Sorley MacLean was a Scottish Gaelic poet, described by the Scottish Poetry Library as "one of the major Scottish poets of the modern era" because of his "mastery of his chosen medium and his engagement with the European poetic tradition and European politics". Nobel Prize Laureate Seamus Heaney credited MacLean with saving Scottish Gaelic poetry.
Although Irish has been used as a literary language for more than 1,500 years, and modern literature in Irish dates – as in most European languages – to the 16th century, modern Irish literature owes much of its popularity to the 19th century Gaelic Revival, a cultural and language revival movement, and to the efforts of more recent poets and writers. In an act of literary decolonization common to many other peoples seeking self-determination, writers in Irish have taken the advice of Patrick Pearse and have combined influences from both their own literary history and the whole of world literature. Writers in Modern Irish have accordingly produced some of the most interesting literature to come out of Ireland, while being both supplemented and influenced by poetry and prose composed in the Irish language outside Ireland.
The Royal National Mòd is an Eisteddfod-inspired international Celtic festival focusing upon Scottish Gaelic literature, traditional music, and culture which is held annually in Scotland. It is the largest of several major Scottish Mòds and is often referred to simply as the Mòd.
Máirtín Ó Direáin was an Irish poet from the Aran Islands Gaeltacht. Along with Seán Ó Ríordáin and Máire Mhac an tSaoi, Ó Direáin was, in the words of Louis de Paor, "one of a trinity of poets who revolutionised Irish language poetry in the 1940s and 50s." According to a 1984 lecture by Desmond Egan, "Ó Direáin's genius stands revealed - to the extent that we must look abroad for poets with whom his achievement might best be compared; to Spain and Antonio Machado's sweet intensity; to Russia and Akhmatova; to Germany and the bittersweet music of Heinrich Heine."
Sabhal Mòr Ostaig is a public higher education college situated in the Sleat peninsula in the south of the Isle of Skye, Scotland with an associate campus at Bowmore on the island of Islay. Sabhal Mòr is an independent Academic Partner in the federal University of the Highlands and Islands. Its sole medium of instruction on degree courses is Scottish Gaelic.
Iain Crichton Smith, was a Scottish poet and novelist, who wrote in both English and Gaelic. He was born in Glasgow, but moved to the Isle of Lewis at the age of two, where he and his two brothers were brought up by their widowed mother in the small crofting town of Bayble, which also produced Derick Thomson. Educated at the University of Aberdeen, Crichton Smith took a degree in English, and after completing his national service in the Army Educational Corps, went on to become a teacher. He taught in Clydebank, Dumbarton and Oban from 1952, retiring to become a full-time writer in 1977, although he already had many novels and poems published.
Angus Peter Campbell is a Scottish award-winning poet, novelist, journalist, broadcaster and actor. Campbell's works, which are written mainly in Scottish Gaelic, draw heavily upon both Hebridean mythology and folklore and the magic realism of recent Latin American literature. In an interview prior to his death, Sorley MacLean, who is, alongside Alasdair Mac Mhaighstir Alasdair, considered to be among the two greatest writers in the history of Scottish Gaelic literature, called Campbell one of the best living Scottish poets in any language.
Vivienne Margaret 'Meg' Bateman is a Scottish academic, poet and short story writer. She is best known for her works written in Scottish Gaelic; however, she has also published work in the English language.
Aonghas MacNeacail, nicknamed Aonghas dubh, was a contemporary writer in the Scottish Gaelic language.
Na Gathan is a Scottish Gaelic Indie rock band from the Isle of Skye.
Ùr-sgeul was an independent publisher of new Scottish Gaelic prose. The name Ùr-sgeul is a Gaelic word which translates variously as: a romance, a novel or a recent tale. Professor Alan Riach, in Scottish Literature: An introduction, summarises the Ùr-Sgeul publishing initiative as "devoted to prose fiction and developing an increasingly impressive list of new titles: short stories and anthologies but mainly single-author novels."
Scottish Gaelic literature refers to literary works composed in the Scottish Gaelic language, which is, like Irish and Manx, a member of the Goidelic branch of Celtic languages. Gaelic literature was also composed in Gàidhealtachd communities throughout the global Scottish diaspora where the language has been and is still spoken.
Iain Mac Fhearchair (1693-–1779) was a Scottish Gaelic-speaking Bard and seanchaidh "who lived and died in the island of North Uist." Later in his life, Iain served as Chief Bard to the Chief of Clan MacDonald of Sleat, had a friendship with Alasdair Mac Mhaighstir Alasdair, and made an appearance in the Ossianic controversy surrounding the poet James Macpherson.
Mary MacPherson (née MacDonald), known as Màiri Mhòr nan Òran or simply Màiri Mhòr, was a Scottish Gaelic poet from the Isle of Skye, whose contribution to Scottish Gaelic literature is focused heavily upon the Highland Clearances and the Crofters War; the Highland Land League's campaigns of rent strikes and other forms of direct action. Although she could read her own work when it was written down, she could not write it down herself. She retained her songs and poems in her memory and eventually dictated them to others, who wrote them down for publication. She often referred to herself as Màiri Nighean Iain Bhàin, the name by which she would have been known in the Skye of her childhood.
Iain Moireach (27 March 1938 – 17 November 2018) was a Scottish Gaelic writer from Barvas, Isle of Lewis. He wrote poetry, screenplays, and short stories.
Alasdair Caimbeul, also known as Alasdair a' Bhocsair or Alasdair Campbell, is a Scottish playwright, short story writer, and novelist from Ness on the Isle of Lewis. Renowned for writing many stories in his native tongue Gaelic, in addition to a few in English, he is a native of the Isle of Lewis.
William Ross was a Scottish writer of Romantic poetry in Scottish Gaelic from the Isle of Skye and a Church of Scotland parish schoolmaster, who is often referred to as, "The Bard of Gairloch." Although Ross, similarly to Alasdair Mac Mhaighstir Alasdair, has been referred to as, "the Robbie Burns of the Highlands", he also bears close parallels to his near contemporary John Keats. Similarly to Keats, more than two hundred years after dying of tuberculosis while still in his twenties, Ross remains a highly important and admired figure in Scottish Gaelic literature and is considered one of the greatest poets and writers in the history of the language.
Dòmhnall MacAmhlaigh was a Scottish Gaelic poet and professor.
Dàin do Eimhir is a sequence of sixty poems written in Scottish Gaelic by Sorley MacLean. Considered MacLean's masterpiece, the poems deal with intertwining themes of romantic love, landscape, history, and the Spanish Civil War, and are among the most important works ever written in Scottish Gaelic literature.
Catriona NicGumaraid was a Scottish Gaelic poet.
