Donald Alasdair MacDonald

This article is in English. The Gaelic version can be read here.

Biography
Donald Alasdair MacDonald (commonly known as Dòmhnall Alasdair) was born in Upper Garrabost in 1919, and lived there for most of his life until he moved to Stornoway in his sixties. He had two brothers (Iain, who was older than him, and Donald, who was younger) and one sister, Catriona, who was younger than him.

In Bayble School the headmaster, James Thomson, had a great influence on him, because he would teach lessons on the metre, rhyme, and rhythm of Gaelic poetry, and even composing impromptu verses in class. In spite of this, Dòmhnall Alasdair could not read or write Gaelic, because he had received no tuition in the language in school, but Thomson influenced him to be more interested in poetry.

He left the Nicolson Institute halfway through his education, due to the cost involved, but his brother Iain was at university and made Dòmhnall Alasdair write to a school which offered to teach by post. He did a course through the post for three years, learning English, history, geography, mathematics, natural philosophy and chemistry. During this period he earned a little money working on peats and the land.

His brother Iain also gave him a book of English poetry, and this had a great influence on him. He began writing English verse about this time, and sent one of his poems to a national newspaper as a competition entry. He received a letter from the editor praising his poetry but saying that the subject he chose was not suitable. The editor requested more of Dòmhnall’s work, but he had none to send; his entry had been the first poem he had written.

Dòmhnall entered the RAF before the war, and throughout the war he flew in Bomber Command as a radio operator and gunner. He was promoted to officer in a short time, and kept on as a teacher long after the end of the war. He did not much enjoy office work, but when his time in the RAF was up he was asked to stay longer so as to get a higher pension. When he asked how much higher it would be, he received the answer ‘five shillings per week’. He told them that he had a lot to do at home and did not stay in the job any longer.

He built a house in Garrabost, and worked with blind people in the Western Isles for twenty-seven years. He got to know two other poets very well through this work: Dòmhnall Ruadh Chorùna and Murdo Macfarlane, but they talked about war, not poetry.

Dòmhnall Alasdair wrote one or two poems about the Second World War, but he was of the opinion that they did not come close to describing his own experiences. He wrote other poetry which was published in the Stornoway Gazette, and he wrote prose and short stories which appeared in Gairm. Derek Thomson gave him a lot of encouragement to write prose.