Dòmhnall Iain Dhonnchaidh
"[6] His first exposure to the English language was through the coercive Anglicisation enforced through corporal punishment at the Howmore school, which Dòmhnall despised attending and routinely played truant.
Despite the four-year age difference, Dòmhnall Iain was very close to his younger sister Ann MacDonald (1923–1993), with whom he shared, "a similar irrepressible spirit of fun which often led them into mischief."
[9] Similarly to many other young Gaels of his generation, Dòmhnall Iain Dhonnchaidh and a few close friends enlisted at age eighteen in the Inverness-shire battalion of the Territorial Army, which allowed them to see something of the Scottish mainland in annual training camps.
Along with his whole Division and the fellow Gaelic war poet Aonghas Caimbeul, he was assigned to active service as part of the French IX Corps, saw combat against the invading Wehrmacht during the Fall of France, when he was ultimately among those surrounded by German Panzers, and left behind after the rest of the British Expeditionary Force was evacuated from Dunkirk.
"[14] Similarly to his contemporary Alexander Solzhenitsyn while imprisoned in the Gulag,[15] Dòmhnall Iain Dhonnchaidh composed many works of oral poetry during forced labour in German captivity, all of which he memorized and was only able to write down and edit for publication following the end of the war and his release.
In Dòmhnall Iain Dhonnchaidh's version, which is sung to the exact same melody, he instead speaks of his joy at waking up on board a ship that was about to return him to South Uist after five years in enemy captivity.
[20] In 1948, MacDonald's poem "Moladh Uibhist" ("In Praise of Uist"), which he had composed while being held as a POW and carefully edited for publication following his release, won the Bardic Crown at the Royal National Mòd at Glasgow.
"[25] At the same time, Dòmhnall began collecting Hebridean mythology and folklore from the local oral tradition for Calum Maclean and the newly founded School of Scottish Studies.
In response, Maclean wrote in 1954, (Scottish Gaelic: "Gun aon teagamh, 's e Dòmhnall Iain... am fear is fheàrr air cruinneachadh beul-aithris a thàinig 'nar measg an Albainn san linn so.")
"[29] As a staunch and believing member of the Catholic Church in Scotland, Dòmhnall Iain Dhonnchaidh, "was deeply disturbed by the increase in the rate of abortion as a result of the 1967 Act."
[18][19] According to his friend Bill Innes, (Scottish Gaelic: "Bha gu leòr a bhruidhneadh às leth còraichean na màthair - ach cha robh comas bruidhne aig maoth-phaist'.
[32] The 1969 outbreak of The Troubles in Northern Ireland horrified the deeply religious Dòmhnall Iain Dhonnchaidh, particularly in what he saw as the hypocritical misuse of religion by both Irish Republican and Ulster Loyalist paramilitaries to justify terrorism.
Dòmhnall Iain Donnchaidh also added facetiously that the Queen's understanding of affairs in mainland Europe owed itself to her descent from "the Georges" (Scottish Gaelic: na Seòrais) instead of the House of Stuart.
Roderick MacNeill set them to traditional Scottish Gaelic-style melodies, which were published posthumously in the 1986 Catholic hymnbook "Seinnibh dhan Tighearna" and which remain deeply popular.
[37] In 1981, Dòmhnall Iain agreed, as part of a bridge-building exercise organized by Gaelic language radio, to compose both literary translations and original lyrics set to arias from Mozart and Verdi operas.
Scottish traditional musician Mary Sandeman ultimately made "Nìghneagan Òga", his translation of Voi Che Sapete from Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro, a regular part of her repertoire.
[39] Dòmhnall Iain was understandably elated by the efforts of the underground Solidarity labour union and social movement to nonviolently resist both Marxist-Leninism and Martial law in Poland.
Chan eil e na iongnadh gun do dhùisgeadh ùidh a' bhàird - a chionn tha i mar gheàrr-chunntais air fheallsanachd fhèin"),[41] "The translation to verse of this well-known prayer was done at the request of Fr.
"[42] Dòmhnall Iain Dhonnchaidh began his courtship of North Uist poet Mary M Maclean (Scottish Gaelic: Màiri M NicGhillEathain) by letter following his return from captivity in 1946.
Although Dòmhnall Iain was not at all bothered by the possibility of a disparity of cult marriage, the Calvinist population of North Uist made things very difficult for Mary and intensely pressured her to cease, "associating with a Catholic".
[49] Similarly to his contemporary Duncan Livingstone, a Gaelic Bard from the Isle of Mull resident in South Africa under Apartheid, Dòmhnaill Iain Dhonnchaidh made an English-Gaelic literary translation of Thomas Gray's Elegy in a Country Churchyard,[11][50] which has been termed "masterly" and which he completed in the late 1940s.
