Dòmhnall Ruadh Chorùna facts for kids

Dòmhnall Ruadh Chorùna (which means Red Donald of Coruna), whose real name was Donald MacDonald, was a famous Scottish Gaelic poet and stonemason from North Uist, Scotland. He was also a brave soldier who fought in the First World War. People called him "The Voice of the Trenches" because of his powerful poems about his wartime experiences.

One of his most famous works is An Eala Bhàn ("The White Swan"). He wrote this beautiful love song after he was hurt during the Battle of the Somme. The song was for Magaidh NicLeòid, a woman from Lochmaddy he hoped to marry. Many artists, like Julie Fowlis, have recorded this song.

Family Stories and History

When Dòmhnall Ruadh was a boy, he loved hearing stories about his great-grandparents. They lived during the Napoleonic Wars.

His great-grandmother, Mór Chaimbeul (Marion Campbell) from Skye, was said to have given water to a famous soldier, Sir John Moore. This happened just before he was badly hurt at the Battle of Corunna in 1809. Marion was holding his horse's stirrup when he was wounded. She was thrown into the air and landed on her back. Dòmhnall Ruadh said she never fully recovered from this injury and died young.

Marion's first husband also died at the Battle of Corunna. Later, she married another soldier from the battle, Donald Ferguson. They moved to North Uist and started a family.

A Gaelic rhyme about Marion became popular in North Uist:

"Blàr mòr Chorùna, 1809 –

Chaidh Mòr mhòr Chorùna

A-null dhan an Fhraing"

"The big Battle of Corunna, 1809 –

Big Marion of Corunna

Went over to France."

The Fergusons of North Uist believed they were related to Robert the Bruce. He was a famous Scottish king who fought for Scotland's freedom. While it's a big claim, some historians think it might be true because Robert the Bruce was hiding in the Outer Hebrides around 1306.

After moving to North Uist, Donald and Marion Ferguson were given a small farm, called a croft. But they only had daughters and struggled to pay their rent. So, they were moved to another croft where Donald built a house that is still standing today. Their home became a popular place for ceilidhs, which are social gatherings with music and storytelling. People loved to hear their war stories.

Dòmhnall Ruadh later said that his great-grandfather was one of only two soldiers on the island. People would say, "Let's go over tonight to Corùna to hear the stories." That's how the name Corùna stuck to their home.

Growing Up in North Uist

Dòmhnall Ruadh Corùna was born in his great-grandfather's house on 9 July 1887. He had two brothers and one sister.

His mother, Flòraidh, worked as a domestic servant. Her father was a sailor and a Gaelic poet. His mother's sister also wrote a famous Gaelic love song. Because of this, people said that "Poetry was in Dòmhnall Ruadh's blood." His father was also a sailor.

The people of North Uist were mostly Calvinist Protestants, unlike some nearby islands that were Catholic. Dòmhnall Ruadh remembered that keeping the Christian Sabbath (Sunday) strictly was hard for him when he was young. He later regretted being so irreligious.

Dòmhnall went to a local school in Carinish. However, in those days, only English was taught in schools in the Highlands and Islands. Dòmhnall never learned to read or write in Scottish Gaelic, even though it was his native language. He had to write letters in English.

Despite this, he started writing Gaelic poetry when he was just 13 years old. His mother was very proud and made him promise never to write mean or mocking poems. He kept this promise throughout his life.

When he was young, Dòmhnall loved to roam the countryside with a musket. He used it for poaching (hunting illegally) birds and red deer. He had to be careful to avoid the land agents of the Campbell-Orde family, who owned the island and were not popular.

He later wrote in a poem:

"Little did I guess then

That this hardship was ahead.

It was my love for the musket

That left me fettered to the Crown,

The fascination from my youth

Of aiming it."

World War I Experience

When he was seventeen, Dòmhnall Ruadh joined the King's Militia. When World War I started in 1914, he joined the Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders. After training, he was sent to the Western Front in France in July 1915, where he experienced trench warfare.

Fighting on the Front Lines

Dòmhnall Ruadh's battalion first fought on 25 September 1915, at the Battle of Loos. A bagpiper named Iain Eairdsidh MacAsgaill led the soldiers into battle. The Scottish Division captured a village and a hill, making the furthest advance of any British division that day.

Unlike some other war poets, Dòmhnall Ruadh believed he was fighting a fair war against a truly bad enemy.

