, bho fhriamhaichean innte fhèin. Chithear sin ma bheirear fainear na briathran a bha air an gnàthachadh leis na seann Ghreugaich, nuair a thàinig an soisgeul air tùs d’an ionnsaidh, agus nuair a b’èiginn daibh facail ùra dheilbh airson diamhaireachdan an t-soisgeil a chur an cèill; agus gu h-àraid an diamhaireachd mu dheidhinn daonnachd an t-slànaigheir. Tha e furasta gu leòr na briathran sin a chur ann an Gàidhlig a bhitheas so-thuigsinn do’n a h-uile neach aig am bheil eòlas ceart air a’ chànain, agus d’an aithne a riaghailtean.
Ghnàthaich na Greugaich iomadh briathar, a mheas iad freagarrach, gu bhi a’ ciallachadh na diamhaireachd mòire so, gun d’rinneadh mac Dhè ’na dhuine. B’iad na briathran a chleachd iad mar bu trice iad so, Sarcosis, Ensarcosis, ’se sin ann an Gàidhlig, Feòil-ghabhail neo Feòilneachadh, ris an canar Incarnation ’s a’ Bheurla. Bho’n Laidinn Incarnatio....
...Chì sinn mar so cho fèin-chumailteach ’s a tha a’ Ghàidhlig, cho pailt-bhriathrach, luthainn, sùbailte ’s a tha i agus cho furasta ’s a tha e briathran ùra freagarrach a dheilbh innte do rèir ciall agus gnè na cànain.
Nuair a nochd Mac-Talla an toiseach ann an 1892 bha am pàipear ceithir-dhuilleagach air a chlò-bhualadh gach seachdain. Ri ùine dh’fhàs e gu ochd duilleagan, ach anns a’ bhliadhna mu dheireadh cha robh e tighinn am follais ach gach cola-deug. Bha an teachd-a-steach bho shanasachd air seachdadh, na leughadairean agus na sgrìobhaichean air crìonadh, agus cosgaisean clò-bhualaidh air meudachadh. Cha robh e fèin-chumailteach, mar a chanadh am Blàrach.
B’e Eòin MacFhionghain (1869-1944) a chuir Mac-Talla air chois agus a dh’altram e mar fhear-deasachaidh fad dhusan bliadhna. Rugadh e ann a Hogama an Ceap Breatann, de shliochd Sgitheanach. Nuair a bha e òg bha a shlàinte breòite agus cha robh e air chomas dha a bhith cunbhalach a’ frithealadh sgoile. Fhad’s a bha e air a chuingealachadh aig an taigh chuir e seachad mòran tìde a’ sireadh fiosrachaidh mu a shinnsrean agus phiobraich seo e gu ùidh shònraichte a ghabhail dhan cànan.
Nuair a thàinig piseach air a shlàinte chaidh e don àrd-sgoil ann am baile Shidni. Sin far an d’fhuair e a’ chiad bhlasad air clò-bhualadh, mar dheasaiche air iris na sgoile. Leis an eòlas seo agus a mheas air cànan a dhaoine chuir e roimhe pàipear-naidheachd Gàidhlig a chruthachadh, agus rinn e sin nuair a bha e dà bhliadhna air fhichead de dh’aois.
Fhad’s a mhair Mac-Talla bha MacFhionghain gu dealasach a’ sireadh luchd-leughaidh. Ann an 1898 chuir e an teachdaireachd seo anns a’ phàipeir:
Chan eil air an taobh-sa dhe’n Atlantic ach aon phaipear Gailig. ’Se ’n aon phaipear sin am Mac-Talla. Chan e sin a mhain, ach chan eil paipear seachdaineach Gailig air an t-saoghal ach e fhein. Nach coir, uime sin, do gach neach a leubhas Gailig a bhi gabhail a phaipear so. Ma tha meas agad air cainnt do shinnsir, ’s ma tha thu deonach a cumail beo, cuiridh tu a dh’iarraidh a Mhac-Talla leis a’ cheud airgiod a gheibh thu.
