Iain Eairdsidh MacAsgaill

Iain Eairdsidh MacAsgaill (19 February 1898 – 4 June 1934), alias the Bàrd Bheàrnaraigh ("the Bard of Berneray") was a Scottish World War I veteran of the King's Own Cameron Highlanders, a Western Australian bush poet in Scottish Gaelic, and a highly important figure in 20th-century Scottish Gaelic literature. He was also known as Iain Archie MacAskill and John Archie MacAskill. His Gaelic genealogical name was Iain-Eirdsidh Dhòmhnaill Thormoid-Shaighdeir ("John Archie son of Donald son of Norman the soldier."). he was the son of Dòmhnaill MacAsgaill (1873–1955) and Anna Chaluim Mhoireasdan. and began for the first time to versify in earnest.

His health broke and he was in debt. Against his will, his brother, Calum, came from Ontario to help him. Calum returned after two years, but Iain Eairdsidh's affairs only worsened.

The Great Depression made wheat farming unprofitable. MacAsgaill lost Borvedale, and had to earn his livelihood by working as a hired hand on another farm. Most of his Gaelic poems and songs were composed during this period, in which MacAsgaill suffered greatly from homesickness and bitterly regretted his decision to leave behind the happy life he had known in both Berneray and Glasgow. MacAsgaill had always been fond of drinking, but now that ceased to help him. At Dr. MacAsgaill's request, acclaimed bagpiper John D. Burgess visited the grave during a tour of Australia and played a lament for the deceased poet and piper.

After first reading her great-uncle's Australian poetry of homesickness during a Gaelic class held in Glasgow, Alina NicAsgaill Simpson took the initiative to repatriate MacAsgaill's remains to Berneray, Harris. Alina raised £6000 within six months and fulfilled her great-uncle's last wishes in 2010. Following a Reformed funeral in Gaelic which was attended by more than 40 relatives, MacAsgaill was laid to rest beside his parents.

In a subsequent interview with The Scotsman, Simpson revealed that the current owner of her great uncle's farm near Varley, Western Australia, Gary Struthers, had recently changed its name back to "Borvedale" in honor of the former owner of the land.

Publications 1961. An ribheid chiùil: being the poems of Iain Archie MacAskill 1898–1933, Bard of Berneray, Harris edited by Alick Morrison (Stirling: printed for the editor by Learmonth)

Writings about him Martin, Ruth Lee. 2013. 'Paradise Imagined: Songs of Scots Gaelic migrants in Australia, 1850–1940' ann an Humanities Research àir. XIX. No.3. 2013. dd. 27–44.

Songs "Eilean Bheàrnaraigh".