For example, at the Battle of Loos, Dòmhnall thought the Germans used poison gas against them. He wrote a poem called Òran a' Phuinnsein ("The Song of the Poison"), describing how terrible the gas was and how soldiers had no defense. He wished fire would fall on Germany, like in the Bible story of Sodom and Gomorrah.

However, Dòmhnall was actually describing the first time the British Army used poison gas in the war. The wind blew the gas back into their own trenches, causing many injuries and deaths. This was a terrible accident.

In another poem, Tha Mi Duilich, Cianail, Duilich ("I am Sad, Lamenting, and Full of Sorrow"), Dòmhnall shared his grief for his fallen friends. He remembered their ceilidhs and singing Gaelic songs together. He wrote that they were now torn apart, lying in no man's land, or buried under crosses. He also spoke of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, hoping that one day all the men would rise and be reunited with their families. But he said the horrors of war would always be in his heart.

In Dh'fhalbh na Gillean Grinn ("Off Went the Handsome Lads"), Dòmhnall described the excitement and anger of charging German trenches. He felt hatred for the enemy when his friends fell, and satisfaction when he killed German soldiers. But the poem ends with the soldiers realizing how many of their comrades were killed.

In Aisling an t-Saighdeir ("The Soldier's Dream"), Dòmhnall dreamed he was hunting a red deer. But the deer turned into his Captain shouting "retreat!" German soldiers were about to trap them. Dòmhnall woke up just in time and barely escaped. Some of his unit were not so lucky and became prisoners of war.

In late 1916, during the Battle of the Somme, Dòmhnall Ruadh was ordered to take a position in no man's land. He was in a shell hole when artillery shells started falling. He was knocked unconscious. His friend, Ruairidh MacLeòid, went to look for him but came back crying, thinking Dòmhnall was dead.

Dòmhnall Ruadh woke up three hours later. As he crawled out of the shell hole, a German sniper shot him in the arm. He also had shrapnel in his side. He waited until the sniper stopped watching, then slowly crawled back to his own trench. He was very ill and spent two weeks at a base before being sent back to England. Sadly, his friend Ruairidh MacLeòid was killed soon after.

An Eala Bhàn

While recovering from his injuries, Dòmhnall wrote the famous love song An Eala Bhàn ("The White Swan"). He wrote it for Magaidh NicLeòid, the woman he hoped to marry. It's a sad song about missing his loved one and his homeland.

Dòmhnall said that people changed his song over the years. They even changed the girl's name from Magaidh to Màiri. He used to say, "They've spoiled it in Harris." Like other war poems, the song shows how pointless and destructive war is.

Back to Duty

Even though he recovered, Dòmhnall Ruadh was not fit for active fighting anymore. He spent the rest of the war serving behind the lines. He still wore his Cameron's cap badge, even though he wasn't with his old regiment. He had a brief reunion with his old battalion, which inspired him to write the poem Na Camshronaich San Fhraing ("The Camerons in France").

Life After the War

Changes at Home

After the war, Dòmhnall Ruadh returned home. He was glad to be alive, but like many soldiers, he felt disappointed. The land they had been promised was still controlled by landlords, and hunting and fishing rights were still restricted.

In some parts of North Uist, veterans tried to take better crofts from people who had stayed home. This led to legal trouble. However, a kind Member of Parliament helped buy out a large farm and divide it into smaller crofts for the veterans.

Even though Dòmhnall and Magaidh NicLeòid loved each other, they never married. He never said why, but some say Magaidh's father didn't approve.

In 1922, Dòmhnall married Annie MacDonald. He later said, "I was quite as happy and never regretted it. We have been together for almost 40 years and we are as happy together today as we were the first day." They had two children, Mary and Calum, who both sadly died in 1965.

Dòmhnall became a skilled stonemason. He built more than thirty houses between the two world wars. His work can still be seen all over Uist.

However, times were hard after the war, and there wasn't much work. Many people from North Uist had to move to Canada or the United States to find jobs.

Dòmhnall wrote about these difficult times in his poem Caochladh Suigheachadh na Duthcha ("Changed Days"). He remembered the poverty of his youth and how Gaels fought in the war at a huge cost, while landlords got richer. After the war, there was no food except what they grew themselves, and they often had to hunt and fish secretly.

He often said, "If it weren't for the gun and what I poached, it would have been dire poverty."

