TODAY sees the inauguration of Donald Trump as 45th president of the United States of America. Alan MacGillivray watched last Sunday’s BBC Songs of Praise, which considered Trump’s Lewis roots. It prompted him to write the poem below about the influence a Lewis man might have on American politics. A Leodhasach is a person from Lewis; port-a-beul is unaccompanied Gaelic mouth music.
DONALD, HERE’S TO YOU, SIR
Och, it’s yourself, Donald.
Come away in-by and sit you down.
Man, it’s a real coarse evening out there.
The snow’s low down on the hill – there’ll be more
afore the morn’s morn, I’ll warrant you.
Warm yourself by the stove, get the chill
out of your bones. You’ll have a dram?
Aye, aye, a wee drop of the Talisker.
It’s no your Lewis craitur, but Skye’s near enough.
A wee bit ice? No, just a breath of mist then
to soften the blow. Slainte mhath!
So you’ve still got the Gaelic, I hear.
Your mother knew how to bring you up well.
Now you’re to be the President, it’ll serve you fine.
A few words in the Lord’s own tongue’ll help
to keep thae Senators and Congressmen in order.
My, it’ll be a new experience, a real revelation,
for America to have a Leodhasach in charge of things,
bringing the true Highland spirit to your White House
work, having folks in of an evening for a ceilidh,
all sorts, incomers, poor old wifies, all the sick
and needy that the Good Book tells us to look after,
joined together for a dance and songs and stories
in the good old Gaelic way – Aye, that minds me,
my daughter Jean’s boy, he’s in America now,
driving a New York cab, he’s a rare singer,
I can just see you both singing the port-a-beul
together in the ceilidh. Get in touch with him,
Donald. Hussein MacNeil’s his name.
See him right. That’d be grand.
I see your glass is down. Another of the same?
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel