Biography

Calum Iain Nicolson MacLeod (Calum Iain Iain Dhòmhnaill) (Am Màidsear) was born in 1913 in Dornie, Lochalsh, where his father was a schoolmaster. His father, John T. MacLeod, was born on the Isle of Skye and wrote under the name Alasdair Mòr in the Stornoway Gazette from 1917 until a week before he passed away in 1954. He also edited the book Bàrdachd Leòdhais. Calum's mother, Anna MacLeod, was from Breaclete in Bernera, Lewis, and was the daughter of the missionary Calum MacLeod.

Calum attended school in Stratherrick, near Inverness, and then at Inverness Royal Academy before going to the University of Edinburgh, where he graduated with a degree in Celtic Studies. He was an officer in the Intelligence Corps during the war and was a Major by the time he left the Army. After that, he spent most of his life working in various positions related to Gaelic education in Nova Scotia, Canada. In 1958, he was hired to establish the Celtic Department at St Francis Xavier University in Antigonish.

He won the Bardic Crown at the Dundee Mod in 1937, the youngest person to win the award at the time, with a poem about the Atlantic Ocean:

'S e caithream an làin
Is faram nan ràmh ri teachd
An ealaidh a b' àillt'
Ri mo mhaireann 's e ghnàth mo bheachd;
'S ged bhiodh m' anam fo phràmh,
'S mi ri caladh a' tàmh fo smachd
Dhèanadh caitheamh an t-sàil'
M' fhìor-aiseag an dàil mo neairt.

In 1952, a collection of his poetry, An t-Eilthireach, was published in Glace Bay, Nova Scotia. The foreword states: "We are, step by step, striving to keep the Gaelic flag flying, despite every obstacle that lies before us. I hope that we will still see the fruit of our labour one day, when we least expect it."

There is no doubt that he made a great effort to keep the Gaelic flag flying.

Working alongside music expert Helen Creighton, he transcribed and translated nearly one hundred songs, most of them from recordings made by Eilidh, though there were some he recorded himself. Gaelic Songs of Nova Scotia was published by the National Museums of Canada in 1964, and again in 1979.

Calum Iain told how he received a letter from Derick Thomson, the editor of Gairm:

"Thomson wanted me to compile a booklet of stories from Nova Scotia that had never been published, and especially a history of the emigrants in this country. Well, I wasted no time. I bought a half-barrel of salted herring and a bag of potatoes from Arisaig to keep me sustained and started rummaging and researching as best I could."

It wasn't long before the work was done and Sgialachdan à Albainn Nuadh (Stories from Nova Scotia) was published by Gairm in 1969.

The next book wasn't far behind:

"On the 1st of December 1969, I said to myself, when this book is launched, I will take a break. But that wasn't to be. On the same day, I received a letter from Thomson, saying that it would be good for the book to have an accompaniment – poems of Nova Scotia. I didn't need much encouragement to agree to that request."

Bàrdachd à Albainn Nuadh was published in 1970.

Gairm published another book by Calum Iain, Sgial is Eachdraidh, in 1977. In issue 102 of Gairm (Spring 1978), Ruairidh MacNeil wrote about MacLeod's work:

"The first ten stories in this book were first published in Scotland between 1933 and 1944, and the other 39 were published in Nova Scotia, Canada, between 1950 and 1971 in the newspapers Eastern Chronical, The Casket, and Cape Breton Mirror."

There is a real mix of subjects in the book, from Fearchar a' Ghunna to the Duke of Tarentum, ghosts, fishing, stories about the Highland clans, and the lives and work of famous people.

Calum Iain passed away in 1977.

List of compositions

Tè a' Chinn Lèith