Iain Mac Fhearchair | John MacCodrum
(1693-–1779)

John MacCodrom was a Scottish Gaelic-speaking Bard and "who lived and died in the island of ." Later in his life, Iain served as to the of , had a friendship with , and made an appearance in the controversy surrounding the poet .

Life
According to his song Smeòrach Chlann Dòmhnaill ("The of "), Iain Mac Fhearchair, alias John MacCodrum, was born near Cladh Chomhgain, which is, according to Bill Lawson, "a disused graveyard in which were the ruins of a little chapel, dedicated to St - one of many church dedications in the immediate neighbourhood. In MacCodrum's time, it would have been part of the township of Hoghagearraidh." The future was raised on the nearby farm of Aird an Runair.
According to , Iain, "was in the technical sense of the term, illiterate." In a footnote, however, Campbell explains, "Which is to say that he never learned English. In MacCodrum's day little education was available for the Highlanders, and none at all in their own language."
During the era, the people of Hoghagearaidh paid the of a rental fee called "The Seal Dues", in return for the right to kill the seals on the nearby rock of Causamul. The rock remains, according to Bill Lawson, "one of the main breeding areas for the ."
The MacCodrums of Hoghagearaidh, however, never participated in the killing of seals. This was because, according to legend, an ancestor of theirs had stolen the skin of a while she was ashore in human form and forced her to marry him. As told in a local folk song, however, one of the couple's children later returned the seal skin to her mother, who put it on, abandoned her human family, and returned to the sea. For this reason, the MacCodrum descendants of the couple were referred to in as, Clann righ fo gheasan, ("King's children under a spell") and never harmed seals, whom they believed to be their relatives.

MacCodrum 's patron, Sir Alexander Macdonald of Sleat, 7th Baronet
Although Sir Alexander MacDonald of Sleat had promised Prince that he would do raise the Clan if the Prince arrived from , the Chief and his Clansmen took no part in the . The Chief's reason for going back on his word was that the French troops that had also been promised had failed to arrive with the Prince. Despite the Clan's neutrality, all the lands of MacDonald of Sleat were included in the savage repression of Highland dress, language, and culture that followed the defeat of the uprising at the in 1746. John MacCodrum's satirical poem, Oran an Aghaidh an Eididh Ghallda ("A Song Against the Lowland Garb"), "shows clearly where his own sympathies lay."
In 1760, , who was collecting stories from the throughout the Scottish , visited . During Macpherson's visit, MacCodrum made, according to John Lorne Campbell, "a brief appearance in the Ossianic controversy which is not without its humorous side." When Macpherson met MacCodrum, he asked the Bard, "A bheil dad agaibh air an Fheinne?" Macpherson believed himself to be asking, "Do you know anything of the ?" He had actually said, however, "Do the Fianna owe you anything?"
In reply, MacCodrum quipped, "Cha n-eil agus ge do bhiodh cha ruiginn a leas iarraidh a nis", "No, and if they did it would be useless to ask for it now." According to Campbell, this, "dialogue... illustrates at once Macpherson's imperfect Gaelic and MacCodrum's quickness of reply."
In October 1763, as the controversy over the authenticity of Macpherson's , which he alleged was a translation from , was heating up, Sir James MacDonald of Sleat wrote a letter to Doctor in which sheds light on MacCodrum's role as a .
According to The MacDonald of Sleat, "The few bards that are left amongst us, repeat only detached portions of these poems. I have often heard and understood them, particularly from one man called John MacCodrum, who lives on my estate in . I have heard him repeat, for hours together, poems which seems to me to be the same with Macpherson's translation."
Campbell writes, however, "None of MacCodrum's Ossianic verses have survived him.
One of MacCodrum's closest friends was the famous Gaelic poet , who was related to the Chief of the branch of . According to John Lorne Campbell, MacCodrum's surviving poems in Gaelic "show considerable signs" of the Clanranald Bard's "influence." Despite their friendship, however, Alasdair Mac Mhaighstir Alasdair did not hesitate to include two of MacCodrum's poems, Òran air Sean aois ("A Song on Old Age") and Comh-radh, Mar go b' ann eider caraid agus namhaid an Uisgebheatha ("A Dialogue between a Friend and a Foe of "), in his groundbreaking 1751 poetry collection Ais-Eiridh na Sean Chánoin Albannaich and to pass them off as his own work.
MacCodrum also composed poetry criticizing both the and the landlords of the for the often brutal that followed the and on mundane topics such as old age and .

