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Iain mac Ailein

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Iain mac Ailein, or John MacLean (8 Jan 1787, Caolas, Tiree – 26 Jan 1848, Addington Forks, Antigonish County, Nova Scotia) was a poet in both Scottish Gaelic literature and in that of Canadian Gaelic. He served as the chief bard to the 15th chief of Clan MacLean of Coll. After emigrating with his family to Nova Scotia in 1819, MacLean remained a prolific poet and composed one of the most famous and most popular Scottish Gaelic emigration poems, Òran do dh' Aimearaga ("A Song to America"), which is also known as, A' Choille Ghruamach ("The Gloomy Forest"). Robert Dunbar has dubbed him, "perhaps the most important of all the poets who emigrated during the main period of Gaelic overseas emigration", which took place between 1730 and 1860.