'The Mavis of Clan Donald': engaging with John MacCodrum

Professor William Gillies

The O’Donnell Lecture 2016 in the University of Edinburgh will be given by Professor William Gillies, Chair of Celtic in the University between 1979 and 2009. 

The eighteenth-century North Uist poet John MacCodrum (Iain Mac Fhearchair) has been portrayed as 'one of the earliest of the "village poets"', who gained an additional function in the 1760s as an 'antiquarian' re-creation of the Celtic bard Ossian. But there is more to MacCodrum than that. Specifically, it seems possible to construct a more rounded picture of his literary and political world, while still acknowledging his role as a local commentator and as the 'Mavis of Clan Donald'.

The O’Donnell Lectures on the Celtic aspect of the archaeology and languages of Britain were established in 1954 in honour of Charles James O’Donnell and are given in the universities of Edinburgh, Oxford, Aberystwyth, Bangor, Cardiff, Swansea and Lampeter (Trinity St David).

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