Donald Mackay

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

Biography
Donald Mackay, ‘Am Mathan’, was born at 22 Sheshader. His father was Calum Chailean, and his mother was from Aird. He was apparently a handsome and pleasant man in his youth. He was musical, and played the bagpipes.

He married Margaret MacDonald from 43 Lower Bayble. At first they lived in Glasgow, where he was a policeman, but from there he went to sea, in the Merchant Navy. They had two daughters, Màiri and Anna, who came home to Sheshader at the time of the Second World War, and they went to school in Aird.

When the new town of East Kilbride was established, the family moved there. His wife died before him, and he wrote an elegy for her. He was a Christian later in life, and this shows in his poetry.

His poetry has never been published.