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Chaidh Màiri NicEalair, a bhana-bhàrd Abrach, a dh’fhuireach ann an Dùn Èideann ann an ochd ceud deug, seachdad ’s a sia (1876). Ceithir bliadhna an dèidh sin, dhealaich i bhon duine aice. Cha robh mòran airgid aice agus bha i a’ fuireach ann an seòmraichean air mullach teanamant.

Ach bha beartas cultarach aice. Fhuair i eòlas air daoine a bha an sàs ann an adhartachadh na Gàidhlig. Mar eisimpleir, bha i eòlach air Niall MacLeòid, am bàrd Sgitheanach. Agus bha i eòlach air a’ Phroifeasair Iain Stiùbhart Blackie. Bha esan a’ coiteachadh – gu soirbheachail – airson Cathair Cheiltis ann an Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann.

Chaidh Màiri a thaghadh mar Bhàrd do Chomunn Gàidhlig Inbhir Nis. Sgrìobh i agus leugh i dàn airson Co-chruinneachadh a’ Chomuinn ann an ochd ceud deug, seachdad ’s a sia (1876). ’S e dàn mòr a bha ann, le còrr is trithead rann. ’S e an tiotal a bha air ‘Còmhradh eadar am Bàrd ’s a’ Chlàrsach’. Anns an dàn, tha a’ chlàrsach ag innse don bhàrd mar a tha i gun chomas ceòl a dhèanamh oir tha i brònach mu chall nan daoine air a’ Ghàidhealtachd.

Bha Màiri dlùth ris an Urramach Alasdair MacGriogair, a bha an sàs ann an Comunn Gàidhlig Inbhir Nis, agus a bha taiceil dhi. Nuair a chaochail e, sgrìobh i marbhrann dha. Seo rann bhuaithe:

Fhir na h-aghaidh a bha màlda

Gum bu chàirdeil thu dhòmhsa,

Fhir a’ ghuth bha cho ciùin,

Ri osag chùbhraidh an Ògmhios,

Bha do làmh mar an sìoda

Ann am mìnead ’s am bòidhchead,

’S truagh nach fhaic mi ’m fèith-gàire

A bha nad bhlàth-shùil an-còmhnaidh

An tìr nam beò.

Choisinn Màiri cliù mar bhàrd agus thàinig i gu aire na Banrigh Bhictoria. Ann an ochd ceud deug, ochdad ’s a ceithir (1884), fhuair i cùmhnant airson an dàrna leabhar de Queen Victoria’s Highland Journal eadar-theangachadh gu Gàidhlig. Ge-tà, ged a bha i aithnichte, bha i bochd – a thaobh airgead agus slàinte. Anns an ath Litir, bheir sinn sùil air deireadh a beatha agus air an dìleib a dh’fhàg i aig na Gàidheil.

Mary MacKellar, the Lochaber poetess, went to live in Edinburgh in 1876. Four years after that, she separated from her husband. She didn’t have much money, and she was living in rooms at the top of a tenement.

But she possessed cultural riches. She knew people who were involved in the promotion of Gaelic. For example, she knew Neil MacLeod, the Skye bard. And she knew Professor John Stuart Blackie. He was lobbying – successfully – for a Chair of Celtic in the University of Edinburgh.

Mary was elected as Bard to the Gaelic Society of Inverness. She wrote and read a poem for the Assembly of the Society in 1876. It was a big poem, with more than thirty verses. Its title was ‘A Conversation between the Bard and the Harp’. In the poem, the harp tells the poet how she is unable to make music as she is sad about the loss of people in the Highlands.

Mary was close to the Rev Alexander MacGregor, who was involved in the Gaelic Society of Inverness and who was helpful to her. When he died, she wrote him an elegy. He is a verse from it:

Dear man of mild expression

You were a friend to me,

Dear man whose voice was as soft

As a fragrant June breeze,

Your hand was like silk,

In smoothness and in beauty

What a shame I won’t see the smile

That was always in your warm eyes

In the land of the living.

Mary developed a reputation as a poet, and she came to the attention of Queen Victoria. In 1884, she obtained a contract to translate the second volume of ‘Queen Victoria’s Highland Journal’ into Gaelic. However, although she had recognition, she was poor – in both financial and health terms. In the next Litir, we’ll look at the end of her life and at the legacy she left to the Gaels.