Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/MacIntyre, Duncan Ban
MACINTYRE, DUNCAN BAN (1724–1812), Gaelic poet, 'Donnacha ban nan Oran, fair-haired Duncan of the songs,' was born of humble parents at Druimliaghart of Glenorchy, Argyllshire, on 20 March 1724. He belonged to the numerous race of 'the Carpenters,' the 'Clann an t'saoir,' prevalent in that district of the western highlands, and like others fell under the predominating influence of the Campbells, who had gradually made themselves lords of the soil in those regions. Duncan spent his youth in the sports of the moor and the river until 1745, when the Young Chevalier ('Tearlach MacSheumais ) arrived in the highlands. Whatever his private predilections, Maclntyre, under the pressure of the chief of the district, John Campbell, second earl of Breadalbane, undertook, for the sum of three hundred marks Scots (16l. 17s. 6d.), to join the forces of the Hanoverian government as substitute for one Fletcher, a neighbour. Fletcher equipped him with his own sword for the muster made by Colonel Campbell of Carwhin, and the poet took part in the battle of Falkirk, 17 Jan. 1746. But he returned from it without his sword, and Fletcher declined to pay him his bounty. Maclntyre embodied his feelings in a poem on the battle ('Blar na h'Eaglaise-Brice'), in which, besides giving an animated account of the fray, he bewailed his mishap with 'the sword of the chief of Clan-an-Leisdeir, the jagged sword of misfortune, without point or edge.' A second poem on the same subject was so Jacobite in its feeling that it was suppressed in three of the early editions of his works. Fletcher resorted to personal violence in his anger at the poet's strictures, but was compelled by the Earl of Breadalbane to pay Maclntyre his fee. The earl also made MacIntyre his forester on Ben Ddran and Coille-Cheathaich. To this act of bounty, and to similar congenial employment under Archibald Campbell, third duke of Argyll [q. v.] in Buachaill-Eite, we owe some of MacIntyre's happiest inspirations. His poems on 'Beinn-adrain' and 'Coirecheathaich,' of which spirited English versions have been composed by Professor Blackie and Mr. Robert Buchanan, stand almost alone in their vivid descriptions of highland scenery. The former is instinct, to use the words of John Campbell Shairp, with 'the clear mountain gladness that sounds in his strain,' and is framed in a spirited and varied measure, corresponding, like the 'Moladh Moraig' of Aksdair Macdonald [see Macdonald, Alexander, 1700?-1780?], with the customary changes of the 'piobaireachd,' in slow and quick time. For the habits and haunts of the deer and the blackcock the poet had the eye of a painter and the feeling of a sportsman. In 'Coire-cheathaich' his command of mellifluous assonance is associated with the same insight into nature. The picture of the redbreast, for instance, rejoicing 'le mdran uinich,' 'with bustling self-importance,' is admirable.
During his life as a forester MacIntyre travelled through the highlands seeking subscribers to the first edition of his poems, published in 1768. He afterwards served (1793-1799) in the Earl of Breadalbane's fencibles, in which he attained the rank of sergeant. When the regiment was disbanded, in 1799, he joined the city guard of Edinburgh, and acted apparently in the capacity of cook. His wife, the 'Mairi ban og' of one of his happiest love-poems, had charge of the canteen. From 1806 until his death the bard was able to live, upon the produce of his verses, which then, as now, were highly prized by the Gael. He died at Edinburgh in October 1812. He was buried in Greyfriars churchyard. In 1859 a monument was erected to him, under Celtic and masonic auspices, on the Beacon Hill of Breadalbane, near Dalmally.
Besides the works mentioned Maclntyre was the author of numerous love-songs, lyrical and satirical pieces, and a succession of annual prize poems for the Highland Society, 1781-9. The 'Lament for Colin of Glenure,' a gentleman of the Campbell family, who, being receiver on the forfeited Lochiel estate, fell a victim to an unseen assassin, is a fine elegy. His onslaught on John Wilkes, whom he calls 'Faochag,' or 'whelk,' shows plenty of loyalty and vituperative power, and his 'Last Farewell to the Hills, composed at the age of seventy-eight, indicates his ardent love of his highland home and the tenacity of his genius. Education in the sense of instruction MacIntyre had none. He could not write nor could he speak English, but it is said he could repeat all his poems, to the amount of some seven thousand verses. Three editions of his works were published in his lifetime, in 1768, 1790, and 1804, all at Edinburgh. A tenth edition, in 1887, was published in the same city.
[Mackenzie's Sar-Obair nam Bard Gaelach; Reid's Bibl. Scoto-Celtica; Blackie's Language and Literature of the Highlands.]