Early on a Sunday morning in October 1905, in Eriskay, one of the
smallest and most isolated of Hebridean islands, a forty-five year old
Catholic parish priest died of pleurisy. It was a disease which had
claimed many of his parishioners, and Father Allan McDonald undoubtedly
contracted it while ministering to his flock. He was mourned all over
Scotland. Now, over a century later, his name is still remembered with
reverence throughout Catholic Scotland and beyond. Father Allan -
Maighstir Ailein to his Gaelic-speaking people - was a witty,
accomplished, intellectual and dedicated man; one of the most renowned
of Hebridean personalities and probably the most celebrated Hebridean
priest since St Columba.
An exceptionally effective and articulate local politician in the
southern Outer Hebrides, which at the turn of the twentieth century was
amongst the poorest and most neglected in Europe, he was also an
accomplished Gaelic poet and writer and one of Scotland's greatest
collectors of folklore. His achievements attracted attention and
visitors came to his lonely parish from the United States, England and
elsewhere. The compelling tale of his remarkable life is also implicitly
the story of the north-west Highlands in the late nineteenth century and
the Catholic Hebrides in their transcendent prime, where culture
overflows with myth and adventure, colour, character and extraordinary
unspoilt beauty.
