[Dòmhnall Moireasdan] Iain Moireach, sgrìobhadair, foghlamaiche, craoladair, oifigear comhairle aon dhan robh an saoghal agus nàdar de dh’fheallsanaiche anns an fharsaingeachd ’s dòcha. Fàilte oirbh, Iain.
[Dòmhnall Moireasdan] Tha mi a’ leughadh eachdraidh ur beatha agus a’ cur a-mach liosta dhe na diofar rudan a tha sibh air a dhèanamh agus tha iad cho eadar-dhealaichte, ach tha aon rud ’s dòcha a tha a’ bualadh orra uile, nach eil? ’S e sin tha iad freumaichte anns a’ choimhearsnachd.
[Iain Moireach] Tha. Tha, uill, bha ceangal ris a’ choimhearsnachd, bha sin glè chudromach dhan teaghlach dhan rugadh mi. Dh’fheumadh iad an ceanglaichean fhèin a dhèanamh ris a’ choimhearsnachd, air leth bho chàch, eadar-dhealaichte bho chàch, oir b’ e Canàdanach, ’s e Canadian veteran, a bha nam athair agus b’ e boireannach à Asainte a bha na mo mhàthair so bha dà adhbhar gu tur eadar-dhealaichte aca airson a bhith a’ dèanamh an lìbhrigidh fhèin mar chàraid phòsta agus mar dhithis fa leth ris a’ choimhearsnachd.
[Dòmhnall Moireasdan] A bheil thu ag ràdh gun robh thu mothachail air gun robh sibh eadar-dhealaichte?
[Iain Moireach] Bha.
[Dòmhnall Moireasdan] Bhon choimhearsnachd?
[Iain Moireach] Tha mise a’ smaoineachadh gun do mhothaich, gun robh mise mothachail air mus deach mi dhan bhun-sgoil oir bha mo bhràithrean mothachail air agus bha sinn dìreach mothachail gun robh ar pàrantan beagan eadar-dhealaichte bho phàrantan càich.
[Dòmhnall Moireasdan] Ann an Leòdhas?
[Iain Moireach] Ann an Leòdhas. Chan e gun robh iad càil na b’ fheàrr na pàrantan chàich ach gun robh iad eadar-dhealaichte.
[Dòmhnall Moireasdan] Nise, ’s e sgrìobhaiche , no “sgrìobhadair”, chan eil fhios agamsa dè an t-eadar-dhealachadh a tha eadar “sgrìobhaiche” agus “sgrìobhadair”!
[Iain Moireach] Chan eil no agam fhèin.
[Dòmhnall Moireasdan] Bidh sibh a’ sgrìobhadh co-dhiù. ’S e sin prìomh, ’s dòcha, ìomhaigh Iain Mhoirich agus tha sin fhèin freumaichte anns a’ choimhearsnachd, nach eil?
[Iain Moireach] ’S e. ’S e sin a chanas a’ mhòr- chuid de dhaoine. Anns a’ bhaile agam fhìn, na daoine a bu shine a bha aig an aon aois a tha mi fhìn an-diugh, nuair a choinnicheadh iad rium air an t-sràid bhiodh iad a’ gaireachdainn agus a’ dèanamh beagan macaidh mar a shaoilicheadh tu ann an coimhearsnachd den t-seòrsa ud agus bhiodh iad ag ràdh “eil thu a’ sgrìobhadh nam breugan a tha siud a-rithist?” agus facail den t-seòrsa sin. Ach cha robh tòrr diofair leamsa iad a bhith ag ràdh sin oir cha robh iad ach a’ tarraing mo chois co-dhiù.
[Dòmhnall Moireasdan] An dùil an robh iad a’ leughadh nam breugan a bha sibh a’ sgrìobhadh?
[Iain Moireach] Cha chreid mi gun robh iad a’ leughadh. Cha robh iad a’ ceannach leabhraichean agus cha robh iad a’ leughadh mar sin.
[Dòmhnall Moireasdan] Agus bha sin annasach, nach robh, oir a’ dol air ais iomadach bliadhna dhan àm sin bha daoine gur seòrsa fhèin a bha a’ sgrìobhadh air fhaicinn mar rud beag annasach anns a’ choimhearsnachd ach a dh’aindeoin sin ’s ann anns a’ choimhearsnachd a bha stuth sgrìobhaidh a’ tighinn.
[Iain Moireach] Uill ’s e an rud, aig an àm a bha mise a’ sgrìobhadh bha mi a’ sgrìobhadh sgeulachdan agus glè thric bha iad gan togail leis a’ BhBC so bha iad air an craobh-sgaoileadh agus bha daoine gan cluinntinn ged nach robh iad gan leughadh agus tha mi a’ smaoineachadh tha sin a’ fosgladh cuspair eile, ’s dòcha, a thig an-àird a-rithist nuair a bhios sinn a’ bruidhinn air taobh eile den sgrìobhadh agam ann an dràma.
