Alastair Kneale's blog

News from the Celtic League:

Former Catalan government minister and St Andrews University professor Clara Ponsati is facing extradition from Scotland to Spain under a European Arrest Warrant. This is a result of  her involvement in the organisation of last year’s Catalan independence referendum. Carles Puigdemont, President of Catalonia from January 2016 until October 2017 when the office was abolished by Spain following the Catalan declaration of independence, was also detained in Germany on a Spanish arrest warrant on March 25 and is now released on bail.

A davit used to hold lifeboats in place on the doomed ocean liner Lusitania is being moved to the Lusitania Museum in Kinsale, County Cork (Irish: Cionn tSáile, Contae Chorcaí). The davit has stood in Annalong Marine Park in County Down (Irish: Contae an Dúin) in the north-east of Ireland for the past 30 years. It was originally found having been caught in the nets of the fishing boat Croidte an Dúin near the site of the sunken Lusitania in 1965.

News from the Celtic League:

On the fiftieth anniversary of the Tuskar Rock Aer Lingus crash I thought I would post two RTE Archive items which are seldom aired they were made some years ago.

The first deals with the sequence of events and focuses on the original report and includes an interview with the Accident Inspector who compiled it:

News from the Celtic League:

The 50th commemoration of the 61 victims of the crash of Aer Lingus flight EI 172 (St. Phelim) took place on Sat, last in Rosslare Harbour, Co. Wexford, Ireland. The flight had been on its way from Cork to London. It is Ireland’s worst aviation tragedy.

News from the Celtic League:

Ireland's Minister with Responsibility for Defence Paul Kehoe has visited Irish troops serving with the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL). Currently, a total of some 380 Irish personnel are serving with UNIFIL.

This year marks the 40th anniversary of Ireland’s first deployment to Lebanon as part of the UNIFIL mission.

One Sunday, 18 March 2018 the Minister laid a wreath at a monument in Tibnin to remember the forty seven Irish men who died while serving with UNIFIL.

Minister Kehoe said that:

In this article in Yn Commeeys Celtiagh - Celtic League Mannin the issue is raised of the past excavations of ancient sites on Peel Hill in the Isle of Man and historical artefacts uncovered which have now gone missing. The Chronicles of the Kings of Mann and the Isles or Manx Chronicle, which is also mentioned in the article, is a medieval Latin manuscript relating to the early history of the Isle of Man.

News from the Celtic League:

Saturday next will mark the anniversary of the worst loss of life in a air crash over the Irish Sea. It was March 24th 1968 when Aer Lingus Flight EI-AOM Flight 712 ‘St Phelim’ crashed near Tuskar Rock off Wexford all on board the Viscount airliner perished.

Media Release Culture Vannin:

Pohllinee  - Merpeople

Jedoonee / Sunday will see a Manx Gaelic beach clean at Perwick in Purt le Moirrey. Organised by Culture Vannin, in conjunction with Beach Buddies, the first, in what will prove to be a regular clean-up at Perwick, will involve volunteers from a variety of Manx speaking groups such as Pobble and Mooinjer Veggey working under the umbrella title of Pohllinee or Merpeople!

Elections have just taken place to the Legislative Council (Manx: Yn Choonceil Slattyssagh), which is the upper chamber of Tynwald, the legislature of the Isle of Man (Mannin). It is often referred to as "LegCo". To be more accurate they are less elections and more sham elections. The LegCo consists of eleven Members (MLCs): Eight elected members and three ex officio members made up of the Bishop of Sodor and Man, the President of Tynwald, who has the casting vote, and the Attorney General, who is non-voting.