John G. Mackay

John G. Mackay | Iain MacAoidh (1869– 1942, Hertfordshire) was an editor and translator, active in the Gaelic circles in London. As William Gillies notes, Mackay attended Gaelic classes in London in the 1890s, and distinguished himself as one of the best students (1990, p. 516–517). He translated many of the folktales collected by John Francis Campbell and edited More West Highland Tales (1940). Apart from Erskine’s magazines, he also contributed folktales with commentary to The Celtic Monthly and An Deò-Grèine.

In ‘An Tuairisgeal,’ an essay published in the Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Inverness XXXIV (1927–1928), Mackay notes in Footnote 66, p. 64: ‘See my monograph on this creature, A’ Bhean-nighe (Guth na Bliadhna, IX, pp. 195, 333).’ This attributes him beyond doubt as ‘Sìthiche.’

[Not to be confused with John Mackay of Hereford (1822, Rogart, Sutherland – 17 February 1906, Reay House, Hereford), likewise a Celtic scholar, author of publications on the place-names of Sutherland and the Highland Regiments, and president of An Comunn Gaidhealach in 1895-1896; and John Gunn Mackay (4 March 1848 –1924), born in Lochalsh, an expert on Highland tartans, one of the leaders of the movement supporting the Valtos crofters in 1881, and a Portree businessman.]

Publications in Erskine’s Periodicals

Am Bàrd

  • ‘Gaelic Idioms’ [vocabulary list, GD & ENG], Volume I, Issue 1 (May 1901)
  • ‘Gaelic Idioms’ [vocabulary list, GD & ENG], Volume I, Issue 2 (June 1901)
  • ‘Gaelic Idioms’ [vocabulary list, GD & ENG], Volume I, Issue 3 (July 1901)
  • ‘Gaelic Idioms’ [vocabulary list, GD & ENG], Volume I, Issue 4 (August 1901)
  • ‘Gaelic Idioms’ [vocabulary list, GD & ENG], Volume I, Issue 5 (September 1901)

Guth na Bliadhna

  • ‘Sìthiche’ [John G. Mackay]: ‘A’ Bhean-nighe, or Loireag / Luideag-an-Uillt, Luideag-na-h-Aibhne, Coineachag’ [essay on folklore with extracts, ENG], Volume IX, Issue 2 (Spring 1912)
  • ‘An Tuairisgeal’ [prose & commentary, GD; two versions of a story from John Francis Campbell’s unpublished manuscripts], Volume XII, Issue 2 (Summer 1915) & Volume XII, Issue 3 (Autumn 1915)

Resources