Biography

Anna MacPhail (Anna Iain a' Gheàrr) was born in Shawbost in 1942. Her mother was Effie MacLeod (Oighrig Splin) and her parents both came from Shawbost. There was another daughter, Seonag, and one son, Iain, in the family. Seonag lives Australia and Iain in Lewis.

Anna went to school in Shawbost and after leaving school, at the age of sixteen, she went to work in Inverness, at the Douglas Hotel for a year. She returned home from Inverness and worked at the Shawbost Mill for a year-and-a-half. After that she worked in a hotel in Melrose, in the Borders, and in MacIntosh's factory, a company that made household furniture in Kirkcaldy, Fife. Anna then came home and in 1965 she married Donald Murdo MacLeod, son of Mhurchaidh Dhòmhnaill Bhig, a weaver from Shawbost. They had two daughters: Annetta and Donna. Donald died in 2008.

When she was at home Anna would sing at ceilidhs across the island, almost every week. Even though she did, she was never fully comfortable singing in front of people and for that reason, although she was asked many times, she never sang at the Mòd. At the end of the fifties, she was involved with the Shawbost Drama Group, and in 1959 they appeared at the Gaelic Drama Festival in Glasgow with the play An Rùn Pòsaidh. It was when she was on the mainland at the festival that she was recorded by the BBC for the first time. It was Fred MacAulay who made that recording and more of Anna's songs were recorded by Donnie MacLean in 1970.