Aohghas MacNeacail

Aonghas MacNeacail was a poet, journalist, broadcaster and scriptwriter who worked in both English and Gaelic. Raised in Uig, on the Isle of Skye, he wrote poetry in English without much success until a course in Higher Gaelic, at Glasgow’s Langside College, introduced him to the work of writers such as Sorley MacLean, Iain Crichton Smith and Donald MacAulay.

His poetry won a number of prizes, including the Stakis Prize for Scottish Writer of the Year for his collection Oideachadh Ceart (A Proper Schooling) and a National Mod Literary Prize for An Cathadh Mor (The Great Snowbattle). MacNeacail wrote for radio and television, including STV’s Gaelic-language soap Machair, and feature film Seachd: The Inaccessible Pinnacle. He also collaborated on a number of musical projects, including as librettist for two operas.

Aonghas MacNeacail was sometimes nicknamed Aonghas Dubh – ‘Black Angus’. He lives near Edinburgh.