Pàdraig MacAoidh
Peter Mackay

Gaelic

Rugadh Pàdraig MacAoidh ann an Eilean Leòdhais far an deach a thogail le Gàidhlig agus Beurla. ’S e bàrd, òraidiche, sgrìobhadair, craoladair agus eadar-theangaidear a th’ ann a bhios a’ dèanamh ceangalan eadar dualchas na Gàidhlig agus litreachasan agus cultaran eadar-nàiseanta.

Fhuair e foghlam aig bun-sgoil Airidhantuim, sgoil Lionail agus sgoil MhicNeacail, agus rinn e MA aig Oilthigh Ghlaschu agus, an dèidh bliadhna a chur seachad ann am Barcelona, PhD aig Colaiste na Trianaide ann am Baile Àtha Chliath. Rè cùrsa a chuid obrach, tha e air dreuchdan a choileanadh aig Ionad Bàrdachd Séamus Heaney, Oilthigh na Banrighe Beul Feirste, aig Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, far an robh e na sgrìobhadair air mhuinntireas, agus mar neach-naidheachd agus riochdaire naidheachdan telebhisein don BhBC. Tha e a-nis a’ teagaisg litreachas aig Oilthigh Chill Rìmhinn.

Tha Pàdraig air leabhraichean a sgrìobhadh – air obair Shomhairle MhicGill-Eain (RIIS, 2010) agus This Strange Loneliness: Heaney’s Wordsworth (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2021), agus aistean air iomadh cuspair ann an litreachas na h-Alba agus na h-Èireann. Bha e na cho-dheasaiche a th’ ann cuideachd air dà leabhar de dh’ aistean – Sùil air an t-Saoghal agus Modern Irish and Scottish Poetry – agus trì duanairean: 100 Dàn as Fheàrr Leinn, The Golden Treasury of Scottish Verse agus An Leabhar Liath, a choisinn Duais Dhòmhnaill Meek agus duais Saltire airson an leabhar rannsachaidh as fhèarr dhen bhliadhna.

Nochd a chuid bàrdachd ann am pamflaid an tòiseach, From Another Island (Clutag Press, 2010), agus anns na leabhraichean Gu Leòr agus Nàdur de, air fhoillseachadh le Acair ann an 2015 agus 2020. Chaidh am bàrdachd aige eadar-theangachadh gu Albais, Beurla, Cuimris, Fraingis, Gaeilge, Gearmailtis, Masadonais, Ogsatainis, Seicis agus Slòbhacais, agus tha e air Duais Nový Sad ann an Serbia a bhuannaich.

Ann an 2024 chaidh ainmeachadh mar Makar na h-Alba, a’ gabhail an dreuchd thairis o Kathleen Jamie.

English

Peter Mackay, a native Gaelic speaker from the Isle of Lewis, is a poet, translator, broadcaster and academic, whose work is influenced by the linguistic heritage of his birthplace. 

His poetry first appeared in a pamphlet, From Another Island (Clutag Press, 2010) and the collections Gu Leòr / Galore (2015) and Nàdar de / Some Kind of (2020) were both published by Acair. Both poetry collections were shortlisted for the Saltire Scottish Poetry Book of the Year; Nàdar de was also longlisted for the Highland Book Prize. His work has been translated into Czech, French, German, Irish, Occitan, Macedonian, Scots, Serbian, Slovakian and Welsh. In 2023 he won the Nový Sad prize for literature, and in 2024 he became Scottish Makar, taking the post over from Kathleen Jamie.

Peter has an MA from Glasgow University and a PhD from Trinity College Dublin, Mackay has worked at the Seamus Heaney Centre for Poetry, Queen’s University Belfast, and at Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, where he was writer in residence: he lectures on literature at the University of St Andrews.

He has written widely on Scottish and Irish poetry, as well as co-editing collections of essays on modern Irish and Scottish poetry and on Scottish Gaelic literature. He is the author of two monographs: one on the work of Sorley MacLean (RIISS, 2010) and another entitled This Strange Loneliness: Heaney’s Wordsworth (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2021). With Iain S. MacPherson he edited an anthology of Scottish Gaelic love and ‘transgressive’ poetry, published by Luath Press in 2016, which won Saltire Scottish Research Book of the Year; he is also the co-editor, with Jo MacDonald, of 100 Dàn as Fheàrr Leinn / 100 Favourite Scottish Gaelic Poems and, with Don Paterson and Kathleen Jamie, of The Golden Treasury of Scottish Verse.

An AHRC / BBC Next Generation Thinker, he is a frequent broadcaster on Radio 3, Radio 4 and BBC Radio nan Gàidheal (and he previously worked as a journalist and television news producer for the BBC).