Tha ’m Mac-Talla tigh’nn a mach a h-uile Di-sathairne. Tha naigheachdan na ducha agus an t-saoghail gu leir air an innse ann gu pongail, ann am beagan fhacal, agus cho firinneach ’sa gheibh thu iad am paipear sam bith. Chan eil am Mac-Talla a gabhail taobh seach taobh ann am “Politics.” Chan eil e ’g iarraidh a bhi sparradh a bharailean fein air duine sam bith. Chan eil e dol a thoiseachadh air duine sam bith a chaineadh. Tha e fagail gach gliocas us goraiche dhe’n t-seorsa sin aig na paipearan eile.
Chì sinn bhon an teachdaireachd seo nach b’ann an-diugh no ’n dè a bha daoine amharasach mu phàipearan-naidheachd. Agus chì sinn cuideachd an t-atharrachadh a tha air tighinn air briathrachas is litreachadh na Gàidhlig. Tha GOC againn an diugh. Ach chan eil pàipear-naidheachd Gàidhlig againn.
A dh’aindeoin coiteachaidh ri luchd-leughaidh is luchd-taice cha b’urrainn do MhacFhionghain am pàipear a chumail air bhog. Anns an fhear mu dheireadh, air 24 Ògmhios, 1904, dh’fhàg e slàn aca-san agus aig Mac-Talla:
Air son Mac-Talla a chur a mach uair ’s an da sheachdain cha b’fhuilear air a chuid bu lugha da mhile fear-gabhail a bhith aige. Dh’fhaodadh sin a bhith aige ged nach biodh ann de luchd-leughaidh Gailig ach na th’ air eilein Cheap Breatuinn; ach nuair nach faighear an aireamh sin air fad us leud an t-saoghail, chan urrainnear tighinn gu co-dhunadh sam bith eile ach nach eil paipeir Gailig a dhith air na Gaidheil, gu bheil iad riaraichte le bhith comharraichte mar an aon chinneach Criosdail a th’ air thalamh nach cost ri paipeir a chumail suas ’n an cainnt fein.”
Ag ullachadh an leabhair seo bha sinn mothachail air na h-atharraichean air labhairt agus gnàthasan-sgrìobhadh na Gàidhlig tro na linntean, agus air an eadar-dhealachadh a tha air tighinn air litreachadh na cànain. Lean sinn cho dlùth ’s a b’urrainn dhuinn ri briathrachas a’ Bhlàraich agus ri nòsan Mhic-Talla, ach on a tha caochladh air tighinn air “cumailteachd” agus cumadh na Gàidhlig chuir sinn dreach an là-an-diugh air mòran den an litreachadh son an sgrìobhadh a dhèanamh nas so-thuigsinn agus nas tarraingaiche do luchd-leughaidh na linne seo.
Tha sinn fada an comain gach neach a thug taice dhuinn ann a bhith deasachadh an leabhair, gu h-àraidh Mìcheal Mac an t-Sealgair aig Clò Oilthigh Cheap Breatainn, Ionad Pheutanach na h-Oilthigh, agus Sìne Arnold is Màiri Chaimbeul. Chuidich iad sinn ann an iomadh dòigh. Tha sinn cuideachd taingeil do Shabhal Mòr Òstaig son Mac-Talla a chur air an eadar-lìon, far am faodamaid sùil a thoirt air aig àm sam bith.
