Donald M MacLeod is one of the truly great Gaelic singers, a peerless communicator of the language’s narrative song tradition in general and a stout upholder of the songs particular to his native island, the southernmost of the Hebrides, Islay.
Donald was born in Glasgow on May 11, 1926 and within a few days was ensconced in the family home in the village of Portnahaven on Islay. The family were all Gaelic speakers and Gaelic was the first language of the community in those days, spoken in a dialect that, in keeping with Islay’s geographical proximity to, and historical trading links with, Ireland was in many ways closer to Irish Gaelic than the Scottish version.
There was no electricity in Portnahaven as Donald was growing up, and no street lights, but the family’s battery-operated wireless was often tuned to Scottish country dance music. Donald also remembers being taken to visit neighbours as a boy and because he couldn’t join in the adults’ conversations, sitting transfixed by the sound of the light tenors of the day, such as John Bannerman, coming from the wind-up gramophone.
At school in Portnahaven and later at Bowmore secondary, Donald sang in concerts and would join in at the many ceilidhs that were part of the island’s social fabric, learning local songs and stagecraft from his mentor, Kenneth MacRae, as well as the songs of Islay bard Duncan Johnstone and songs collected in the broader Gaidhealtachd by Marjorie Kennedy Fraser. He won first prize at the local mod as a junior in 1939 and as a senior in 1949 and after leaving school to work in his grandfather’s joinery business and completing his national service in the Royal Air Force, he joined the choir in the neighbouring village of Port Charlotte.
Under choir master Robert MacArthur’s leadership the Port Charlotte choir went on to enjoy quite a reputation and swept the boards in the rural choir section at the Royal National Mod in Inverness in 1949. It was this success that inspired Donald to try for the individual Gold Medal and after much practice at weekend ceilidhs and local concerts and while working away at an island joiner’s stock-in-trade of the time – carts, cartwheels and coffins – he won this coveted prize at Rothesay in 1952.
As a National Mod Gold Medal winner Donald was soon invited to sing far and wide. He was a regular guest of the Glasgow Islay Association and sang often in concerts at St Andrew’s Hall. He has also sung in London and in the U.S., Canada and Ireland, and he has particularly fond memories of singing at Ballycastle Fair as Portnahaven, which was a thriving port with boats queuing outside the harbour when Donald was growing up, historically had strong trading links with the Irish town.
Together with fellow Islay native, bandleader John Carmichael, Donald also made many broadcasts for the BBC, some of which were collected on Donald’s CD, An t-Eilean Mor, which also featured the late Bobby MacLeod – a huge admirer of Donald’s singing – and all proceeds from which were donated to Islay & Jura Sick Children’s Fund.
Although now retired from singing, Donald still takes a keen interest in Gaelic song and is very proud of the Islay Gaelic choir, which has enjoyed a renaissance in recent years. He remains an inspiration to singers and instrumentalists alike and will long be remembered as one of Gaeldom’s golden voices.
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