Raasay
The poet Sorley MacLean was born in Osgaig, a small crofting community on the west coast of the island; perhaps his most famous poem is about "Hallaig", an abandoned community on the east coast. MacLean's writings often combine an ancient traditional awareness, with a modernist political outlook, in which Raasay, and the areas adjacent to it are frequently referenced. But while MacLean's work dwells on the brutality of war, of the Highland Clearances and modern exploitation, he also writes about nature. Thus, although the Clearances leave an empty landscape populated only by the ghosts of those evicted or forced to emigrate, "Time, the deer, is in the Wood of Hallaig".
Ron McLean
He was born in Townsville to Kenneth Murdock McLean and Edna May, "née" Blee. He attended Bulimba State School and then Brisbane Technical College, where he took an apprenticeship as a carpenter. From 1964 to 1975 he was a waterside worker, becoming active in labour politics as a delegate to the Queensland Trades and Labour Council and chairman of the Maritime Unions Group. He was also a federal councillor for the Australian Waterside Workers Federation and president of the Brisbane Waterside Workers Association in 1980.