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 Press
Gangs |
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Press
Gangs
Balaich a’ Chnuic Ard
Recently I spent a most enjoyable afternoon in the company of
Calum Ferguson and his wife Sandra and, with the ‘lilting
voice of a sennachie’, Calum entertained us all afternoon
with stories in both Gaelic and English.
One of the stories he told us took us to the Cnoc Ard in Ness
and to a story that he had first heard more than sixty years
ago - a story that he never forgot.
Calum’s great, great grandfather was Murchadh Bàn,
one of the first pioneers from the West-side of Lewis, who had
left from Galson in 1824, along with his brother Donald and
set up home in Portvoller, Point. Seven families had left Galson
at that time and the seven bread winners from these families
made up the crew of a fishing boat, which was involved in exploiting
the rich fisheries of the Loch a Tuath.
During the Second World War the youngster, Calum Ferguson, stayed
next door to his grand aunt Anna, his grandmother’s sister,
and for Calum, listening to stories from Anna was much more
interesting than listening to the radio.
This particular story, told to him by Anna, concerned a Galson
family, which consisted of girls and at least two boys. One
day the father told his nineteen year old son, who was very
shy, “It’s time for you to find a wife and get married.
We need extra hands to help with the croft work and with the
fishing.” Having assured his father that none of the girls
in the village took his fancy, he was instructed to go to the
Cnoc Ard in Ness. The father knew of a family there and in the
family there were three, beautiful, eligible daughters and maybe
one of these would agree to be his wife.
The following morning the nineteen year old, accompanied by
his ten year old brother, set off for the Cnoc Ard. The younger
lad, apparently, had an eye for picking out the best sheep from
a flock and the older boy thought this ‘gift’ would
be very useful in helping him to choose a wife. They found the
house without too much difficulty. It was a fine summer’s
day and, as they entered the house, the family, including the
three beautiful girls, was about to have their midday meal.
The boys were invited to partake of the food, but they refused
and, having had enough time to form an opinion on the daughters,
they moved on to the house next door, where they were given
a meal of potatoes and herring.
During the course of the afternoon they walked through the village.
They discussed the beautiful girls, came to a decision as to
the one they thought was most suitable and decided on a plan
of action. They would stay overnight in the village and in the
morning the nineteen year old would tell the father of his interest
in one particular daughter. Returning to the house in which
they had eaten, they were made very welcome and invited to stay
the night, sleeping on the straw in the barn. But their sleep
was rudely interrupted.
In the dead of the night the boys were awakened and frightened
by a very loud bang. The ten year old jumped to his feet, rushed
to the winnowing hole in the barn wall and, on looking out,
he could scarcely believe what he saw. Men, armed with guns
and bayonets, were dragging the village men from their houses,
handling them in a most brutal manner and tying them by their
wrists to chains and ropes. Clearly a press gang had arrived
in the village. The women, distressed and screaming were trying
in vain to pull the men back, but they were no match for the
‘gang’. They were given the same rough treatment
as the men folk.
The boys realised that their only chance of escaping capture
was to hide under the straw and keep as quiet as possible. Soon
the house door burst open and, once the house was ransacked,
the soldiers then proceeded to the barn. With a few pokes of
their bayonets in the straw they soon found the two boys and
dragged them outside. They were not interested in the ten year
old and he was told to clear off, but the nineteen year old
was tied up and marched out of the village with the other men.
When Calum first heard the story from his great aunt Anna, she
was of the opinion that none of the men, press ganged from Cnoc
Ard that night ever came back. She finished the story by saying
that when the distraught young lad arrived home in Galson and
told his father of the events of the night, the broken hearted
father exclaimed with great feeling, “Mìle mallachd
air sionnaich an Rìgh a dh’fhalbh le m’uan.”
His hurt was deep. He had lost a dear son – a son who
would have been such a support to his aging father.
Iain Buidhe
Towards the end of the war, Calum Ferguson’s father worked
out of Stornoway as the second skipper on a converted trawler,
the minesweeper Walwonce Castle. Calum’s father became
very friendly with some of the crew and one of these was a Tolsta
man. One day when this Tolsta man was visiting in Portvoller,
Anna Mhòr told him the story of Balaich a Chnuic Ard.
He agreed that this was a true story. He had heard it before,
but he knew that one of these men had in fact come back and
that man was Iain Buidhe from the Cnoc Ard.
After teens of years, Iain Buidhe came back to the Cnoc Ard
in search of his family only to find the place more or less
deserted. On enquiring about his father’s whereabouts
he was directed to a bothy on a boggy piece of ground in Habost.
Furious that his father had been treated in this way he headed
for Habost and what a reunion that must have been! “I’m
going to get justice for you and for me and we are going to
get a piece of decent ground,” Iain insisted. Ignoring
his father’s protests not to go, Iain confronted the ground-officer,
the maor baile and put his request for ground to him. The maor
baile’s first reaction was to laugh at Iain Buidhe’s
request, but Iain was having none of it. He had given teens
of years of loyal service for His Majesty the King and he now
demanded justice for his family. Not only did he have proof
of his record of service, but he had come back with something
more powerful – the ability to speak English fluently.
Iain was now a confident, articulate English speaker. “If
you fail me, I’ll go to Lord Seaforth and if I still do
not get justice then I’m perfectly capable of going to
the Houses of Parliament in London and failing that I’ll
go the King”. Startled by Iain’s determination the
maor obviously thought hard about what Iain had said and came
back a week later offering land at Cùile Totair. Iain,
being the powerful character that he was, inspected this piece
of ground first and then agreed to take it.
He enclosed a few acres of land there and built a house where
he brought up his family. The ruins of his house are still at
Cùile Totair.
In Seanchas No.54 we published the poem Caoidh Caraid air Caraid,
a piece of bàrdachd composed by John Macdonald of No.
12 Tolsta, who was also known as Iain Buidhe, the Elder, following
the death of his best friend Iain mac Dhòmhnaill Oig
of No.10 Tolsta. This Iain Buidhe, was the soldier’s son
and was one of a family of three sons and four daughters, who
grew up at Cùile Totair.
The Iain Buidhe, who composed the bàrdachd, was my great
grandfather and I, like so many in Tolsta and Ness and indeed
throughout the world, am a direct descendant of the one soldier,
who, having been press-ganged into the army from the Cnoc Ard,
returned teens of years later to Lewis.
*I’m grateful to Calum Ferguson for giving me the information
for these two stories. Although my story-telling skills cannot
compare with Calum’s I trust that I have told the stories
accurately.
Donald Murray
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