Micí Mac Gabhann

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Micí Mac Gabhann (November 22, 1865 Cloughaneely, County Donegal, Ireland - November 29, 1948) was a seanchaí and memoirist from the County Donegal Gaeltacht.[1] His posthumously published memoir Rotha Mór an tSaoil (1959) was dictated to his folklorist son-in law Seán Ó hEochaidh and translated into English by Valentin Iremonger as The Hard Road to Klondike (1962). It describes his life as an Irish-speaking labourer in the Scottish Lowlands and in the silver mines in Butte, Montana. He also vividly describes his experiences in the Klondike gold rush. After his return to Donegal in 1901, he used his goldmining fortune to purchase the estate which had formerly belonged to the Anglo-Irish gentry and raised a family there.[2]

Legacy

A bronze sculpture, The Hiring Fair, by artist Maurice Harron is inspired in part by the book.[3] In 2002, his "St. Patrick’s Day in the Klondike" was read in Irish, Welsh, and English at Cardiff, for the St. Patrick’s Day Ceremony of Remembrance and Reflection, at the Wales National Great Famine Memorial, Cathays Cemetery.[4] A culture night was held at his house, near Magheraroarty, in September 2013.[5]

References

  1. ↑ "Mici Mac Gabhann (1865 - 1948): Gold prospector". The Dictionary of Ulster Biography. 2013. Retrieved 2013-11-24. 
  2. ↑ Micheal MacGowan, The Hard Road to Klondike, Routledge and Kegan Paul Limited, 1962. ISBN 9781848899643
  3. ↑ "Hiring Fair". Ask About Ireland. Retrieved 2013-11-24. 
  4. ↑ "Cardiff, Sunday 17 March, 2002 – St. Patrick’s Day: Ceremony of Remembrance and Reflection". Retrieved 2013-11-24. 
  5. ↑ "“Heritage of an Emigrant’s Home” event in Magheroarty". Donegal Democrat. 2013-09-19. Retrieved 2013-11-24. 

External links


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