Rob Donn

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Rob Donn Mackay monument, Balnakeil graveyard, with inscriptions in Gaelic, English, Greek and Latin. Erected 1827.

Rob Donn (Brown-haired Rob) (1714 - 1778) was a Scottish Gaelic poet from Sutherland. It is generally assumed that his name was Robert MacKay (MacAoidh),[1][2] but this has been disputed, so he is sometimes referred to as "Rob Donn MacAoidh".

Biography[]

Born at Aultnacaillich in Strathmore, Sutherland, he was illiterate[1][2] and never learnt to speak English, but was strongly influenced by the poetry of Alexander Pope, which he heard in translation into Gaelic by the local Church of Scotland minister, the Rev. Murdo MacDonald.[3]

Rob Donn's life coincided with three Jacobite Rebellions: in 1715 (when he was only one year old), in 1719 and in 1745.

His own poetical abilities were picked up on very early by , the Clan MacKay tacksman of Strathmore, who would patronise the former cowherd.

According to Derick Thomson, Iain Mac Eachainn, "was both Rob Donn's employer and his friend, sharing a love of hunting, poetry, and humanity."[4]

Clan MacKay sided with the House of Hanover during the Jacobite rising of 1745. Despite this, the MacKays were included in the repression of Gaelic culture that followed the defeat of the Jacobite clans at the Battle of Culloden in 1746. In Òran Nan Casagan Dubha ("The Song of the Black Cassocks"), Rob Donn's outraged response to the , the Bard denounced the banning of Highland dress. Rob Donn considered the Act to be so insulting that he urged Clan MacKay to change it's allegiance from King George II to Prince Charles Edward Stuart.[5]

When Robb Donn's patron, Ian Mac Eachainn, died in 1757, Rob Donn praised the Tacksman in poetry, in a way normally reserved for members of the Scottish nobility. However, Rob Donn made an extremely, "uncharacteristic choice", for the writer of an elegy or work of praise poetry in Scottish Gaelic literature. Rob Donn underlined his praise of Iain Mac Eachainn, "by referring to the shortcomings of others... of his class. Here is a tacksman who is not simply concerned go gather wealth, but who is ready to share it with the needy. Robb Donn turns his elegy into asocial document, in what is a highly refreshing way at this period."[6]

Another major figure in his life was Donald Mackay, 4th Lord Reay. Both he and the Rev. Murdo MacDonald were great influences on Rob Donn, and were celebrated in his poetry.

Collection of his poems[]

Although sometimes moralistic, Rob Donn's poetry sometimes contained bawdy images, which would be bowdlerised by later collectors; especially as Presbyterian ministers were often major figures in both collecting and similarly censoring Scottish Gaelic oral literature.[2] However, an exception may be found in the Rev. , who succeeded Murdo MacDonald in the parish of Durness, and who allowed his daughter to transcribe Rob Donn's works uncensored and from the Bard's dictation.

Later editors and collectors were not always so kind, in other ways. For example, Rob's Strathnaver dialect was sometimes disguised by being rendered into a more standard form of Scottish Gaelic,[1] which destroyed certain of the effects and rhythms.

References[]

  1. ^ Jump up to: a b c Rob Donn Mackay (1714 - 1778), Scottish Poetry Library. Retrieved 2015-09-29.
  2. ^ Jump up to: a b c Fans sing praises of the bawdy bard Rob Donn, The Scotsman, 2012-09-12. Retrieved 2015-09-29.
  3. ^ T.C. Smout (1969). A History of the Scottish People 1560-1830. p. 465. ISBN 978-0-00-686027-3.
  4. ^ Derick Thomson (1993), Gaelic Poetry in the Eighteenth Century: A Bilingual Anthology, page 117.
  5. ^ Derick Thomson (1993), Gaelic Poetry in the Eighteenth Century: A Bilingual Anthology, page 111-117.
  6. ^ Derick Thomson (1993), Gaelic Poetry in the Eighteenth Century: A Bilingual Anthology, page 117.


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