Biography

Andrew Laing, also known as Anndra Alasdair 'ic Anndra, or Anndra Hòrasairigh, was born in 1900 in Balemore, Paible, North Uist.

On the 13th of October 2005, in a program on BBC Radio nan Gàidheal about Andrew, his neighbour Donald Archie MacDonald, Dòmhnall Eairdsidh Aonghais a' Ghobha, shared a story about the night Andrew was born:

"Andrew was the first boy born to Alasdair's family, which had until then only daughters – four or five girls and no boys. He was born just after the end of the Boer War, in 1900. As was customary at the time, any significant events were marked with a bonfire, and one such bonfire was lit on top of Creag Hàstainn to mark the end of the war. A man from Baile Àrd came to Baile Mòr to ask what the fire was for. 'Did you not hear? Alasdair mac Anndra has had a son.' As though the bonfire was for the child's birth and not the war."

In the same programme, Alasdair, Andrew's son, explained how the family first arrived on Uist:

"The Laings came from Perthshire in the seventeenth century. The first Laing to come here was a teacher from Perth, and according to the story he fell in love with one of the girls he was teaching. They first went to Harris. They ran away. They didn't stay a moment in Harris when they came to Uist, and they went to Heisgeir. My father used to tell me that he was a schoolmaster and a catechist, and my father would always, when he told people as a joke, say that they brought the school and the gospel to Uist."

Andrew's mother was from Heisgeir, and as a child Andrew often visited there on holiday. When he was older, he farmed croft land in Heisgeir for four years.

When he was 24, Andrew and his brother William emigrated to Australia to work in the gold mines of Kalgoorlie-Boulder and Coolgardie. According to his son, Alasdair:

"When Andrew first arrived in Australia, he landed on the east coast but walked across the continent to the west coast. The journey certainly took a long time. A few of them made the journey, doing whatever jobs they could on the way. He was 24 when he arrived. His brother went too and he stayed there. They had their own mine, but the reason my father came home was because the island of Vallay was for sale. My father came home to make a deal to buy the island. William was going to go with him. However, William met a girl over there and so he stayed. He married over there and never came back. So, in the end, they never bought Vallay. It was at that time that my father bought Horasairigh. He had travelled and seen much of the world, and I think he was happy to get home to Uist to settle down."

Andrew came back to Uist in 1939, to a place where everyone knew him, Horasairigh, part of the town of Knockline on the west side of North Uist.

He married Mary Dhòmhnaill Iain from Heisgeir. His neighbour, Donald Archie MacDonald, remembers seeing him for the first time:

"My first memory of Andrew was at a wedding in Cladach a' Chaolais – this man who had come back from Australia and sang a few songs very well. He had a great memory for songs, as well as the songs he composed himself. I remember he told me that he only had to hear a song once, and he would be able to sing it himself without having to write down anything. He could remember the words to a song better than anything else."

Donald MacCormick married Katie, Andrew's daughter, and he agreed that his father-in-law had an extraordinary memory:

"Andrew was an wonderful man. He had a great memory and a great head. He loved having a ceilidh or people visit the house at night, especially at the weekend, on a Friday night. We would go to the Westford Inn on a Friday night, and Archie from Knockintorran and a crowd of us would be over, and Andrew would be very happy there. When we got back to his house, we would have a ceilidh and he would sing. He was a knowledgeable man. He would have excelled in university if he had had the chance to go."

Andrew didn't spend the rest of his life in Uist. He made a living on the mainland, as his daughter, Katie, described:

"He was always working, always busy, either with the horses or cutting peats, and he would be out every morning and sometimes wouldn't come back inside until the evening. We moved to Lochgilphead, I think it was in 1947, and then we moved to Otter Ferry. He worked on a big farm, Baile Mòr Home Farm. He was there for three years, then we moved back to Uist in 1951."

Crofting could be difficult at times, which Andrew wrote about in one song:

Falbhaidh mi 's chan fhuirich mi
Is sguiridh mi de dh'àiteach;
Ma gheibh mi àite 'n Uibhist
Far am bi bàgh a chumas bàta.

Aig cho mòr 's gu ruamhar mi
Is cunntais chruach gun àireamh;
Chaidh phàigh am bàrr am buachaille
No Eairdsidh Ruadh 'ain Thàilleir.

Tha am bliadhna mar bha 'n-uiridh
Is cha b' fhuilear ged a b' fheàrr i
Mi freastal ìm is uighean
Agus gruitheam le buntàta.

Eairdsidh Ruadh was the area's merchant.

Andrew and Murdo MacCuish, Murchadh a' Mhachaire, were married to two sisters, so Murdo knew Andrew well:

"He was a great companion and a great man for a ceilidh. He wasn't very tall, but he was broad and stocky, and was as big-boned a man as I ever saw. He was particularly good at putting the shot when he was younger. He had power in his hands and shoulders. He was naturally very strong. Andrew was gifted for a man who never had a much of an education. Like the rest of us, he left school when he was 14, but he had a talent for writing poetry. He could compose a poem as quickly as someone could read one. He had a wide vocabulary and used words in his poems that weren't commonly used in the area. He could compose a poem about anything. He often wrote about the beauty of Uist and Heisgeir, and things like that. He would also compose satires. He wouldn't shy away from confrontation. If someone fell out with him, he had to trouble putting them in their place."

Andrew said himself about a time someone wronged him in Heisgeir:

"When I was living in Heisgeir I found a plank on the shore, a teakwood plank, twenty-four feet long, nine inches wide, and two inches thick. I managed to drag it above the tide. I went to collect it the next day with the cart. There was no sign of it. There were lobster fishermen out and I went to see if they had seen it. And no one had seen it. I knew it hadn't gone off by itself as it was above the tideline. I came home."

Mo mhìle mallachd-sa gu buan
Aig neach a ghluais an dèile;
'S mallachd Dhè nuair thèid e bhuainn
Ga ruagadh bho na h-èibhlean.
Gun cùm e riumsa aghaidh bhlàth
Bhon fhuair an Sàtan grèim air,
Ach gheibh e thuarastal aon là
'S am blàths is math a thoill e.

Fhir a shanntaich an t-olc
'S a bhrist an t-ochdamh àithne,
Na smaoinich riamh air na thig ort
'S air d' anam bochd neo-bhàsmhor?
Gur miosa leams' thu na bhrùid
Bhon fhuair thu cunntais thàlant
Ach 's olc am feum a rinn thu dhiù
Ma chuir thu thùs air meàirle.

If Andrew had a sharp tongue at times, he was also full of fun, which is evident in his song about a dead cow that had washed up on the shore. He accused everyone in the Heisgeir of wanting a piece of it:

Nuair a nochd mi ris a' bhearradh
Thionndaidh fàileadh grod mo stamag;
'S cò bha shìos aice ga gearradh
Ach mo charaid, Seonaidh Sheumais.

Bha receiver a' glaodhaich
"Trobhadaibh 'illean, 's gearraibh caob dhith!"
'S e le chrògan feadh na maodal
Toir nan caolan às a' chèile.

Dh'èigh MacÀidh 's e na fhallas
Chan eil aist' ach fàileadh fallain;
Nam biodh agams' sgèile salainn
Chuirinn baraille gu feum dhith.

Andrew loved nothing more than spending a night in the Westford Inn, or the 'taigh-biorach' as he called it, drinking a few drams and then having a ceilidh at his house. As well as singing his own songs, he sang the songs of Màiri Mhòr nan Òran [10973], Iain MacCodruim [11316] and Donnchadh Bàn Mac an t-Saoir [11026]. He was also good at psalm singing. Donald MacCormick was grateful for the nights he spent in his company:

"I think this is the end of that generation, and I'm glad I got to be a part of it, where you would have a ceilidh and the bard himself would sing. I remember another place where we would go, and we had a great night up on the Black Ridge with Eòghainn Fhionnlaigh and Eilidh, and Andrew was singing that night. I'm glad I got to experience that culture before it died out."

Andrew died in 1969 at age 69. Perhaps one of his most frequently heard songs today is one about missing North Uist while in Australia, expressing his longing for his native island:

An t-eilean beag lurach ma thuath
'S e 'n t-eilean beag lurach tha bhuam,
'S a dh'aindeoin na chunnaic 's na chì mise tuilleadh
Chan iarrainn-s' ach Uibhist mu Thuath.

Gach neach a bha riamh ann a' tàmh
Chan iarradh e falbh às gu bràth;
B' e mhiann is a shòlas bhith ann fhad 's bu bheò e
'S a chàradh fon fhòd ann aig bàs.

List of compositions

Òran na Caillich