Catrìona nighean Ailein Chaluim Pìobaire | Ceatag Ailein

Catherine ‘Katie’ Patterson | Catrìona nighean Ailein Chaluim Pìobaire, 1872-1964, was a MacNeil from Benacadie and one of John Lorne Campbell’s most valued and prolific tradition-bearers. Her parents were Allan MacNeil and Mary MacInnis, whose ancestors came from Barra. Her father’s grandparents emigrated from Barra in 1802 and eventually settled in Piper’s Cove.

Catherine’s namesake, her paternal grandmother Catherine MacDonald, was the daughter of a wealthy garrison head in Chatham, New Brunswick. She fell in love with Malcolm MacNeil when he was working the lumber camps of the Miramichi, and eloped with him (reportedly on foot!) back to Cape Breton. The event apparently elicited considerable scandal but it seems Catherine MacDonald (now MacNeil) settled in well to life in Benacadie.

Like many young Cape Breton women, Catherine ‘Katie’ MacNeil, moved to Boston to work in service and there met County Tyrone native, David Patterson. They married in 1901 and had seven children. They eventually moved back to Benacadie, where John Lorne Campbell met and recorded her songs. Katie and David’s daughter, Lucy Byrne, is also featured in the Cape Breton Gaelic Folklore Collection, singing several songs she learned from her mother.