Seanchaidh na Coille, page 18
Translation
(1-4) My people came from Scotland across the ocean to the west to fight for Britain bravely, resolutely, keenly.
(5-8) No superheroes better in the battle of the blades were ever heard of than the people of the proud plaids and of the bagpipes of most thunderous droning.
(9-12) If malicious enemies would threaten to subdue our land, every person who has Scottish blood would immediately arm themselves.
(13-16) They would remember their ancestors in the kingdom at that time; they would spill their pure blood before they would yield to an enemy.
(17-20) Canada is our country, the new land of freedom and nourishment; a good land in which there are no landlords to expel us out of the glens.
(21-24) An enormous land of the forking mountains and of the smooth, wide plains; a gentle land of the hardy men and of the most virtuous women.
8: The Gaels of Nova Scotia
Alasdair MacÌosaig of St. Andrews Channel in Cape Breton composed this ode to the 85th Battalion of Nova Scotia, which fought in the First World War. He seems to have also provided the title. The 85th Battalion was among the Canadian forces who fought at the Battle of Vimy Ridge in 1917.
The chorus of this song immediately notifies us that it was modelled on the song by Iain MacGilleBhràth which started this chapter. The same set of conceits—fearlessness and indomitability—is applied to the Gaels here as elsewhere, but there is some ambiguity about their identity in relation to Britishness and lingering ethnic rivalries. While on the one hand, Alasdair asserts that the Gaels have outshone the English (line 14), he also subsumes them within British forces as a whole, praising them as the “people of the red coats” (lines 35-36). While he praises the service of Gaelic military forces and assures them that they will emerge victorious, he also acknowledges the high social costs that families paid (lines 17-28) in this tragic international conflict. It may be that he felt obliged, as a poet, to tell the story that so many other soldiers who died could not (line 28) and to justify the costs in terms of a positive political outcome (lines 19 and 39-40).
Original Text
1
Soraidh bhuam thar chuan air astar
Gu fir shuaicheanta nam breacan:
Dh’fhalbh iad uainn thar chuan air astar
Gus an gleachd a bhuannachd.
5
Gur e ’chuir mi ’n-diugh ri dànachd
A thoirt iomradh air na Gàidheil,
Na gaisgich a dh’fhalbh thar sàile
Gus am blàr a bhuannachd.
Chuireadh fios air Clann nan Gàidheal:
10
Riamh, cha do dh’aom ri aodann nàmhaid,
Freumh de’n chraoibh as daoire dh’fhàs –
Is iomadh blàr a fhuair iad.
’Fhearaibh Albann Ùir, gun d’ rinn sibh tapaidh:
Fhuair sibh cliù os cionn fir Shasann –
15
Luchd mo rùin nach lùb le gealtachd
Dol ri aodann cruadail.
Is ged is duilich leam ri innse,
Gum bheil móran dhiubh ’nan sìneadh,
Thig an onair oirnn mar dhìleab
20
Ged is bochd ’gar dìth na tha uainn dhiubh.
Is iomadh màthair a tha brònach
Is a mac gaoil air aodann comhstrì,
Agus [a] fear a tha fo’n fhòd
A chaidh a leòn ’s a’ chruadal.
25
Is iomadh bean a tha dheth deurach
Is a companach an déidh a tréigsinn
Nach tig dhachaigh gu ’chéile
’Thoirt dhi sgeul a chruadail.
Gun robh an Gearmailteach cho foirmeil
30
Gus am Frangach ’chur an domail;
Mur b’ e Belgium bhith ’na choinneamh,
Bhiodh gach fearann bhuaidhe.
Is ged tha Gearmailtich cho làidir,
Cumail cogaidh ri gach nàmhaid,
35
Gheibh na Breatannaich an àirde:
Luchd nan còta ruadha.
Théid an Caisear a dhìteadh;
Théid a chrochadh – siud tha ’dhìth oirnn –
Nì sinn réite anns gach rìoghachd
40
Agus sìth bhios buan dhuinn.46
Translation
(1-4) Greetings from me far across the ocean to the distinguished men of the tartans who have departed from us a long distance across the ocean in order to win the conflict.
(5-8) I have been motivated today to compose poetry in order to comment on the Gaels, the heroes who have departed across the ocean in order to win the battle.
(9-12) The Gaelic people were called out [for war]: they never submitted before the face of an enemy; a branch of the most precious tree that ever grew; they had many a battle.
(13-16) O men of Nova Scotia, you have done smartly: you have earned repute above that of the men of England – the people beloved to me who will not yield from fright, going to face hardship.
(17-20) And although it is difficult for me to say, that many of you are laid out [dead], honour will be bestowed to us as a legacy, although those of us who remain are sorely in need of you.