Sgrìobag bhon Luchd-deasachaidh: Bu toigh leinn a chur fa chomhair an luchd-leughaidh gun do rinn sinn oidhirp air urraim a thoirt do na sgrìobhaidhean tùsail Gàidhlig ann an caochladh dhòighean. Anns a’ chiad àite, roghnaich sinn a’ Ghàidhlig a chur air an duilleig air an làimh-dheis, mu choinneamh na leughadairean nuair a thionndaidheas iad an duilleag. Anns an dàra àite, agus gu h-àraidh cudromach do luchd-ionnsachaidh, mar gach iomairt den t-seòrsa, chan eil an t-eadar-theangachadh facal air an fhacal, ach mar mhìneachadh a ni briathrachas an là-an-dè nas brìoghmhoire do leughadair an là-an-diugh.
Tha e deatamach,mar a tha Mgr. Mac a’ Phearsain a’ mìneachadh anns an ro-ràdh, cudrom a chur air na roghainnean a thaobh litreachaidh. Tha na sgrìobhaidhean aig Mgr. Mac a’ Phearsain agus an t-Ollamh Linkletter a’ leantainn modhan litreachaidh GOC, ach tha na sgrìobhaidhean aig an Urr. Blàrach faisg air mar a bha iad bho thus.
Duncan Black Blair
by Michael Linkletter
(Maclean Sinclair, whose name frequently appears in this chapter, invariably used the surname Sinclair in Gaelic rather than Mac na Ceàrdaich for reasons he explains elsewhere. We have thus adopted his practice here. For a discussion on this, please see Michael Linkletter, “Gàidhlig aig Oilthigh Naoimh Fransaidh Xavier agus an t-Urramach Alasdair MacIllEathain Sinclair – Gaelic at St. Francis Xavier University and the Rev. Alexander Maclean Sinclair” ann an Rannsachadh na Gàidhlig 5/Fifth Scottish Gaelic Research Conference, ed. Kenneth E. Nilsen (Sydney: Cape Breton University Press, 2011), 134-48.)
The Reverend Doctor Duncan Black Blair was one of numerous individuals, mainly clergy, engaged in the production of Gaelic letters in the 19th century. This is perhaps not overly surprising in that they were the main educated class among the Gaels with the disruption in the clan system in the previous century and the concomitant loss of the native schools in which poetry, medicine, law and music were formally studied. This gap was filled to a certain extent by the native clergy, educated in the universities of urban Scotland, but many of whom returned to charges in the Highlands and Islands. The ceilidh house, where poetry, folktales and other aspects of oral tradition (and indeed written and printed matter in the 19th century) were communicated, was perhaps the most important feature in the continued transmission of traditional Gaelic culture with the suppression of the clan system after 1745. It was in this nurturing environment that many of the clergymen were raised and who would become important figures in the emergence of
a new Gaelic literati of the 19th century. The Society in Scotland for Propagating Christian Knowledge (SSPCK) was also not an insignificant factor in the development of Gaelic literacy during this period. After its founding in 1709, the SSPCK had been decidedly anti-Gaelic in its early mission to bring religious education to the Highlands and other “uncivilized” parts of the country, but by the early 1800s had adopted an approach of fostering reading in Gaelic to facilitate access to the Bible, with the ultimate goal of transitioning completely to English.
The industrial printing press in the larger urban centres greatly facilitated the rise of a new Gaelic prose tradition in the 19th century. Gaelic prose existed orally of course, but not since the Middle Ages in an earlier stage of the language was there anything like a narrative prose literary tradition. With the mass production of newspapers we see the Gaelic-speaking clergy rising to the challenges and opportunities that the new medium afforded for their language. Most prominent, and almost certainly most influential in this regard, was the work of “Caraid nan Gàidheal” (Friend of the Gaels), the Rev. Dr. Norman MacLeod. It was arguably MacLeod more than anyone else, who did the most for establishing a modern prose tradition for Gaelic. It was MacLeod’s intention in his periodicals, Teachdaire Gae’lach (Gaelic Messenger, 1829-1831) and Cuairtear nan Gleann (Traveller of the Glens, 1840-1843), at least in part to develop a more formal register for secular Gaelic prose. Besides providing material of his own composition, he also wanted to make information in English-language texts available to Gaels in their own language. To this end he included translations on topics such as history, geography, current events, science and religion. The example established by MacLeod’s publications acts as a strong influence in material subsequently published by clergymen, and perhaps goes a long way in explaining some of what we see in the sampling of Blair’s writings from Mac-Talla in the present volume.
