Scholarship, Activism and Translations

The chapter explores how Thomson’s engagement with the Gaelic revival shaped his career as an academic. It discusses the outlook and impact of his two major publications, An Introduction to Gaelic Poetry (1974) and The Companion to Gaelic Scotland (1983, edited), and examines his two lifelong research interests: the Ossian controversy and the works of the eighteenth-century Gaelic poet Alasdair Mac Mhaighstir Alasdair (Alexander MacDonald), topics with a strong political and European dimension. It provides an insight into Thomson’s activities at the University of Glasgow as a lecturer, editor, and organiser of academic events, and his role in the foundation of the Gaelic Books Council. Finally, it explores Thomson’s support of translation from other languages into Gaelic as a vital means of increasing the flexibility of the language, his own work as a translator, and the development of his attitudes to self-translation and bilingual publishing as reflected in his poetry collections.