On This Day In History: Sorley MacLean, A World Renowned Gaelic Poet, Died – On Nov 24, 1996

AncientPages.com - On November 24, 1996, Sorley MacLean, one of the most distinguished poets, died.

Sorley MacLean, (in Gaelic: Somhairle Macgill-Eain) will be remembered as one of the greatest of all Gaelic poets. He is seen by many as the father of the renaissance of the Gaelic language.

Born on the island of Raasay, which lies off the east coast of the Isle of Skye, his upbringing was rooted in Gaelic culture and its rich song tradition.

Sorley MacLean was born on October 6, 1911, at Osgaig on the island of Raasay, an island on which Scottish Gaelic was the first language at the time.

In 1929, he went to Edinburgh University, where he became an enthusiastic shinty player before graduating in English with 1st class honors. He then became a teacher. His career was interrupted by military service during WWII, and while in North Africa, he was wounded on three occasions.

Over the years, MacLean taught in several schools, in places as far apart as Mull and Edinburgh, before becoming headteacher of Plockton High School, a post he held from 1959 until his retirement in 1972.

MacLean was never a full-time writer. His poetry began to emerge in the 1930s, initially written in English, before he decided that his poetry in Gaelic was better. By the advent of war, he was already well known as a Gaelic writer at a time when very little serious literature was produced in the language.

In the 1970s, MacLean began to be better known outside the Gaelic-speaking world when translations of his work began to appear, and he himself attended the Cambridge Poetry Festival. The real turning point came with publishing his Selected Poems of 1977 in Gaelic with his own English translations.

In later life, MacLean wrote less poetry, instead becoming a scholar of Highland history and genealogy and an authority on the Gaelic language.

He died on November 24, 1996, at the age of 85, in Raigmore Hospital, Inverness - in his beloved Scotland.

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