A Song Remembered in Exile: Anna a Ghaoil, hao ill o, Fear chanaidh, agus Eòin G. MacFhionghain

Abstract

Visiting Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, in the 1930s, John Lorne Campbell became aware of the rich heritage of Gaelic song and culture brought to Canada by Scottish settlers. This article examines Campbell’s relationship with an industrious and influential Canadian Gael: Jonathan G. MacKinnon (Eòin G. MacFhionghain, 1869–1944), writer, translator, and editor of the Gaelic weekly Mac-Talla. In addition to describing their friendship, the author discusses a fragmentary waulking-song, Annag a Ghaoil, hao ill o(‘Anna my love, hao ill o’), which Campbell recorded from MacKinnon in 1937 –a song that he later mentioned in the first volume of Hebridean Folksongs(1969), and eventually published as the first item in his anthology of Cape Breton songs, Songs Remembered in Exile(1990). This article is written in Gaelic.