Murdo MacFarlane

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

Published Collections

 * An Toinneamh Dìomhair
 * Dàin Mhurchaidh

Biography
Murdo MacFarlane was born on the 15th of February 1901. He was the fifth child of Malcolm Macfarlane, a fisherman from Melbost, and his wife Johanna (Hannah) who was also a Melbost Macfarlane. He was educated in Knock School, where he was taught English, Latin, and a little French but not Gaelic. In later life he taught himself to read and write Gaelic. He worked for Lord Leverhulme in the 1920s, but when Leverhulme’s schemes collapsed in 1923 Macfarlane emigrated to Canada. He returned, disillusioned, from Manitoba in 1932, on which he based the song ‘Fali, Fali, Fali Oro’.

He spent his whole life as a crofter except for his army service in 1942-45, and never married. He became nationally known as a composer of popular songs and his compositions such as Cànan nan Gàidheal were played and sung by many in the new Gaelic folk movement, especially by Na h-Oganaich. Although his home was in Melbost, he died at the home of relatives in Tong on the 7th of November, 1982.