[Dòmhnall Moireasdan] Uill gu dearbha thèid sinn a bhruidhinn air dràma agus sgeulachd ghoirid ’s eile, ach mus gluais mi air adhart, Iain, an-dràsta dìreach facal eile mu sgrìobhadh. Dè an ìomhaigh a th’ agaibh dhiubh fhèin mar sgrìobhadair? Tha fhios a’m gu bheil sibh gur faicinn fhèin mar sgrìobhadair ach chan eil saoghal bràth de stuth agaibh air a sgrìobhadh. Tha e nas doimhne na tha e farsaing, saoil a bheil?
[Iain Moireach] Tha mi a’ smaoineachadh an dòigh a tha mise a’ coimhead orm fhìn ’s ann mar dhuine a tha air beagan sgrìobhaidh a dhèanamh na bheatha agus nach eil càil a choltas, mur h-eil tòrr mòr bhliadhnaichean romham fhathast agus gun tòisich m’ inntinn a’ fàs nas fheàrr na tha i, chan eil tòrr coltas gum bi gin a leabhraichean air falach ann am wardrobes aig cuideigin agus iad ag ràdh ann an ceann deich bliadhnaichean “ò uill ’s urrainn dhomh a-nise innse dhan t-saoghal gun do sgrìobh Iain Moireach trì deug nobhailean ’s gu bheil e aige ann am wardrobe ann am Barbhas”. Uill chan eil ’s cha robh ’s cha bhi!
Chaidh am prògram seo, Thuige Seo, a chraoladh an toiseach ann an 2010.
[Donald Morrison] Iain Murray, writer, educator, council officer once upon a time and a kind of philosopher in general perhaps. Welcome, Iain.
[Donald Morrison] I am reading your life history and reciting a list of the different things that you have done and they are so different, but there is one thing perhaps that affects them all, isn’t there? That is that they are rooted in the community.
[Iain Murray] They are. There is, well, a connection with the community was, that was very important to the family into which I was born. They had to make their own connections with the community, separate from others, different from others, because my father was a Canadian, a Canadian veteran, and my mother was a woman from Assynt so they had two completely different reasons to carry themselves in the community as a married couple and as two individual people.
[Donald Morrison] Are you saying that you were aware that you were different?
[Iain Murray] I am.
[Donald Morrison] From rom the community?
[Iain Murray] I think that [I] noticed, that I was aware before I went to primary school because my brothers were aware of it and we were just aware that our parents were a little different from others’ parents.
[Donald Morrison] In Lewis.
[Iain Murray] In Lewis. Not that they were any better than others’ parents but that they were different.
[Donald Morrison] Now you are a writer, I don’t know that different between “sgrìobhaiche” and “sgrìobhadair”!
[Iain Murray] Neither do I, myself.
[Donald Morrison] You write anyway. That is the main, perhaps, image of Iain Murray and that itself is rooted in the community, isn’t it?
[Iain Murray] It is. That is what most people say. In my own village, the eldest people that were at that time the age that I myself am today, when they would meet me on the street they would laugh and mock a little as you would expect in a community of that sort and they would say “are you writing those lies again?” and words of that sort. But it didn’t bother me that they said that because they were only pulling my leg anyway.
[Donald Morrison] I wonder if they were reading the lies that you were writing?
[Iain Murray] I don’t think that they read. They didn’t buy books and they didn’t read as such.
[Donald Morrison] And that was unusual, wasn’t it, because going back many years to that time people of your own sort that wrote were seen as a little bit unusual in the community but despite that it was from the community that the writing material came.
[Iain Murray] Well the thing is ... at the time that I was writing I was writing stories and very often they were picked up by the BBC so they were broadcast and people heard them although they didn’t read them and I think that opens another subject, perhaps, that will come up again when we speak about another side of my writing in drama.
[Donald Morrison] Well certainly we will go on to speak about drama and short story and other, but before I move forward, Iain, just now just another word about writing. What image do you have of yourself as a writer? I know that you see yourself as a writer but you don’t have a world of stuff of written material. It is deeper than it is wide, would you think?
[Iain Murray] I think the way that I look at myself is as a person who has done a little writing in his life and there is no sign, unless there are a great number of years ahead of me yet and my mind starts getting better than it is, there is not much sign that there will be any books hidden in someone’s wardrobes and that they will say in ten years “oh well I can now tell the world that Iain Murray wrote thirteen novels and he has them in a wardrobe in Barvas”. Well there isn’t and there wasn’t and there won’t be.
This programme, Thuige Seo, was first broadcast in 2010.
