Introduction

‘Leis’ an àireamh so, tha MAC-TALLA a’ criochnachadh a thuruis’ (‘With this number, MAC-TALLA is ending its journey’). With these words, Jonathan G. MacKinnon (1869–1944) announced that the Friday, 24 June 1904 issue of his wholly Gaelic newspaper, Mac-Talla (‘Echo’), would be the last. Aside from Ruairidh Erskine of Mar's short-lived Alba, which was published between February 1908 and early 1909, Mac-Talla is to this day the only wholly Gaelic weekly or biweekly newspaper which has ever existed. From 28 May 1892, MacKinnon, the editor and major contributor, published over 500 issues on a weekly, and latterly a biweekly, basis. It is notable that MacKinnon was a Canadian Gael, and that Mac-Talla was published in Sydney, Nova Scotia, and not Scotland. For MacKinnon– still only 34 at the time he decided to discontinue the paper– Mac-Talla was a labour of love, but one which he simply could no longer keep alive. As to why the paper would cease, MacKinnon noted the following:

MacKinnon noted that the number of subscribers had never been greater than 1,300 or 1,400, and at the end there were never more than 1,100; to publish it weekly, he would have needed at least 2,000 subscribers (ibid.).