Roderick Morison ( gd, Ruairidh MacMhuirich), known as An Clàrsair Dall (The Blind Harper), was a
Scottish Gaelic
Scottish Gaelic ( gd, Gàidhlig ), also known as Scots Gaelic and Gaelic, is a Goidelic language (in the Celtic branch of the Indo-European language family) native to the Gaels of Scotland. As a Goidelic language, Scottish Gaelic, as well ...
poet and harpist. He was born around 1646 in
Bragar
Bragar ( gd, Bràgar, ) is a village on the west side of the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides, Scotland, from the island's only town, Stornoway. Bragar is within the parish of Barvas, and is situated on the A858 between Carloway and Barv ...
,
Lewis
Lewis may refer to:
Names
* Lewis (given name), including a list of people with the given name
* Lewis (surname), including a list of people with the surname
Music
* Lewis (musician), Canadian singer
* "Lewis (Mistreated)", a song by Radiohead ...
and educated in
Inverness, but he also learned to play the
clàrsach
The Celtic harp is a triangular frame harp traditional to the Celtic nations of northwest Europe. It is known as in Irish, in Scottish Gaelic, in Breton and in Welsh. In Ireland and Scotland, it was a wire-strung instrument requiring grea ...
(Celtic harp) as a profession. Later on, he moved to the
Isle of Skye where he died around 1713. Morison is best known for his songs of praise for Gaelic aristocrats, for example
MacLeod of Dunvegan and
Iain Breac,
MacLeod of Lewis.
Legacy
The
1951 Edinburgh People's Festival Ceilidh
Events
January
* January 4 – Korean War: Third Battle of Seoul – Chinese and North Korean forces capture Seoul for the second time (having lost the Second Battle of Seoul in September 1950).
* January 9 – The Government of the United ...
brought
Scottish traditional music
Scottish folk music (also Scottish traditional music) is a genre of folk music that uses forms that are identified as part of the Scottish musical tradition. There is evidence that there was a flourishing culture of popular music in Scotland duri ...
to a large public stage for the first time inside
Edinburgh
Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian on the southern shore of t ...
's
Oddfellows Hall and continued long afterwards at
St. Columba's Church Hall in August 1951. The Scottish
Gàidhealtachd
The (; English: ''Gaeldom'') usually refers to the Highlands and Islands of Scotland and especially the Scottish Gaelic-speaking culture of the area. The similar Irish language word refers, however, solely to Irish-speaking areas.
The term ...
was represented at the Celidh by
Flora MacNeil
Flora MacNeil, MBE (6 October 1928 – 15 May 2015) was a Scottish Gaelic Traditional singer. MacNeil gained prominence after meeting Alan Lomax and Hamish Henderson during the early 1950s, and continued to perform into her later years.
Ea ...
, fellow
Barra
Barra (; gd, Barraigh or ; sco, Barra) is an island in the Outer Hebrides, Scotland, and the second southernmost inhabited island there, after the adjacent island of Vatersay to which it is connected by a short causeway. The island is name ...
native
Calum Johnston, and
John Burgess. The music was recorded live at the scene by American musicologist
Alan Lomax.
Towards the end of the Ceilidh, master of ceremonies
Hamish Henderson
Hamish Scott Henderson (11 November 1919 – 9 March 2002) was a Scottish poet, songwriter, communist, intellectual and soldier.
He was a catalyst for the folk revival in Scotland. He was also an accomplished folk song collector and dis ...
announced that Calum Johnston would be performing Roderick Morison's ''Òran do Mhac Leoid Dhun Bheagain'' ("A Song to MacLeod of Dunvegan"). The song had been composed as a rebuke to Ruaridh Òg MacLeod, 19th
Chief of
Clan MacLeod
Clan MacLeod (; gd, Clann Mac Leòid ) is a Highland Scottish clan associated with the Isle of Skye. There are two main branches of the clan: the MacLeods of Harris and Dunvegan, whose chief is MacLeod of MacLeod, are known in Gaelic as ' ("se ...
of
Dunvegan
Dunvegan ( gd, Dùn Bheagain) is a village on the Isle of Skye in Scotland. It is famous for Dunvegan Castle, seat of the chief of Clan MacLeod. Dunvegan is within the parish of Duirinish, and Duirinish Parish Church is at Dunvegan. In 2011 i ...
,
[Henderson erroneously named the target of the satire as being Roderick's successor Norman MacLeod, who was a child when Morison died.] for not fulfilling "the obligations of his office". Instead of patronizing the Bards and holding feasts at
Dunvegan Castle
, native_name_lang =Gaelic
, alternate_name =
, image = Dunvegan Castle.jpg
, image_size =
, alt =
, caption = The south-west face of the castle
, map =
, map_type = Scotland Isle of Skye ...
for his clansmen, the Chief had become an
absentee landlord
In economics, an absentee landlord is a person who owns and rents out a profit-earning property, but does not live within the property's local economic region. The term "absentee ownership" was popularised by economist Thorstein Veblen's 1923 book ...
in
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
, who, "spent his money on foppish clothes". Instead, Morison urged the Chief to emulate his predecessors. Henderson said of the song, "it's one of the great songs in the Gaelic tongue, and the poetic concept in it is very great. The poet says that he left the castle, and he found on the slopes of the mountain the echo of past mirth, the echo of his own singing. And he then has a conversation with the echo about the fate of the House of MacLeod."
[Edited by Eberhard Bort (2011), ''Tis Sixty Years Since: The 1951 Edinburgh People's Festival Ceilidh and the Scottish Folk Revival'', page 228.]
See also
*
Clann MacMhuirich
Notes
References
Further reading
*
External links
Calum Johnston's 1951 performance of Òran do MhacLeoid Dhunbheagain
17th-century Scottish Gaelic poets
18th-century Scottish Gaelic poets
Scottish harpists
People from the Isle of Lewis
1640s births
1710s deaths
{{Scotland-bio-stub