DASG Blog

Seumas Teàrlach MacNèill na Bhriathran Fhèin

For this week’s blog I wanted to talk about a man I’ve come to know through working on the recordings he made, entirely in Gaelic, in 1971 with AJ Smith, which can now be found in our audio archive, Cluas ri Claisneachd. He was James Charles MacNeil, or ‘Jim Charlie’ as he was known. His ancestors came from Barra originally. Dòmhnall Murchaidh, his great-grandfather, came over with his two sisters to start a new life in Nova Scotia. Jim Charlie was born in Richmond County, in the community of the Red Islands. His mother passed away when he was just six years old, and he and his father went to live with his grandparents in Middle Cape, near Irish Vale. He was not a native Gaelic speaker as his parents were, because his grandmother mostly raised him and she came from Northern Ireland. As he says himself, she didn’t have a word of Irish or of Gaelic.
 
But, his grandfather’s sisters lived in the same community, and they had plenty of Gaelic. It was here that he heard his first words in Gaelic. Ceit, his grandfather’s sister, came out of the house with a cake she had made and asked Jim Charlie:
 

An gabh thu bonnach, a luaidh?
(Will you have a bit of cake, darling?)

 
This was the first thing he ever heard in Gaelic as a young boy, but as he said himself:
 

I was ten years old before I ever spoke one word of Gaelic... but, the Gaelic that I had, it was a kind of... kind of gibberish as they say. It was just half Gaelic half English.

 
He talks often about the Reverend Donald Marie MacAdam (whose photo you can see here) who he says taught him how to improve his Gaelic:
 

I was with him, I would say every day, if there was a time that I wasn’t with him during the day I was with him in the evening and he taught me Gaelic, and when I would say a word in English that I should say in Gaelic he would teach me what I should say.

 
The Reverend MacAdam founded the Scottish Catholic Society in Iona in 1919. He was also the spiritual priest for the St Kentigern branch of the Society when Jim Charlie moved to Sydney, to the parish of the Sacred Heart. Jim Charlie came to be the Chief of the Society, and he translated the Society’s business, with help from the Reverend MacAdam. Not long after it was established, members motioned to have a meeting which was purely in Gaelic one night. The Rev. MacAdam said that from then on the first meeting of every month would be entirely in Gaelic, and the second in English. This tradition was continued at least until he passed away in 1924. Fifty years later, Jim Charlie still speaks of him as a very good friend and as an inspiration.
 
Jim Charles did a lot of good for Gaelic in Nova Scotia, involved in many societies which were supportive of Gaelic language and culture. He was on the Board of Directors for Colaisde na Gàidhlig (the Gaelic College at St Anne’s), which was established in 1938, for thirteen years. He was also often the ‘fear an taighe’, or MC at cèilidhs in his area. As he said himself, he never wanted anything in return for his work:
 

I never took a penny for anything I did for Highlanders or for Gaelic.

 
Jim Charlie has many stories and songs, and it’s very interesting to hear him tell his life story and his journey to Gaelic. You can hear one of the recordings here right now, and another will soon be available in the archive.
 
If you knew Jim Charlie, or have any more information about him, why not let us know at mail@dasg.ac.uk, or on Facebook or Twitter?
 
Photo: ‘Jim Charlie MacNeil and Joe Gillis’, 1971. 80-106-4386. Beaton Institute, Cape Breton University.

L-R: Joe Gillis, AJ Smith, Jim Charlie MacNeil and the Rev. C.W. MacDonald.