The Repertoire of a Traditional Gaelic Singer in the Outer Hebrides: With Reference to Versions of Her Songs Known in Canada

Extract

From the early years of this century, the islands of the Hebrides have provided us, through the work of a very small number of collectors, with a stream of folk songs of great beauty and interest.

Now, from the small island of Vatersay at the southern end of the island chain, comes a find as exciting as any yet discovered, in the form of over 460 songs, many of them not previously known to us, from the lips of a single singer, by name Nan Mackinnon or, to give her her Gaelic patronymic, Nan Eachainn Fhionnlaigh. Credit for the initial discovery in 1952 of this treasure-hoard must go to Donald Macpherson of Barra. Further work of recording, transcription and documentation of her repertoire has fallen to me and to my colleague James Ross, formerly of the School of Scottish Studies. Much of the importance of the find lies in the fact that these songs are the direct inheritance of an older island community, that of the Isle of Mingulay, now uninhabited.