Sir Alexander Macdonald, 9th Baronet of Sleat and 1st Baron Macdonald of Slate, who remains infamous for raising rents and ordering mass estate clearances of his clansmen.
Among MacCodrum's most popular anti-landlord poems mocks Aonghus MacDhòmhnaill, the post-Culloden of . It is believed to date from between 1769 and 1773, when overwhelming numbers of Sir Alexander MacDonald's tenants on the isles of and were reacting to his and other harsh treatments by immigrating to the area around the in . The song is known in the oral tradition of as Òran Fir Ghriminis ("A Song on the Tacksman of Griminish"). The song is equally popular among speakers of in , where it is known under the differing title, Òran Aimereaga ("The Song of America").
Death and burial
According to Bill Lawson, John MacCodrum lies buried near his birthplace in , " under a plain lump of which had chosen for himself. When asked why he had picked such a stone, he replied that people would ask who lay under such an ugly lump of rock, and so he would be remembered. Unfortunately he was wrong, and I could find no one to show me the original stone - if indeed it is still there. An to his memory was later raised on the summit of the knoll, with the inscription, In memory of John MacCodrum - The Uist Bard - Born at Aird an Runair 1710 - died 1796 - erected by numerous admirers 1894. Unfortunately, the dates are badly wrong. MacCodrum did die at the age of 86, but it has been established, from the Balranald Papers, where MacCodrum's funeral expenses are noted, that his date of death actually 1779, and his date of birth therefore 1693."
Following his death in 1967, Scottish Gaelic and fellow North Uist native was buried in the same cemetery.
Legacy
According to John Lorne Campbell, "MacCodrum in his lifetime enjoyed considerable popularity as a wit and a poet, and he composed a large number of poems, consisting of satires or rather lampoons, elegies, patriotic verse, and didactic songs; but as he was unable to write, and no one took down his poems from his own recitation, many of them have been lost, and those surviving have all suffered some degree of corruption."
One of Iain's most popular songs is Smeòrach Chlann Dòmhnaill ("The of "), in which the Bard, according to Bill Lawson, "praises the isle of his birth." The song was recorded by Scottish vocalist and fellow native on her 2014 album .
Due to both the and to voluntary emigration, there are no longer any MacCodrum descendants living on . The last MacCodrum to leave the island was Dòmhnall mhic Aoidh mhic Mhurchaidh mhic Iomhair mhic Iain mhic Iomhair, whose great-grandfather was the first cousin of the Bard. Donald, a former farm worker in Paiblesgarry, left North Uist, first for the nearby island of , and then for the in , , , during the .
References
Bill Lawson (2011) North Uist in History and Legend, Birlinn. Page 32.
John Lorne Campbell (1979), Highland Songs of the Forty-Five, , New York City. p. 246.
.
(1979), Highland Songs of the Forty-Five, , New York City. p. 247.
Lawson (2011), pages 28-29.
Campbell (1979), Highland Songs of the Forty Five, page 246.
Campbell (1979), page 246, footnote 1.
Lawson (2011), page 26.
Lawson (2011), pages 26-27.
Campbell (1971), pages 246, 248-253.
Campbell (1971), page 246.
Campbell (1971), pages 247-247.
Campbell (1971), page 247.
Campbell (1971), page 247.
Digitised version of Alasdair mac Mhaighstir Alasdair's , 1751 at the . Pages 161-166.
Digitised version of Alasdair mac Mhaighstir Alasdair's , 1751 at the . Pages 192-202.
Campbell (1971), page 247.
. 25 November 2013. Archived from on 29 December 2016. Retrieved 28 December 2016.
(1872). Sar-Obair nam Bard Gaelach: or the Beauties of Gaelic Poetry. p. 144.
Edited by Michael Newton (2015), Seanchaidh na Coille: Memory-Keeper of the Forest, Press. Pages 44-52.
Lawson (2011), page 32.
Domhnall Ruadh Choruna, Edited by Fred Macauley (1995), pages 196-197.
Campbell (1971), page 246.
Lawson (2011), pages 29-30.
Lawson (2011), pages 27-28.
Attribution
MacDonald, James Ramsay (1893). . In (ed.). . Vol. 35. London: .

Source:

“Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iain_Mac_Fhearchair”