Finlay J. MacDonald

Finlay John Macdonald (Scottish Gaelic: Fionnlagh Iain MacDhòmhnaill; 4 July 1925 – 14 October 1987) was a Scottish journalist and radio and television producer and writer.

Born and raised on Harris in the Outer Hebrides, and a native Gaelic language speaker, was an important figure in Gaelic radio and television broadcasting, founding the Gaelic Drama Association. He co-founded the quarterly Gaelic magazine Gairm in 1951 with Derick Thomson and served as its chief editor until 1964.[1]

He was a radio and television producer. His production for radio of Sydney Goodsir Smith's play, The Wallace, was broadcast on 30th November 1959.[2]

Macdonald edited A Journey to the Western Isles (1983), in which he "retraced" the 1773 tour of Scotland by Samuel Johnson and James Boswell by providing the text of Johnson's A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland along with his own commentary and numerous colour and black-and-white photographs.

He wrote three books of memoirs that recall his childhood on Harris:

  • Crowdie and Cream (1982)
  • Crotal and White (1983)
  • The Corncrake and the Lysander (1985).[1]

These have been cited as providing a valuable insight into life in the Outer Hebrides in the inter-war years.[3]

References
  1. "Finlay J. McDonald". Ambaile. Retrieved 16 June 2011.
  2. McLellan, Robert, Review of The Wallace, in Thomson, David Cleghorn (ed.), Saltire Review, Vol. 6, No. 22, Autumn 1960, The Saltire Society, Edinburgh, pp. 75 - 77
  3. Cooke, Anthony; Donnachie, Ian (1998). Modern Scottish History, 1707 to the Present: Major documents. Tuckwell Press. p. 199. ISBN 978-1-86232-088-8.


This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.