Donald MacKechnie | Dòmhnall MacEacharn (1836, Glengarisdale – 1908) was a poet and author from Jura who was brough up in Glasgow.
He later settled in Edinburgh and made a living as an agent for a company of distillers and commission agents. A collection of his writing, Am Fear Ciùil (1904), brought together his poems, songs, translations, and essays.
Erskine considered MacKechnie’s writing a model for Gaelic prose. He discussed his work in the essay ‘Ealain Dhomhnuill MhicEacharn’ in Guth na Bliadhna VIII: 2 (Spring 1911) and VIII: 3 (Summer 1911), which features translations from his essay ‘An Cat’ into English, and included a translation from MacKechnie’s Am Fear-ciùil, ‘A Night on Ceilidh’, in the volume The Old Tribute (1929).
Publications in Erskine’s Periodicals
- ‘Am Flùran’ [poetry, GD], Volume I, Issue 2 (June 1901)
- Ruaraidh Erskine: ‘Ealain Dhòmhnuill MhicEacharn’ [essay, ENG], Volume VIII, Issue 2 (Spring 1911) and 3 (Summer 1911), with extracts translated into English by Erskine
- ‘Reformation’ [prose, ENG; translated from Gaelic by Ruaraidh Erskine], Issue 78, Volume 38 (Summer 1915)
- ‘The Exploits of the Aged’ [prose, ENG; translated from Gaelic by Ruaraidh Erskine], Issue 80, Volume 38 (Winter 1915)
- ‘Rot’ [prose, ENG; translated from Gaelic by Ruaraidh Erskine], Issue 88, Volume 40 (Winter 1917)
- “A Night on Ceilidh” [prose, ENG; translated from Gaelic by Ruaraidh Erskine], Issue 7, Volume I (May 1928)
Resources
- Malcolm C. MacLeod (ed.), ‘Donald MacKechnie,’ Modern Gaelic Bards (Stirling: Eneas Mackay, 1908)