Finlay John Macdonald (Scottish Gaelic: Fionnlagh Iain MacDhòmhnaill; 4 July 1925 – 14 October 1987) was a Scottish journalist and radio and television producer and writer.

Born and raised on Harris in the Outer Hebrides, and a native Gaelic language speaker, was an important figure in Gaelic radio and television broadcasting, founding the Gaelic Drama Association. He co-founded the quarterly Gaelic magazine Gairm in 1951 with Derick Thomson and served as its chief editor until 1964.^[1]

He was a radio and television producer. His production for radio of Sydney Goodsir Smith's play, The Wallace, was broadcast on 30th November 1959.^[2]

Macdonald edited A Journey to the Western Isles (1983), in which he "retraced" the 1773 tour of Scotland by Samuel Johnson and James Boswell by providing the text of Johnson's A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland along with his own commentary and numerous colour and black-and-white photographs.

He wrote three books of memoirs that recall his childhood on Harris:

• Crowdie and Cream (1982)
• Crotal and White (1983)
• The Corncrake and the Lysander (1985).^[1]

These have been cited as providing a valuable insight into life in the Outer Hebrides in the interwar period.^[3]