First published in 1987, this piece gives the history of Barra Glen, Victoria County, Cape Breton. The Barra people, and all those of Gaelic descent, are an oral culture. People were known by their father's name, grandfather's name and so going back on the male side unless the father died early and then the mother's name may be used. As people met and socialized, talk always turned to the genealogies and stories of the past. Though both John Dan and his wife Mutsie are dead, their legacy lives on in oral history. This work is used with permission of the editor James Watson. He interviewed John Dan in Gaelic and translated the piece. John Dan is telling the history of settlement of Barra Glen. All of the families mentioned are descendants of Barra settlers.

John Dan Nill Mac Na Bantraich

John Dan MacNeil was reared in Barra Glen, Victoria County where he was born in 1909. He moved to Sydney in 1939 and was married to "Mutsie" MacNeil (Katherine Sheumais Dhomhnaill) in 1942. They raised a family of four. John Dan was employed as a carpenter with various contractors in the Sydney area most of his adult life. Despite his long residence in the relatively cosmopolitan industrial community, John Dan has remained a thorough Gael. He has publically supported the maintenance of Gaelic and its culture through the years of active service to the "Island's" Scottish cultural organizations, most notably as member and Chief of Comunn Gaidhlig Cheap Breatunn. In addition he is a recognized fiddler, story teller, singer and historian. The least that can be said of John Dan is that he has never forgotten where he came from. ( James Watson, Editor)

Well, if I should start on my own side…the neighbours beside us…the first one near us and one of the first ones out there too…we called him little Donald; Donald the son of Neil, son of Donald (MacNeil). Then there was my great uncle very near to us over on the hill. We called him John the son of Malcolm; John the son of Malcolm, son of fair John. He was a MacNeil.

Now out of there to the west, to that corner of Barra Glen, a man built a house within my own memory. I was only three or four years old. He was working in the mines and his family was growing up there. I don't think it was a very good situation what with strikes and all. He bought a field and built a home in it. That was the nearest house to us on the west side. We called him fair John. He too was a MacNeil. They were up there in Barra Glen until I left. There's no one there now. The house is empty.

If I should go to the west from there we come to a place called Highland Hill. We had three very good neighbours there. Extremely good neighbours. My father had great regard for them. They were all called "The children of Angus son of John". The first one was a tailor called Donald the son of Angus son of John. They called him "The Tailor the son of Angus, son of John". The next one was John the son of Angus, son of John.

He raised a family and none of them are left now. No one is left on "The Tailor's" place either. Someone bought it but I don't think anyone lives there.

Now there is another place west of that. I believe you've made the acquaintance of "Maxie" (MacNeil).

J.W. I have.

J.D.M. Well we called Maxie's father Dan Angus the son of John, son of Angus son of John. He was another member of the Angus son of John family. Roddie John Dan's sister, if you know him, bought the place where Maxie's father lived.

Maxie himself bought a lovely house. Thomas the son of Big Murdock MacNeil's place. There was another house that isn't there anymore. The house is no longer standing. We called him James the son of Murdock. He was a bachelor.

J.W. Did he make songs?

J.D.M. No he didn't. the only one making songs up there, he made two or three good ones, was called Big Neil. He made a song for Donald MacKinnon (from MacKinnon's harbour) when he went to the war. He's in the "Villa" and still very spry. Donald wasn't in France very long when he was killed. He was very well liked. He was only young and he was a merchant before he went into the army. Big Neil made the song for him. Big Neil and his brother lived together up there on Highland Hill.

It's a long time since anyone else lived around there, unless you went a good distance to west again from where Big Neil lived in a place called Peter the daughter of Kirsty, wife of Michael's place. He was the son of a widow. That's what they were called, Kirsty the wife of Michael MacDonald. They were referred to as the "children of Michael." They were MacDonalds. Well now this Kirsty the wife of Michael, her son was Peter, the only son she had. She was married to my own cousin, a fellow form the Barra Glen area. The place I mentioned to you before, John the son of Malcolm son of Fair John's place.

Well this Peter the son of Kirsty was married to Little Kirsty the wife of lain the son of Malcolm. They didn't have any family. Peter lived for a long time. He must have been ninety when he died. He reached an advanced age anyway. In his final years he lived on highland hill where he stayed with a relative from Washabuck. He moved up there and stayed with Joe the son of Alexander the Framer, Joe Mackenzie. He's dead today too. There isn't anybody living there now. No one there in Peter the son of Kirsty's place. No one in Big Neil's place…Oh yes, someone else from Highland hill, Norman the son of Neil son of Big John. Norman had a boy, Stephen. An exceedingly big man. He was the strongest man they had at the steel works over there (Sydney). He came to work here like many who came to work for a while. Oh he was an enormous man. He used to lift an eleven hundred pound rail on the tongs. Stephen the son of Norman son of Neil son of Big John wasn't weak. This Big Neil we mentioned before was a first cousin to Stephen. Big Neil the son of Michael, son of Neil, son of Big John.

There you have the folk who lived there. My mother's father came from Piper's Cove on the other side. She was one of the 'Normans'. Out of six or seven of this family half were named Norman. One of the girls was married to Neil son of Big John and another was married to Malcolm son of Fair John, my great grandfather. That's where the relationship lay. Now Malcolm son of fair John came from the old country; they came out of Barra. I don't know what made that place any better than any other.