| Born 26 October 1911 in Osgaig on the island
of Raasay. |
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James Connolly shot by a firing squad following his involvement in the Easter Rising of 1916 in Ireland (Connolly mentioned in ‘Ùrnaigh’ / ‘Prayer’, ‘An Cuilithionn’ / ‘The Cuillin’, ‘Am Botal Briste’ / ‘The Broken Bottle’, ‘Àrd-Mhusaeum na h-Èireann’ / ‘The National Museum of Ireland’, ‘Aig Uaigh Yeats’ / ‘At Yeats’s Grave’). Patrick Pearse, another leader of the Easter Rising who was executed, is mentioned in ‘An Cuilithionn’ / ‘The Cuillin’. |
Started
primary school on Raasay in 1918, and was
there from 1918-1924. |
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Karl
Leibknecht, German socialist and one of the
founders of the German Communist Party (KPD),
was shot in 1919 by German right wing militia
members (mentioned in ‘An Cuilithionn / ‘The
Cuillin’, ‘Sgatham...’ / ‘Let me Lop…’). |
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Vladimir
Lenin helped form the Comintern or Communist
International in 1919 (Lenin mentioned in
‘Am Buaireadh’ / ‘The Turmoil’, ‘An Cuilithionn’
/ ‘The Cuillin’, ‘Eadh is Fèin is Sàr-fhèin’
/ ‘Id, Ego and Super-Ego’). |
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Alexander
Blok, the gifted Russian lyrical poet, died
in 1921 (mentioned in ‘An Cuilithionn’ / ‘The
Cuillin’). |
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Benito
Mussolini, founder of the Fascist Party, became
Prime Minister of Italy in 1922 after the
‘March on Rome’. |
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Joseph
Stalin made General Secretary of the Central
Committee of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks)
in 1922. |
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Twenty-six
counties of Ireland secede from the United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland to form
the Republic of Ireland in 1922. |
Sorley
MacLean later stated that he had ‘relinquished
Calvinism for Socialism’ around 1923, while
still at school in Raasay. |
Glaswegian
John MacLean, the champion of the labouring
classes and Marxist advocate in Scotland,
died in 1923 (MacLean mentioned in ‘Clann
Ghill-Eain’ / ‘The Clan MacLean’, ‘An Cuilithionn’
/ ‘The Cuillin’, ‘Am Botal Briste’/‘The Broken
Bottle’). |
Left
Raasay for Portree Secondary School in 1924. |
Giacomo
Matteotti, the Italian Socialist politician,
was murdered in 1924 (mentioned in ‘An Cuilithionn’
/ ‘The Cuillin’). |
Successfully
sat the Bursary Competition of the University
of Edinburgh in 1929. |
Jawaharlal
Nehru, serving as President of the Indian
National Congress, raised the flag of independent
India on 31 December 1929 (mentioned in ‘An
Cuilithionn’ / ‘The Cuillin’). |
Left
Raasay and Skye in the autumn of 1929 for
the University of Edinburgh to study English. |
The Great Depression – from 1929 and through most of the
1930s. |
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Mahatma
Gandhi led the famous Dandi Salt March in
1930 in disobedience of the salt tax (Gandhi
mentioned in ‘An Cuilithionn’ / ‘The Cuillin’). |
| One of the poet’s early poems in Gaelic ‘A’ Chorra-ghritheach’ (The Heron) was composed in 1931. |
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