Sorley MacLean: A Bard and Scottish Gaelic

Abstract

By JOHN VAN EERDE & ROBERT WILLIAMSON writers of this article were in Scotland in May and June 1977. Recipients of a Mellon Grant for the purpose of studying the position of certain minority languages abroad, we spent some time in Skye and also in the Outer Hebrides. Our investigation was interdisciplinary by nature and bilingual in its thrust, Williamson being a sociologist and Van Eerde a linguist. We talked to a fairly wide and representative sampling of the population. One of our tools was a questionnaire which included questions on such things as the interviewee's linguistic background, the relative importance of Gaelic as opposed to English in the interviewee's home, at work, during recreation, in the process of education, et cetera. Our interest included past history, the present situation and the hopes or fears for the future. It is perhaps not surprising that our findings correspond in a general way with those we gleaned with respect to Romansh in Switzerland (see John Van Eerde, The Predicament of Romansh Literature, BA 50:2, pp. 341-45) and Friulian in Italy. What we think of here is the gradual diminution of the use of minority languages, best exemplified by the many occasions on which parents will address their children in the minority language (e.g., Gaelic), only to receive a reply in the prevailing tongue (e.g., English). It is evident that the older generations and even younger parents are often torn between sentimental ties to a cultural tradition and the exigencies of practical living. Parents wonder whether they harm their children by insisting on a language which is very likely not going to be of use to them in their future. These fears, by the way, seem to be greater where the minority language is weakest; they are greater among Gaelic speakers in Scotland than among Gaelic speakers in Ireland or perhaps among speakers of Romansh in Switzerland or the speakers of Friulian in Italy. relatively stronger position of Catalan in the face of Spanish would lead one to expect fewer such fears among Catalan speakers. An important aspect of this minority problem is of course the status of the literature. A corollary to this is the place of the minority language in the education system. Even if there are young writers striving to make a reputation in the minority literature, it will be to no avail unless the schools are training tomorrow's readers. fact is that minority cultures are possessed of worthwhile literatures, and Scottish Gaelic is no exception. It seemed to us most appropriate in view of our interests that we have personal contact with a Gaelic writer who might give us his views on the cultural position. Our good fortune was to have the honor of a long conversation with MacLean, the eminent Gaelic poet who lives on Skye. He graciously came in to Portree to chat with us at the Royal Hotel, and we talked about Scottish Gaelic language and literature. It is pertinent here to remind readers of the place that MacLean holds in Gaelic letters. A critic has written: Sorley MacLean (Somhairle Mac Ghill Eathain) is a less traditional Gaelic poet [than George Campbell Hay], and his poems have from the beginning a new economy of language, and more intellectual substance than most earlier Gaelic poetry. In his love songs, personal hopes and fears are closely and almost metaphysically integrated with socialism and with Europe's cry of agony ('gaoir na h-E6rpa') during the Spanish Civil War. His Calvary is a backroom of poverty in Edinburgh and the slums of Glasgow.1 MacLean has been the leader and inspiration of a group of poets responsible for a twentieth-century renaissance of Scottish Gaelic poetry. John Murray, himself a writer and educator with whom the writers of this article had the