CLAN DONALD AN INTRODUCTORY HISTORY
by Noman H. MacDonald, F. R. S.A., F.S.A.Scot.
(Historian to the High Council of Chiefs of Clan Donald)
"Ceannas Ghaidheal do Chlann. Cholla, 's còir fhogradh" - (The sovereignty of the Gael to Clan Colla, it is right to proclaim it); so wrote the bard, O'Henna in bus poem on John of lsla, last Lord of the Isles.
Clan DonaId was indisputably the largest and most renowned of all the Highland clans of Scotland controlling, at one time, virtually the whole western seaboard from the Butt of Lewis in the north to the MuIl of Kintyre in the south, almost a third of the Kingdom, with possessions in Northern Ireland as weIl.
The Clan claims descent from Conn of the Hundred Battles, Ard-Righ or High-King of Ireland in the 1st century A.D., through Colla Uais, the first of the family to settle in what is now the Hebrides, and from whom the Clan took its earlier designation of "Clann Cholla" i. e. the Children of Coll, down to Somerled, Lord of Argyll, in the 12th century who, after defeating the Norsemen, was proclaimed King of the Isles, Righ Innsegall, or Rex Insularum. Somerled's grandson, Donald of Isla(y) is the progenitor of CLAN DONALD, in Gaelic rendered Clann Dhomhnaill, i.e. the Children of Donald.
Donald had, among other children, two sons, Angus Mór and Alasdair or Alexander. Mór means in Gaelic, Big of Great. From Alasdair are descended the CLAN ALISTER or MACALISTERS OF LOUP in Kintyre. Angus Mór had three sons, Alasdair Òg, Angus Òg and John Sprangach. Òg means young and Sprangach means Bold.
Alasdair Òg chose to serve the English after the deposition of John Balliol, King of Scots, by Edward I of England and was killed in 1299 in a battle with his distant cousin, Alexander MacDougall of Argyll and Lorn, with whom he had been at feud. Angus Òg joined forces with Robert the Bruce, whom he is said to have sheltered in the Castle of Dunaverty in Kintyre and later played a vital part with his followers in Bruce's signal victory over the mighty army of Edward II of England at Bannockburn, on Midsummers's Day, 1314*- Scotland's finest hour! For his loyal services to his King and Country, Angus received from the grateful monarch many of the vast territories in the Western Highlands and Isles formerly held by the Comyns and MacDougalls, who were forfeited for their opposition to The Bruce.
By the addition of these lands to those already in his possession, Angus became the most important and powerful magnate in Argyll and the Isles south of Ardnamurchan Point.
From John, or Iain Sprangach are descended the CLAN IAIN (MacDONALDS or MacIAINS) OF ARDNAMURCHAN. (* 24th June)