A native of Strathchur, Cowal, born in 1815, and educated at the University of Edinburgh, Blair came to Nova Scotia in 1846. In 1847 he went for a year to Ontario, where he visited Niagara Falls, eventually returning to Nova Scotia in 1848. Niagara Falls made a great impression on the minister-poet, and though he composed a number of poems and wrote prolifically on many topics, his poem on seeing Niagara Falls, “Eas Niagara,” is his best-known work. First published in the magazine An Gaidheal in 1871 and subsequently with emendations in Alexander Maclean Sinclair’s Clàrsach na Coille a decade later, it has since been included in other significant compilations of Gaelic poetry, including the many editions of W. J. Watson’s well-known Bàrdachd Ghàidhlig (published in 1918, 1932, 1959 and 1976) and most recently Donald Meek’s anthology of 19th-century poetry, Caran an t-Saoghail (2003). It is toward a greater appreciation of the man and his works that the present volume owes its existence.
Short biographies have been written about Blair in anthologies of Gaelic poetry since Maclean Sinclair’s Clàrsach na Coille of 1881, but little has been done in terms of looking at his writings in the context of the emerging Gaelic written tradition of the 19th century. Central to the picture that Blair paints of himself are his personal journals and his travelogues published in various contemporary newspapers, including the Canada Scotsman (edited by Angus Nicholson who went on to publish the monthly magazine An Gàidheal to which Blair also contributed numerous articles), the Gaelic column in the Pictou News, edited by Maclean Sinclair, and the all-Gaelic Mac-Talla, edited by Jonathan MacKinnon. From these various sources we know that Blair was born in the parish of Strachur on Lochfyne in Cowal on July 1, 1815. He was the son of Catherine MacGregor and Thomas Blair, who managed a large sheep operation for many years in Glendale, but eventually settled in Laggan with his family in 1825. He evidenced a strong aptitude for learning when he was young, and his father vowed to educate him to become a minister. The young Blair did not realize exactly what this meant, but felt motivated to see it through. He says:
I began school on August 17th, 1823, and I stayed in school about three-quarters. I was able to read the English Bible before leaving that school and, as I had never read a word until then and moreover, as I surpassed those of my own age who were ahead of me when I started school, my father said to me that he would educate me to be a minister. That suited me well, although I knew not at the time what it meant to be a minister, except that I understood that a minister was an educated man. I ever kept before me, my duty, as the purpose of my education and I have not let it slip these sixteen years.1
Blair tells us that even though Gaelic was his first language, he was educated in English, and by placing the English Bible next to the Gaelic version, he was eventually able to read in his native tongue:
About the beginning of the winter of 1824 I began to read the Gaelic Bible from the very beginning. I placed the English and Gaelic side by side and thus I came to read the Gaelic as well as the English; although I had no teacher, except that my father taught me to read the first chapter of Genesis in Gaelic.2
As he progressed in his younger years, he continued to read the Bible. At the age of ten the precocious Blair says he started to “write a book and to put it together” and he constructed a “house” where he preached to other children and conducted a communion service complete with bread and wine which he made himself from black currants. It is evident that the goal of becoming a minister was on his mind. He explains that:
in March 1828 a schoolmaster from the Assembly of the Church of Scotland came to the neighbourhood about three miles from father’s house. His name was John Finlayson from the Isle of Skye. I heard that he was a Baptist. As I had in mind to be a minister of the Church of Scotland, I had no particular love for the Baptists. Not that I did not think there were good men among them, but I believed the teaching of the Church of Scotland to be preferable.3