[Dòmhnall Moireasdan] Iain Moireach, sgrìobhadair, foghlamaiche, craoladair, oifigear comhairle aon dhan robh an saoghal agus nàdar de dh’fheallsanaiche anns an fharsaingeachd ’s dòcha. Fàilte oirbh, Iain.
[Dòmhnall Moireasdan] Tha mi a’ leughadh eachdraidh ur beatha agus a’ cur a-mach liosta dhe na diofar rudan a tha sibh air a dhèanamh agus tha iad cho eadar-dhealaichte, ach tha aon rud ’s dòcha a tha a’ bualadh orra uile, nach eil? ’S e sin tha iad freumaichte anns a’ choimhearsnachd.
[Iain Moireach] Tha. Tha, uill, bha ceangal ris a’ choimhearsnachd, bha sin glè chudromach dhan teaghlach dhan rugadh mi. Dh’fheumadh iad an ceanglaichean fhèin a dhèanamh ris a’ choimhearsnachd, air leth bho chàch, eadar-dhealaichte bho chàch, oir b’ e Canàdanach, ’s e Canadian veteran, a bha nam athair agus b’ e boireannach à Asainte a bha na mo mhàthair so bha dà adhbhar gu tur eadar-dhealaichte aca airson a bhith a’ dèanamh an lìbhrigidh fhèin mar chàraid phòsta agus mar dhithis fa leth ris a’ choimhearsnachd.
[Dòmhnall Moireasdan] A bheil thu ag ràdh gun robh thu mothachail air gun robh sibh eadar-dhealaichte?
[Iain Moireach] Bha.
[Dòmhnall Moireasdan] Bhon choimhearsnachd?
[Iain Moireach] Tha mise a’ smaoineachadh gun do mhothaich, gun robh mise mothachail air mus deach mi dhan bhun-sgoil oir bha mo bhràithrean mothachail air agus bha sinn dìreach mothachail gun robh ar pàrantan beagan eadar-dhealaichte bho phàrantan càich.
[Dòmhnall Moireasdan] Ann an Leòdhas?
[Iain Moireach] Ann an Leòdhas. Chan e gun robh iad càil na b’ fheàrr na pàrantan chàich ach gun robh iad eadar-dhealaichte.
[Dòmhnall Moireasdan] Nise, ’s e sgrìobhaiche , no “sgrìobhadair”, chan eil fhios agamsa dè an t-eadar-dhealachadh a tha eadar “sgrìobhaiche” agus “sgrìobhadair”!
[Iain Moireach] Chan eil no agam fhèin.
[Dòmhnall Moireasdan] Bidh sibh a’ sgrìobhadh co-dhiù. ’S e sin prìomh, ’s dòcha, ìomhaigh Iain Mhoirich agus tha sin fhèin freumaichte anns a’ choimhearsnachd, nach eil?
[Iain Moireach] ’S e. ’S e sin a chanas a’ mhòr- chuid de dhaoine. Anns a’ bhaile agam fhìn, na daoine a bu shine a bha aig an aon aois a tha mi fhìn an-diugh, nuair a choinnicheadh iad rium air an t-sràid bhiodh iad a’ gaireachdainn agus a’ dèanamh beagan macaidh mar a shaoilicheadh tu ann an coimhearsnachd den t-seòrsa ud agus bhiodh iad ag ràdh “eil thu a’ sgrìobhadh nam breugan a tha siud a-rithist?” agus facail den t-seòrsa sin. Ach cha robh tòrr diofair leamsa iad a bhith ag ràdh sin oir cha robh iad ach a’ tarraing mo chois co-dhiù.
[Dòmhnall Moireasdan] An dùil an robh iad a’ leughadh nam breugan a bha sibh a’ sgrìobhadh?
[Iain Moireach] Cha chreid mi gun robh iad a’ leughadh. Cha robh iad a’ ceannach leabhraichean agus cha robh iad a’ leughadh mar sin.
[Dòmhnall Moireasdan] Agus bha sin annasach, nach robh, oir a’ dol air ais iomadach bliadhna dhan àm sin bha daoine gur seòrsa fhèin a bha a’ sgrìobhadh air fhaicinn mar rud beag annasach anns a’ choimhearsnachd ach a dh’aindeoin sin ’s ann anns a’ choimhearsnachd a bha stuth sgrìobhaidh a’ tighinn.
[Iain Moireach] Uill ’s e an rud, aig an àm a bha mise a’ sgrìobhadh bha mi a’ sgrìobhadh sgeulachdan agus glè thric bha iad gan togail leis a’ BhBC so bha iad air an craobh-sgaoileadh agus bha daoine gan cluinntinn ged nach robh iad gan leughadh agus tha mi a’ smaoineachadh tha sin a’ fosgladh cuspair eile, ’s dòcha, a thig an-àird a-rithist nuair a bhios sinn a’ bruidhinn air taobh eile den sgrìobhadh agam ann an dràma.
