Andrew Fletcher of Saltoun Award

Poet William Neill honoured by Saltire Society Award

The poet Willie Neill was honoured last week by the posthumous award of the prestigious Andrew Fletcher of Saltoun award from the Saltire Society for lifetime achievement and contribution to the field of Scottish culture.  The event was held at the Midsteeple, Dumfries, and supported by dgArts.

The great Scots makar Willie Neill was one of the greatest Scots poets of the 20th century. He grew up among the farming communities of Ayrshire, and it was this rural upbringing that informed much of the great poetry of his maturity.

He has left a remarkable poetic legacy. A makar of the highest calibre, he was one of the few Scots poets to truly master the “three leids” of Scotland, writing superbly in English, Scots and Gaelic. As a “learned” Gaelic speaker his achievements were all the more remarkable.

Neill was strident and fearless in his political and artistic views. He believed the linguistic divisions of Scotland had been imposed politically, that Gaelic is a cultural phenomenon accessible to all Scots, and that it makes artistic sense to write in English as well as Scots and Gaelic because “this is the linguistic reality of the Scottish situation”.  Commenting on this quality of forthrightness, Iain Crichton Smith said of him: “He had a robustness that modern critics found themselves uncomfortable with. There are so many Hamlets about that to find a brisk Fortinbras who knows what he thinks and says what he means is strange to them.”

In January 2010 Willie Neill was awarded the Andrew Fletcher of Saltoun award from the Saltire Society.   Sadly, he died in April 2010 before the award presentation could be arranged. The award was made by the Chairman of the National Council of the Saltire Society, Lorimer Mackenzie, to members of William Neill’s family at an event organised jointly by dgArts and the Dumfries & District branch of the Saltire Society at the Midsteeple in Dumfries, to celebrate the life and work of William Neill.

The main part of the evening was a tribute to William Neill and his work, with readings from his work by well known poets, led by Rab Wilson, Robert Burns Writing fellow in Scot with dgArts, Hugh McMillan, Josie Neill and David Kelly with a reading in Gaelic by Andra Wilson, the Gaelic Development Officer with Dumfries &Galloway Council.

About The Award

The Andrew Fletcher of Saltoun Award was established in 1988.   The Award is presented in recognition of a significant contribution made to Scottish culture.  Nominations are made by the Saltire Society Council. 

Andrew Fletcher was known in his own lifetime as The Patriot for his steadfast opposition to the Union of the Parliaments of England and Scotland in 1707.