(died 28 Dec. 1913, aged 61), author also known under his pen name of Fionn. Born at Easdale, Argyllshire, Scotland, but it was in Glasgow that he spent most of his life. He was a translator of Gaelic into English and of English into Gaelic, and a prolific writer on subjects related to the life of Celtic Scotland. An obituary said that since the time of his first publication, nearly 40 years before his death, “hardly a week passed over his head in which some literary work from his pen did not appear in newspaper or magazine.” His books included The Celtic Lyre and The Celtic Garland. He was also a travelling lecturer. Besides being an agitator for the passing of the Crofters’ Act (1886), he himself translated the Crofters’ Act into Gaelic. In 1906 he was awarded a Civil List pension for his contributions to Gaelic literature. Married. (one child) He died at his home in Glasgow. Above his grave in the Western Necropolis, Glasgow, a Celtic cross was placed, “subscribed for by Highlanders in all parts of the world.” (Celtic Garland, 1920)

     He was the translator into English, or rather into Scottish dialect, of the song “My Bonnie Native Glen,” which has been over many decades by popular choice the unofficial anthem of GC. So much is “My Bonnie Native Glen” a part of GC traditions, that many people, when the chances of memory have allowed them to forget its references to hazel woods and cuckoos , have supposed it to be of GC origin. In fact, it is wholly an import. The Gaelic version, entitled “An Gleann ‘san Robh Mi Og,” was composed on the non-GC side of Atlantic by the Scottish poet Neil Macleod, known as “The Skye Bard,” and Fionn is not known to have had any GC connections. In Fionn’s text of the song, the air is given as that of “When the Kye Comes Hame,” but in GC the air used has been that of “The Wearin’ o’ the Green.” Angus H. McDonell wrote that in GC the singing of this “revered ballad… in either Gaelic or English is a heritage feature at any gathering of the clans.” (Glengarry News 8 Sept. 1982) There are reprints of the song in The Glengarry Historical Society’s 7th Annual Volume (1967-1968) and in Butternuts and Maple Syrup. With the former reprint, Mrs Clarence MacMillan wrote, “This old folk song has been standard entertainment at the local dances (at lunch time)–usually a bard would sing the verses and all would join in the chorus.” (At the community dances mentioned, “lunch time” was the break about midnight for coffee, sandwiches and cake.) Presumably the GC dance hall called “The Bonnie Glen” got its name from this song. (See Ranald Joseph McPherson) For the role in GC of “My Bonnie Native Glen,” see the entries also for Howard M. Morris, Bishop Smith, Fr John D. McPhail, and the Boer War soldier John Angus Macdonald.

     “My Bonnie Native Glen” in the English version, is literature of a very respectable order. “Danny Boy” comes to mind as a work comparable in quality and appeal. “My Bonnie Native Glen” does lack, however, the interweaving of sentimentality and take-it-back-again irony that gives intellectual strength to the Stephen Foster songs. For Scots, it has much of the resonance of the celebrated Blackwood’s Magazine “Canadian Boat-Song” of 1829. The opening lines of “My Bonnie Native Glen” appeal to veterans of the GC winters,

     When the simmer bricht returnin’
     Decks each grove and buddin’ tree

The song ties the experience of Scottish exile to the perception of the transience of life,

Now the dwellin’s are in ruins
Where ance lived a gallant clan;
Theirs was aye the frien’ly welcome,
An’ theirs aye the open han’;
Aft the needy an’ the puir
Found a place at their fire-en’
Now, alas! there’s nane to greet them
In my bonnie native glen.
Like mist upon the mountains
Our youthfu’ days did glide;
Now our kin an’ auld acquaintance
Are scattered far and wide;
An’ some mair are sleepin’ soun’,
Neath the shadow o’ the ben,
That were ance baith leal an’ hearty
In my bonnie native glen.

The song concludes with the speaker’s wish that in “life’s gloaming” death will find him “in my bonnie native glen.      The collection of Mgr Ewen J Macdonald’s books acquired by St. Francis Xavier University includes two books by Fionn, The Martial Music of the Clans and The Celtic Lyre. Obituaries: Glasgow Herald 29 Dec. 1913, The Celtic Monthly, XXII:1 (1914) p. 14, and The Celtic Review, IX (1913-1914) pp. 332-336 (by “M. M.”; includes full page portrait) * “Fionn,” The Celtic Garland of Gaelic Songs and Readings. Translation of Gaelic and English Songs, 3rd edn., Greatly Enlarged, Memorial Edition (Glasgow, 1920); includes portrait, note by his daughter, repr. of the obituary by “M. M.,” photograph of Celtic cross gravestone, and full text in Gaelic and English of “My Bonnie Native Glen” * Butternuts and Maple Sugar 337 * for discussion of the Blackwood’s Magazine “Canadian Boat-Song” and the search for its origins in GC and elsewhere, see Bibliography of Glengarry 5 * Rhodes Grant, i, 108: singing of “My Bonnie Native Glen” in Gaelic in 1926 * text of song on GC, by Mrs Mervyn MacDonald, to tune of “Bonnie Native Glen,” Glengarry News 8 Dec. 1955 * “In My Bonnie Native Glen” among favourite songs, Lochinvar to Skye 607 * Hurtig, III, 1650: Bonnie Glen oil field, Can. West, mentioned