Alasdair Mac Mhaighstir Alasdair - Legacy

Legacy

Alasdair MacMhaighstir Alasdair "owed little or nothing either to his predecessors or his contemporaries" in the field of poetry and many of his poems are available in anthologies of Scottish poetry. His song Oran Eile do Phrionnsa was performed by Calum Johnston at the 1951 Edinburgh People's Festival Ceilidh. A CD recording was released, as part of the Alan Lomax Collection, by Rounder Records in 2006.

According to Campbell,

"It is hardly too much to say that no satisfactory text of MacDonald's poems has yet been produced. Apart from the peculiarities of his own spelling -- which represents nearly the first attempt to adapt the orthography of the old literary language common to Scotland and Ireland to the vernacular of the Highlands -- he uses forms which are not now employed in modern speech, and which have been consequently removed by all his editors from MacPherson onwards, presumably as a concession to readers unwilling to acquaint themselves with obsolete forms of the language."

He may be said to rank first among all bards of the Scottish Gaels, perhaps with only Sorley MacLean, of more recent fame, as an exception.

Alasdair MacMhaighstir Alasdair's last direct descendant emigrated to the United States and served with distinction in the 11th Wisconsin Regiment during the American Civil War.