In his poem Dhan Gàidhlig ("For Gaelic"), Dòmhnall encouraged his fellow Gaels to "forget English" and remember their warrior ancestors. He compared the Scottish Gaelic language to a tree that had lost its branches. But he believed that if people cared for it, the tree would grow again. He hoped that descendants of Gaels who were forced to leave during the Highland Clearances would return. He dreamed of a prosperous Scottish Gaeldom, full of children, where Highland cattle would replace the sheep that landlords brought in. He imagined women singing Gaelic songs as they worked.

World War II and Beyond

When Second World War started in 1939, Dòmhnall wrote Òran dhan Dara Chogaidh ("A Song for World War II"). He told young Scottish Gaels not to be afraid and predicted victory over Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany.

He also wrote a poem honoring a brave young sailor, Calum Morrison, who survived a torpedo attack on his ship. Calum piloted his lifeboat for five days until they were rescued.

During World War II, Dòmhnall also served in the Home Guard, a defense force. He even wrote a funny song about an exercise where they pretended to retake Benbecula Airport from German invaders.

His son, Calum, was a sailor in the Merchant navy and often sailed past North Uist. Dòmhnall wrote the poem Am Fianais Uibhist ("In Sight of Uist") about this.

Later Years and Legacy

After the Second World War, Dòmhnall Ruadh experienced more comfortable times, but he also suffered from illness.

In his poem Òran an H-Bomb ("The Song of the H-Bomb"), Dòmhnall criticized the threat of nuclear weapons. He remembered how after a World War I attack, stretcher bearers would pick up the wounded by sunset. But with H-bombs, he said, nothing would be spared. He believed just one or two such bombs could wipe out the Gaelic-speaking islands. However, Dòmhnall urged people to trust that Jesus Christ would not allow such terrible destruction.

In 1956, Dòmhnall Ruadh heard a recording of a Gaelic ceilidh by soldiers in the Korean War. He wrote Gillean Chorea ("The Lads in Korea"), saying the recording brought back his youth.

In one of his last poems, Chuala Mi 'n Damh Donn sa Mhòintich ("I Heard the Brown Stag on the Moor"), Dòmhnall, now old and blind, heard a red deer stag. He thought about his past hunting adventures and struggled to accept that he could no longer hunt and that his life on his beloved island was ending soon.

As he neared the end of his life, Dòmhnall Ruadh wrote many poems expressing sorrow for his mistakes and hoping for God's forgiveness. He hoped to go to Heaven and be reunited with his friends and family.

When Dòmhnall was dying, a local minister wrote a tribute to him, calling him "a prince among the bards" whose poetry would live forever as long as Gaelic was spoken in Uist.

A friend, Fred Macauley, said Dòmhnall had an artist's eye for detail and understood people. He was proud of being a Gael, loved his language, and had deep roots in his homeland. Despite much sorrow, his life ended happily and peacefully.

Death

Kilmuir Church, North Uist.

Dòmhnall Ruadh Chorùna died in Lochmaddy on 13 August 1967.

He is buried in Kilmuir cemetery in North Uist. His gravestone has a carving of a swan and a quote from his famous song An Eala Bhàn:

"'Chan eil sinn uileadh ach air chuairt

Mar dhíthein buaile fás

Bheir siantannan na bliadhna síos

'S nach tog a' ghrian an áird."

"We are all of us on a brief journey,

Like the field flower that grows

And succumbs to the changing season,

The sun no longer able to revive it."

His Lasting Impact

Before he died, most of Dòmhnall Ruadh's poems and songs were written down from his words by a teacher named John Alick MacPherson. They were first published in 1969 in a Gaelic book called Dòmhnall Ruadh Chorùna. This book had 57 of his poems and songs.

When it came out, the book was very popular and sold out quickly. It was even used as a textbook to teach the Scottish Gaelic language in schools in the Hebrides.

Later, in 1995, a new edition was published with both Gaelic and English versions. This edition had 61 items, thanks to the amazing memory of Dòmhnall's cousin, Maggie Boyd, who remembered many of his songs.

Since his death, An Eala Bhàn has been voted the greatest Gaelic song of all time in a BBC poll. Many artists, including Julie Fowlis, have sung and recorded it.

On 1 July 2016, Julie Fowlis performed An Eala Bhàn in Gaelic at the Thiepval Memorial to mark 100 years since the Battle of the Somme. Members of the British Royal Family, Prince William, Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, and Prince Harry, were there to listen.

Another poet from South Uist, Dòmhnall Iain MacDòmhnaill, who was a cousin of Dòmhnall Ruadh, wrote a poem praising him: