Biography

Christina MacDonald was born in the Ness area of Lewis, near the village of Lionel. The family lived between Cross Skigersta Road and the Port of Ness. Her mother was Oighrig Thormoid Ghilios and her father was named Donald, although he was also known by the nickname Drogaidh. Thus, Christina as known locally as Christina Drogaidh. She had one sister, Katie, and four brothers, Calum, John, Dolaidh, and Angus.

Her father died when she and her siblings were young. Christina went to Lionel School until she was about fifteen and then to the Nicolson Institute for three years. She had an interest in Gaelic and learned to read and write it at school. She also helped with writing plays or humorous sketches for concerts in Ness Hall.

Christina left Lewis when she was about twenty and went to work for the Duke of Montrose at his house in Drymen, caring for his two children, Fiona and James, and teaching them Gaelic. She explained on BBC Radio nan Gàidheal on 30/06/1978: "Their parents were interested in Gaelic, so I'm sure that encouraged me to take more interest in the language myself."

She spent over three years with the family, and each year during the summer months she would go with the family to their second home, Brodick Castle on the Isle of Arran. It was in a small upstairs room in that castle that she wrote the poem Tha Ciaradh air an Fheasgar. She undoubtedly missed summer in Ness while writing it, saying, "I would rather a moorland sheiling than be in the king's palace."

When the war started, she returned home to Ness and helped her brother. He was a butcher and had a van and a lorry, and Christina began driving, which was very unusual for a young lady at the time. She spent two years driving the meat van, and later a grocery van, around the area.

She then joined the Women's Royal Naval Service (the Wrens), and was assigned to the transport division. She received training in driving lorries and motorbikes in London and was sent to Liverpool where she drove a large lorry for seven months. She later moved to Glasgow where part of her job was to travel down to England to collect new lorries. One dark night in northern England, tired and sleepy on a motorbike, she began singing and shouting in Gaelic to keep herself awake. Looking back, she laughs, because the Gaelic sounds would have sounded like German noises to English ears. She also spent time working in Stornoway, Aultbea and Campbeltown before the war ended.

After spending some time in Ness, Christina left again and got work at the Abernethy Hotel where she drove and did all sorts of odd jobs. Despite not having been to college or having a teaching certificate, she was offered a teaching role at Skigersta School in Ness. She explained:

"The school was going to close, it was remote, and hard for them to find a teacher. That's the school that Kitty MacLeod's mother had taught in for twenty years, and I taught there for eighteen years."

She remained at Skigersta School until it closed in 1965. It was there that she began in earnest to compose poetry. She explained:

"I started writing poetry when I began taking my pupils to compete in the local Mòd in Stornoway. Rather than teaching them to recite a well-known poem, such as one of Duncan Ban MacIntyre's, I thought I would send them to the Mod with a unique poem, something new. That's how I began the scarecrow poem:

Seall shuas air an achadh an taic ris a' ghàrradh
Am bodach le car ann a' crathadh a làmhan;
Fo dhriùchd na maidne, fo dhealt na h-oidhche,
Fo dhian-theas na grèine 's fo shèideadh na gaoithe.

Chì sinn e as t-earrach 's a-mach tron t-samhradh
Mar feòrag nam meangan 'n dèidh cadal a' gheamhraidh;
Na sheasamh cho binneach gun sgir air a chnàmhan
An ceann a chuid dhleastanas a sheachdain 's a Shàbaid.

She wrote poetry about subjects such as An Cat agus an Luchag, Taigh mo Sheanair, and Còmhradh Eadar Fàd Bàn agus Cnap Guail. She also began translating children's rhymes from English to Gaelic. Over the years, Christina also wrote for the Gaelic periodical Gairm and prepared the crossword puzzles. Despite writing these poems, she never considered setting them to music. Her purpose for writing them was different:

"I forgot about Am Bodach-starrag and An Cat agus an Luchag for decades. I wrote them, and taught them to the children, and they won prizes reciting those poems, and then they would be put to one side. Now, I had a different vision when I wrote them. I was writing them to keep old customs alive. Well, not the customs exactly, but terminology related to the old customs. That's why I wrote them – to keep alive the words that were falling out of use."

Na bheachdaich sibh riamh, an iongnadh leibh e
Cho tur eadar-dhealaicht' 's tha an-diugh ris an-dè
Ar dachaigh, ar cleachdaidh, ar fasain, ar gnè,
Iad uile-gu-lèir is caochladh orr'.

Taigh de bhall' ùrach is tughadh gu h-àrd
Ìomhaigh gach dachaigh a gheibht' anns an àit';
Uinneag sa bhalla le lios air a bàrr
'S fiodh cladaich 's a' chòmhladh 's na taobhain aig'.

Bhiodh biulman math teine am meadhan an làir
Bonnach-lic ris a' ghollaig is langa sa chlàr;
Annlan mo sheanair ga ith' le buntàt'
Bhiodh maorach na tràghad is boitean ac'.

Christina married Neil MacDonald, Niall a' Chaimainn, from Upper Bayble in 1950. Niall came to stay at the schoolhouse, and they were contented in Skigersta. The moved to Upper Bayble around 1968. They had two sons, Donald Norman (Donnie Large) [479] and Neil John.

Donald Norman developed an interest in his mother's poetry when he was in college in Glasgow around 1974. He started writing music for Christina's poetry, and then she began writing again, works such as A' Suathadh, Do M' Athair, Smuaintean Balaich, An Dèidh Leth-cheud Bliadhna, Gealach Bhuidhe an Abachaidh, Fad an t-Samhraidh gun Sgadan, A' Mheanbh-chuileag, A' Tilleadh gu Mo Thìr, Ceann Gort is Aithreachas, Cuireadh chun na h-Àirigh and many others.

On BBC Radio nan Gàidheal, Christina was asked if she was musical and how she felt about the kind of music her son Donald put to her words. She said:

"Anyone writing poetry needs the music to go with it. When I compose songs now, I make them with the intention of being put to music. At the same time, I'm still trying to introduce new words, words I've never heard in a song. However, I know that there will be a melody to go with them and Donald adds melodies that appeal to the youth. I wouldn’t say that it appeals to me personally, but it appeals to the young people. And so I hear today a new generation singing words that they wouldn't have known if it wasn’t for the new melody and the old words."

Before Donald began singing her songs, very few knew she was a poet at all.

"He got in touch with me to ask for my songs. It wasn't easy for me to collect them all, one song here and one song there, part of a song here and part of a song there. I sorted them out and said to myself, 'There's some here that won't go with music at all.'"

But they did, and after Donald's first album, they were on everyone's lips. The music was new, even if the words were old, and it never appealed to everyone, but that did not bother Christina:

"I don't write songs for the older generation, but for the young. I don't care if other people my age, who have plenty Gaelic, don't like the songs, as long as the young people like them, and that they perhaps might take a fresh interest in Gaelic as a result."

She explained how she writes the songs:

"I get little tunes in my head, not new tunes but tunes from other songs, and put words to them. I make no mention of any tune to Donald. It wouldn't be right to tell him what tune I had in mind. I leave that to him. He'll come and ask, 'Are you writing anything at the moment?' And I'll say, 'I'm too old for that nonsense.' 'Och, I want one more,' he'll say. And that's how I write them, one after the other, for him. And I try to add words that don't typically appear in songs."

Christina lived in Bayble for twenty years and spent the early part of that time working in the Hebridean Transport office in Stornoway. She was not as contented in Point as she was in Ness, but she had many friends there. She died in April 1998, aged 80.

Thank you to Donnie Large for helping with information about his mother.

List of compositions

Tha Ciaradh air an Fheasgar