Blair attended school under John Finlayson for a time from 1828-1832, under whom he learned Latin and Greek and came to be impressed with the deep and sincere spirituality of the man. With the goal of supplementing the promised assistance from his father toward his education at Edinburgh University, he worked as an assistant teacher under John Finlayson in 1833. He began studies at Edinburgh University in 1834. In 1836 he joined the Ossianic Society at the university which Blair says was for “lads from the Highlands where they might speak Gaelic and write it. I joined that Society as I was anxious to keep up my native tongue.”4
He became sick that year while tutoring in the Isle of Skye in 1838. His illness was so severe it delayed his return to studies at Edinburgh for two years. Blair’s eldest sister Anna helped care for him, but she eventually came down with the fever herself and died on September 20, 1838:
My father and mother were happy that I returned home alive and well, but it was not long till their joy turned to sorrow at the death of my sister. We were all very sad. When it seemed as if she were about to die, I went to a place of solitude ... to pray for her. I was in agony of soul as she was going to eternity and I was afraid she was not prepared for death. She was in deep sleep with a potion the doctor gave her, something which I believe hastened her death and to eternity, I prayed to the Almighty that His will be done, that He would restore her to health, if it be His will, but above all that she be prepared for Death with the Truth of Christ. I then returned and as I came near the house she gave up the Spirit. I shall go where she is, but she will not return to us.… She was my favorite sister. She was nearest me in age. She was quiet, humble and obedient to her parents, loving her brothers and sisters and kind to all.5
By1840, Blair was well enough to return to university. He entered the Divinity Hall in Edinburgh and was ultimately licensed to preach on May 1, 1844.6 He then preached for the Free Church Congregations of Badenoch for six months, and spent much of 1845 in Mull. In a letter to the Colonial Committee of the Free Church during this time, he indicated his desire to “go to the Colonies to preach the Gospel.” He was asked to travel to Edinburgh to be examined by the Committee before being “authorized to
go to America” on a three-year mission.7 After bidding farewell to his family, friends and home district, he journeyed to Glasgow where he set sail for Pictou, Nova Scotia, on April 2, 1846. The description of his journey across the Atlantic—and subsequent travels in Prince Edward Island, mainland Nova Scotia and Cape Breton, and up the St. Lawrence River through Québec to Ontario in 1847—make for interesting reading and are included in the present volume. His vessel was grounded in the night on his way up the St. Lawrence where the crew received help from French-speaking residents on the adjacent mainland. Blair was very concerned that his chests of books be recovered. They eventually were and were sent on to him at his destination in Bytown (Ottawa). From there he journeyed to Beckwith where he served a congregation of Gaels originally from Perthshire. He also served for a while in the townships of Aldborough and Dunwich; it was during this time that he visited Niagara Falls. In September 1848, he returned to Pictou, Nova Scotia, by way of New York and Halifax on the steamship Europa.8 Blair completed his missionary contract and he decided to remain in Nova Scotia:
The terms of my three years’ appointment as a missionary by the Colonial Committee having been accomplished at the beginning of May, 1848, I had now remained a year and a half longer, preaching most of the time in Blue Mountain and Barney’s River and the upper regions of the East River. I became more attached to the people and liked the country better the longer I stayed in it. With these considerations I came to the conclusion to remain and cast my lot with the people of Barney’s River and Blue Mountain as a permanent field of labor and my home, subject to the Will of Providence.9
Before permanently settling, however, Blair wanted to return once more to Scotland to visit his family after receiving word that his mother was ill. He journeyed back to Scotland in 1850 and remained until September 1851. In the short time he was back in Scotland, he met Mary Sibella MacLean and whom he married in August 1851. He composed a poem for her, “Màiri Lurach” (Lovely Mary), also included in the present volume. Blair returned to Nova Scotia with his new bride in September 1851 where they settled in the Barney’s River, Blue Mountain and Garden of Eden district of Pictou County in northeastern, mainland Nova Scotia.
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