(21-24) There is many a mother who is sad while her beloved son is on the field of conflict, and her husband who was wounded in the conflict lies beneath the sod.
(25-28) There is many a wife who is full of tears because of it after her companion has abandoned her and will not come home to his partner to tell her the tale of his hardship.
(29-32) The German was so pompous to cause the French such damage; if Belgium hadn’t been across from him, he would not have been able to get territory.
(33-36) And although the Germans are strong, making war on every enemy, the British will get the upper hand: the people of the red coats.
(37-40) The Kaiser will be doomed; he will be hanged—that is what we need—we will create a smooth settlement in every kingdom and a peace that will be lasting for us.
4 – Migration
Soldiers and sailors who had fought in the North American theatre of the Seven Years’ War (1756-1763) were eligible for land grants in British North America as rewards for their military service. Whether they happened to have found their foothold in the province of New York, Nova Scotia, or Quebec, these men actively encouraged their relations and friends to follow them. Migration from the Highlands is distinguished from that of other parts of Scotland by the durable bonds of community and kinship in Highland life that motivated Gaels to migrate and settle together in large groups. The strong sense of community solidarity sometimes led to consensual decisions about mass migration, such as when the MacDonald tenants of Cnòideart (Knoydart) decided to leave for Ontario in 1786:
What is striking about this agreement is its egalitarian tone and, in particular, the communal commitment to emigration. In the face of socially and economically unacceptable losses, the tenants looked as a group for a solution to their problems and found it in communal emigration.1
Often times, however, smaller scale migration from a family or community stretched out over years or decades. Early emigrants wrote letters and sent messages back home, reassuring family and friends of their successes and encouraging others to follow them, a phenomenon often referred to as “chain migration.” The channel of communication between the emigrant and his home community back in Scotland, however, could be very local and selective in its scope where emigration was concerned, as Thomas Douglas (Earl of Selkirk) noted in his 1805 treatise:
The continued and repeated communication between these settlers, and their relations in Scotland, has given the people of every part of the Highlands a pretty accurate acquaintance with the circumstances of some particular colony; and the emigrants, though their ideas are often sanguine, are by no means so ignorant of the nature of the country they are going to, as some persons have supposed. But the information which any of the peasantry have of America, is all confined to one spot; to the peculiar circumstances of that place, they ascribe all those advantages which it has in common with other new settled countries. Of the other colonies they are perfectly ignorant, and have often very mistaken notions. Those, in particular, whose views are directed towards the southern states, have received very gloomy impressions of the climate of Canada, and of all the northern colonies. But to rectify these mistaken opinions, is by no means the greatest difficulty in bringing them to change their plans. The number of their friends or relations who have all gone to the same quarter, give it the attraction almost of another home.
Although some emigration from the Highlands continued to follow previous trails to the newly formed United States after the conclusion of the American Revolutionary War in 1783, it was much easier for Gaels to migrate northwards to the territories still controlled by the British Crown. Many colonists who had fought during the revolution as Loyalists relocated to British North America and formed new bridges for the continuing saga of emigration.
Until steamships began crossing the Atlantic in the 1860s, the voyage between Scotland and North America was long, dangerous and unpleasant. Many boats carried wood and other commodities from North American colonies and would have otherwise returned from Britain empty, but they were ill-suited for human occupation.2 Besides the perils of the ocean voyage itself, people were ill-nourished and disease spread quickly and easily. A pipe-tune commemorating the departure of Highlanders for America was entitled “Tha an cuan a’ cur eagal air Clann nan Gàidheal” (The Ocean Frightens the Gaelic People).3 An account in English about the voyage of the ship Hector in 1773 to Pictou, Nova Scotia, depicts graphically the desperate state of the boat and the passengers:
The ship was so rotten that the passengers could pick the wood out of her sides with their fingers. They met with a severe gale off the Newfoundland coast, and were driven back by it so far that it took them about fourteen days to get back to the point at which the storm met them. The accommodation was wretched, smallpox and dysentry broke out among the passengers. Eighteen of the children died. ... Their stock of provisions became almost exhausted, the water became scarce and bad; the remnant of provisions left consisted mainly of salt meat, which, from the scarcity of water, added greatly to their sufferings. The oatcake carried by them became mouldy, so that much of it had been thrown away before they dreamt of having such a long passage.4
The Rev. Donnchadh Blàrach wrote one of the few extended accounts in Gaelic of the Atlantic voyage in 1846 which portrays the tremendous forces of nature against which a ship, its crew and travellers had to battle in order to survive.
Nuair a bha e a’ dlùthachadh ri meadhan-oidhche, dh’at an fhairge suas ’na beanntaibh, agus thòisich an long ri luasgadh air bharraibh nan tonn. Bha an cuan a’ slachdraich air taobhan na luinge, agus thàinig aon tonn aintheasach, gailbheach, agus bhuail e i air a deireadh. Thug e oirre breab a thoirt cosmhail ri each meanmnach; thilgeadh bun os cionn na cisteachan anns an robh mo leabhraichean agus m’ aodach, maille ris gach nì a bha ann an seòmar na luinge, agus thaomadh a-mach gach nì a bha ann an ciste nan cungaidhean-leighis, a bhuineadh do’n Chaiptean, ionnas gu robh cuid de na soireachan-leighis air am bristeadh, agus gach nì a bha annta air chall. Shaoil leam gun do bhrist an tonn gailbheach seo a-staigh troimh chliathaich an t-soithich agus gum bitheamaid an grunnd a’ chuain a thiota.
As it approached midnight, the sea swelled up into mountainous proportions, and the ship began to roll on the top of the waves. The sea was battering the sides of the ship and one blustery, violent wave hit the stern. It made her give a kick like a prancing horse. The chests which held my books and clothes went topsy-turvy, along with everything else in the ship’s cabin. Everything in the captain’s medicine-chest poured out. Some of the medicine bottles were broken and their entire contents lost. I thought that the wild wave had broken in through the side of the ship and that we would soon be at the bottom of the ocean.5
Gaels were desperate enough, however, to leave the oppressions at home to risk the hazards of ocean travel to North America. The intricate weave of Highland society quickly unravelled. By the early 1800s, the old tacksmen class had essentially become extinct in the social structure of the Highlands.6 Their descendants who desired to maintain their elevated social rank emigrated elsewhere, enlisted in the military, trained for the ministry or priesthood, or sought some official capacity in the landlord’s new estate management scheme, becoming estranged from former kinsmen in the process:
In the eighteenth century the role of the factor was usually assumed by one of the gentleman tacksmen. Records indicate that this official carried out his duties efficiently. He visited farms frequently, collected rents, observed the tenants at work, and encouraged their improvements. It is quite likely that, in addition to these duties, he was also baron-baillie, supervising and enforcing the tenants’ duty to the laird. ... By the nineteenth century he was a very unpopular figure, if one is to judge by allusions in the songs of the emigrants.7
Some landlords encouraged tenants to remain on small plots of land called “crofts” on their estates, especially when the élite could exploit the servile workforce in the production of kelp. Being squeezed into small and marginal plots of land, however, made crofters increasingly reliant upon the potato as a foodstuff. The year 1846 is known in Gaelic as “a’ bhliadhna a ghais am buntàta” (the year that the potato withered). This natural disaster which struck many regions of the North Atlantic for several years beginning in 1846 was only one of several factors accelerating massive depopulation in most parts of the Highlands in the 1840s and 1850s:
In these two decades, the Scottish Highlands lost many more of their inhabitants than in any other similar period in the nineteenth century. The immediate cause was crop failure and, in particular, the potato blight, which devastated a vital subsistence crop of the region from the autumn of 1846. But such an explanation, though commonplace in the literature, is hardly sufficient to account for the extraordinary volume of emigration. ... The crisis of these decades seems to have generated a widespread and, in some years, a desperate desire to get away which undermined for a time the traditional reluctance of the poorer peasant classes to surrender their lands. … This social pattern was not simply a consequence of the ravages of famine on a peasant population. It was also the result of conscious design on the part of individual landowners and their agents.8
Landlords took advantage of nearly any opportunity to better themselves regardless of the impact on the tenantry, and having nearly unchecked powers on their estates they could bring pressures to bear on the peasantry to cause their expulsion. There was little political pressure to improve conditions as Highlanders were considered an inherently inferior race unworthy of special consideration and the universal right to vote was not granted to them (males, at any rate) until 1885.9
After Canadian Confederation in 1867, the first Prime Minister, John A. Macdonald, considered it one of his highest priorities to expand westward before the United States could claim the territory between British Columbia and Ontario. The construction of a railroad to connect Canadian centres of population and power, to carry goods and to aid in settlement, was therefore key to these plans.10 The railroad had to be built and the Prairies needed to be occupied by loyal subjects; strenuous efforts were made to recruit Highlanders into these enterprises, often with less than equitable arrangements.
Word of mouth and letters received from relations and friends were reality checks against the exaggerations and embellishments made by emigration agents and settlement schemes. A very lively debate ensued in newspapers with a Gaelic readership in Scotland and Canada in the 1880s and 1890s, some contributors praising the virtues of their new homes and others casting aspersions on the land and the emigration agents who induced them to come over. It is also clear that Highlanders gave greater credence to materials printed in the Gaelic language than in English. A typical exchange occurred in the Gaelic column of The Scottish Canadian newspaper, printed in Toronto, in 1892. First came an enquiry from a correspondent only identified as “Tirisdeach” (a native of Tiree):
