Concept
Calum Iain Maclean (Scottish Gaelic: Calum Iain MacGillEathain; 6 September 1915 – 17 August 1960), was a Scottish folklorist, collector, ethnographer and author. Maclean was born in Òsgaig, Isle of Raasay, Scotland, into a family of five boys and two girls. His father was Malcolm MacLean (1880–1951), who was a tailor. His mother, Kirsty (1886–1974), was the daughter of Sorley Mor Nicolson of Braes, Skye, and his wife, Ishabel. Maclean's four brothers were the famous Gaelic poet and scholar, Sorley MacLean [Somhairle MacGill-Eain] (1911–1996), a schoolmaster and classicist, John Maclean (1910–1970), and two general practitioners, Dr. Alasdair Maclean (1918–1999), and Dr. Norman Maclean (c.1917-c.1980). Alasdair was also a historian. Ishabel and Mary, his sisters, were also schoolteachers. Maclean received his early education at Raasay Primary School and then Portree High School (1929–1935), Skye. Maclean then went to the University of Edinburgh (1935–1939) where he took a first in Celtic Studies under the tutelage of two famous Gaelic scholars, Professor William J. Watson (1865–1948), and his son Professor James Carmichael Watson (1910–1942). He won the McCaig and Macpherson scholarships which enabled him to enrol at University College Dublin where he undertook further study in Early Irish under Professor Osborn Bergin (1872–1950) and in Medieval and Modern Welsh under Professor J. Lloyd-Jones (1885–1965). At the outbreak of the Second World War, Maclean's studies came to a temporary halt and he had to cast around for some other means of livelihood. At first he worked in a factory in Clonmel, County Tipperary, and from there he went to stay in Inverin, just west of Galway City in Connemara. While living there, Maclean began to take an interest in the local Irish folklore, inspired by the Gaelic revival and the writings of Douglas Hyde (1860–1949). With relative ease Maclean acquired a particular skill in the Connaught Irish spoken in the Gaeltacht and was appointed by Professor Séamus Ó Duilearga (1899–1980) as a part-time collector for the Irish Folklore Commission (Coimisiún Béaloideasa Éireann).
