Finlay J. MacDonald

Finlay John Macdonald was a Scottish journalist and radio and television producer and writer.

Career

Born and raised on Harris in the Outer Hebrides, MacDonald was a native Gaelic language speaker and an important figure in Gaelic broadcasting in Scotland. He founded the Gaelic Drama Association and co-founded the quarterly Gaelic language magazine Gairm in 1951 with Derick Thomson. MacDonald served as Gairm's chief editor until 1964.
MacDonald was a radio and television producer. His production for radio of Sydney Goodsir Smith's play, The Wallace, was broadcast on 30 November 1959.
MacDonald edited A Journey to the Western Isles, in which he retraced the 1773 tour of Scotland by Samuel Johnson and James Boswell. The book provided the text of Johnson's A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland along with MacDonald's commentary and photographs.

Memoirs

He wrote three books of memoirs that recall his childhood on Harris:Crowdie and Cream Crotal and White The Corncrake and the Lysander.
These have been cited as providing valuable insights into life in the Outer Hebrides in the interwar period.