2014 MacMhuirich Symposium

Simon Chadwick (left) and Gillebride MacMillan (right) perform “There Is No Joy Without Clan Donald” at the 2014 MacMhuirich Symposium held June 27-28, 2014 at the Western Club in Glasgow, Scotland.

It is no joy without Clan Donald;
it is no strength to be without them;
the best race in the round world,
To them belongs every goodly man.
The noblest race of all created,
in whom dwelt prowess and terribleness;
a race to whom tyrants bowed,
In whom dwelt wisdom and piety.

The staves of the Gaelic lament by the MacMhuirich Bard in the "Book of the Dean of Lismore" at the loss of the MacDonald Lords still echo through the Isles. The line of the Great Sea-Lord Somerled, with whom the history of the western seaboard in the Middle Ages began, has run its course, and with the death of Angus Og at Finlaggan in 1490, it has, for all intents, met its tragic end.

Clan Donald persevered, as did Clan MacMhuirich, now engaged as Hereditary Bards to the MacDonalds of Clanranald in South Uist.

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