[Dòmhnall Moireasdan] Uill gu dearbha thèid sinn a bhruidhinn air dràma agus sgeulachd ghoirid ’s eile, ach mus gluais mi air adhart, Iain, an-dràsta dìreach facal eile mu sgrìobhadh. Dè an ìomhaigh a th’ agaibh dhiubh fhèin mar sgrìobhadair? Tha fhios a’m gu bheil sibh gur faicinn fhèin mar sgrìobhadair ach chan eil saoghal bràth de stuth agaibh air a sgrìobhadh. Tha e nas doimhne na tha e farsaing, saoil a bheil?
[Iain Moireach] Tha mi a’ smaoineachadh an dòigh a tha mise a’ coimhead orm fhìn ’s ann mar dhuine a tha air beagan sgrìobhaidh a dhèanamh na bheatha agus nach eil càil a choltas, mur h-eil tòrr mòr bhliadhnaichean romham fhathast agus gun tòisich m’ inntinn a’ fàs nas fheàrr na tha i, chan eil tòrr coltas gum bi gin a leabhraichean air falach ann am wardrobes aig cuideigin agus iad ag ràdh ann an ceann deich bliadhnaichean “ò uill ’s urrainn dhomh a-nise innse dhan t-saoghal gun do sgrìobh Iain Moireach trì deug nobhailean ’s gu bheil e aige ann am wardrobe ann am Barbhas”. Uill chan eil ’s cha robh ’s cha bhi!
Chaidh am prògram seo, Thuige Seo, a chraoladh an toiseach ann an 2010.
[Donald Morrison] Iain Murray, writer, educator, council officer once upon a time and a kind of philosopher in general perhaps. Welcome, Iain.
[Donald Morrison] I am reading your life history and reciting a list of the different things that you have done and they are so different, but there is one thing perhaps that affects them all, isn’t there? That is that they are rooted in the community.
[Iain Murray] They are. There is, well, a connection with the community was, that was very important to the family into which I was born. They had to make their own connections with the community, separate from others, different from others, because my father was a Canadian, a Canadian veteran, and my mother was a woman from Assynt so they had two completely different reasons to carry themselves in the community as a married couple and as two individual people.
[Donald Morrison] Are you saying that you were aware that you were different?
[Iain Murray] I am.
[Donald Morrison] From rom the community?
[Iain Murray] I think that [I] noticed, that I was aware before I went to primary school because my brothers were aware of it and we were just aware that our parents were a little different from others’ parents.
[Donald Morrison] In Lewis.
[Iain Murray] In Lewis. Not that they were any better than others’ parents but that they were different.
[Donald Morrison] Now you are a writer, I don’t know that different between “sgrìobhaiche” and “sgrìobhadair”!
[Iain Murray] Neither do I, myself.
[Donald Morrison] You write anyway. That is the main, perhaps, image of Iain Murray and that itself is rooted in the community, isn’t it?
[Iain Murray] It is. That is what most people say. In my own village, the eldest people that were at that time the age that I myself am today, when they would meet me on the street they would laugh and mock a little as you would expect in a community of that sort and they would say “are you writing those lies again?” and words of that sort. But it didn’t bother me that they said that because they were only pulling my leg anyway.
[Donald Morrison] I wonder if they were reading the lies that you were writing?
[Iain Murray] I don’t think that they read. They didn’t buy books and they didn’t read as such.
[Donald Morrison] And that was unusual, wasn’t it, because going back many years to that time people of your own sort that wrote were seen as a little bit unusual in the community but despite that it was from the community that the writing material came.
[Iain Murray] Well the thing is ... at the time that I was writing I was writing stories and very often they were picked up by the BBC so they were broadcast and people heard them although they didn’t read them and I think that opens another subject, perhaps, that will come up again when we speak about another side of my writing in drama.
[Donald Morrison] Well certainly we will go on to speak about drama and short story and other, but before I move forward, Iain, just now just another word about writing. What image do you have of yourself as a writer? I know that you see yourself as a writer but you don’t have a world of stuff of written material. It is deeper than it is wide, would you think?
[Iain Murray] I think the way that I look at myself is as a person who has done a little writing in his life and there is no sign, unless there are a great number of years ahead of me yet and my mind starts getting better than it is, there is not much sign that there will be any books hidden in someone’s wardrobes and that they will say in ten years “oh well I can now tell the world that Iain Murray wrote thirteen novels and he has them in a wardrobe in Barvas”. Well there isn’t and there wasn’t and there won’t be.
This programme, Thuige Seo, was first broadcast in 2010.