IN this occasional series, we shine a light on someone special in the Yes movement. Here we catch up with actor, Gaelic singer and veteran of the campaign for Scottish independence, Dolina Maclennan.
FOR six years, a leading light of Gaelic soap opera “Machair”, Doli has been in many plays and films. As president of the Saltire Society, she has done much to promote Scottish culture, and her candid Facebook posts are read by thousands. She can sometimes be seen at rallies, leading the crowd in the Hamish Henderson anthem Freedom Come All Ye.
On Friday, Doli returned to Lewis, where she grew up, to give the annual Angus Macleod Memorial Lecture. She focused on Scotland’s rich heritage of poetry, recalling many poets whom she knew. The Sunday National caught up with her.
What inspired your commitment to Scottish independence?
“WHEN I was a child there were two words that I didn’t understand the meaning of – but I knew there was sorrow around them: Iolaire and Metagama.”
Iolaire was the overcrowded yacht that sank at the entrance to Stornoway harbour on January 1, 1919 as it brought back the men who had survived the slaughter of the First World War. Their families were on the quay ready to welcome them, fires lit and warm clothes drying before the fires of home. 201 of 283 men perished.
Doli’s other word was Metagama. A few years later, in 1923, steamships the Metagama and the Marloch took hundreds of young, mainly male Leodhasachs from the Western Isles to Canada as indentured labourers. The terms of the indenture were what we might call modern slavery. Although nominally paid, they were bound to repay extortionate fees for their passage. Some survived and even did well, but many were treated badly. Some escaped and became Gaelic-speaking hobos on the Canadian railroads.
Doli spoke only Gaelic until she went to school, where the language of instruction was English. “My support for Scottish independence goes beyond party politics,” she explains. “It comes from that sense of unfairness, of bullying by the Westminster government that I felt in my childhood.”
Have things got better for the Western Isles since we got a Scottish Parliament? Half of the land area is now in community ownership and the island recently voted to support buying the Bays of Harris estate.
“LAND reform is very positive for the area. I see a lot of great things happening. But I am impatient for Scotland to become an independent country – that is what we need to build a better country.”
You first became known in the 1960s as a Gaelic singer – can you tell us about that?
“WHEN I started singing Gaelic songs in the pubs and clubs, it was new. Gaelic was usually heard only at the Mod, or in the folk clubs. I also sang accompanied by a guitar, played by Robin Gray, and that was unusual too. I sang the songs I had learned as a child.”
It did not always go down well – “I was mocked for singing in Gaelic.” But Doli persisted, and some were inspired to learn the language, including Allan Macartney, linguist, internationalist and later SNP MEP. Doli helped set up a group called The Heretics in 1970. “We wanted to create a sense of excitement around Scots and Gaelic culture.”
What would you like to see more of in culture today?
“I WOULD like to see more collaborations between our national companies and the diverse cultures of Scotland. An example would be the show I did with Scottish Ballet.”
An Clo-Mor (the big cloth) opened in Glasgow Citizen’s Theatre in 1972 and toured. Dancers drew skeins of cloth representing the sea around a man who turns out to be the ghost of a shipwrecked sailor. Doli recalls: “The girls danced around him singing: ‘Caite ‘n bidh na maraichean’ – ‘Where will the fisherman be, where will the seamen be, when the wind is blowing? Dancing with the girls in the white houses of Lerwick’”.
You were in 7:84’s iconic The Cheviot, The Stag And The Black, Black Oil – which had its first performance in April 1973, 50 years ago next year “FOR almost a year, we toured Scotland on a shoestring: We rolled up the gaffa tape on a pencil each night to use it again. We travelled with pots and pans and I took £5 from everyone each Thursday to feed them for the week.”
The cast doubled as a band – The Force Ten Gaels. Every performance was followed by a ceilidh. Village halls and city theatres were packed and everyone from tiny children to the oldest pensioners would stay on for the songs, stories and the dancing that followed the show.
The story of the Highland Clearances was not officially acknowledged back then. “That was powerful,” Doli points out. “The other message of the Cheviot was that, here was oil and that had to be different – it should be seen an opportunity to benefit the whole community. But that didn’t happen.”
Do you think its success had any political influence?
“YES. It connected people, it brought them together and it made them feel they were strong enough to demand change. I don’t think it was an accident that the following year, 11 SNP MPs were elected to Westminster.”
What do you think we can learn from that today?
“IT is important to understand the diverse cultures of Scotland and to support them. Culture leads politics. It has a vital role in building the capacity and the confidence we need to create an independent Scotland.”
