Celtic League Selects Its Team for the Year Ahead

This news published by the Celtic League:

Celtic League Selects Its Team for the Year Ahead

NEWS FROM THE CELTIC LEAGUE

The Celtic League held its Annual General Meeting this weekend in Dublin at the Headquarters of Conradh na Gaeilge at Harcourt Street, Dublin.

The meeting held working sessions on Friday 10th April (Evening) and Saturday 11th (April) full day with social events on the Sunday (Afternoon) in the Dublin area for visiting delegates.

The Convenor opened the meeting by welcoming delegates and outlining briefly the solid programme of work that had been undertaken since the previous AGM. As is now usual practice a substantial dossier including all officer and branch reports, previous minutes and resolutions and draft resolutions was distributed to all delegates.

Subsequently a wide range of business was undertaken covering administration, publication of Carn (the League Journal) and also the direct promotion of League policy. In relation to the latter a number of new resolutions were adopting addressing political, linguistic, social and environmental concerns.

The main administrative area addressed was the election of Officers and the General Council (GC) Officers elected included a number of new post holders. The GC line-up is as follows:

Convenor: Cathal of Luain (Eire branch)
General Secretary: Rhisiart Talebot (Kernow branch)
Assistant General Secretary: Michael Chappel (Kernow branch)
Director of Information: Bernard Moffatt (Mannin branch)
Treasurer: Paul Kelly: (Mannin branch)
Editor of Carn: Rhisiart Talebot (who will be assisted in this role, which he will undertake in parallel with his GS role, by an editorial board.)

The GC also includes all the current National branch secretaries and the International branch secretary to which post Patricia Bridson (who edited Carn for many years) was appointed.

It was also noted that with a new post holder filling the International branch portfolio and also a keen new AGS that this should free up the General Secretary to devote more time to our overseas branches in Patagonia, Nova Scotia and the United States.

In addition to the General Council positions Alistair Kneale (Mannin branch) was appointed to assist on the Editorial Board of Carn.

The AGM also considered and approved an amendment to the constitution to allow for the appointment of a Deputy General Secretary to assist the GS (and existing AGS). This position will not formally be filled until the next electoral term at the 2016 AGM (although the meeting accepted that it could be filled in an ex officio capacity in the interim if a suitable candidate was suggested by the GS.

In relation to Carn it was decided to continue production of the print edition of Carn (for which there was a general consensus of support amongst League members) plans for an e-edition are to continue but considerable efficiencies generated by the current Editor make if financially practical for the journal to continue in publication for the foreseeable future. Carn has been in print now for over forty years and is the only publication to have continuously published in every issue an article(s) in each of the six Celtic languages.

The Convenor Cathal O Luain said we should not underestimate the contribution that Carn has made over the years not least in its early days when are languages were in a parlous position and we did not have to communications facilities we have today (in terms of the Internet). At that time Carn was very much the visible voice of our languages.

The Convenor also pointed to the solid range of achievements of the Celtic League highlighted recently by the DOI, Bernard Moffatt, in the ‘League Memoire’ document but also at the League 50th anniversary by the General Secretary, Rhisiart Talebot) and also in a paper presented at that AGM (in Scotland) on behalf of Peter Beresford Ellis. In discussion it was suggested that there was a need to, at some stage funds and time permitting, to document more fully the achievements of the League in its first half century.

The AGM also agreed to improve its use of the internet and it was noted that most branches now were operating Facebook and Twitter accounts. In addition it was agreed that further improvements would be made to our main site with the CL Newsgroup (Yahoo) being used as a communication vehicle to get material to the other sites. It was also agreed that in the next twelve months more historical Celtic League material should be archived at the main celticleague.net site.

Also the greater use of video conferencing was suggested (by Kernow branch). At this year’s AGM the League had two Skype feeds running (One from Kernow throughout the conference and another from Breizh on the Saturday afternoon). It was generally felt this facility could be expanded subject to the right hardware being available.

There was a solid mix of delegates at the meeting with strong delegations from Mannin and Kernow and representatives from Scotland, Brittany and Wales in addition to the Irish hosts.

The Conradh na Gaeilge building was an excellent venue not only because of its central location but because of its significance in historical terms to both the Irish language revival and Irish political history generally (the building was the HQ of Sinn Fein during the War of Independence).

News releases on the various Officers Reports and resolutions adopted will be released in due course.

Finally: In view of the significance of next years 100th commemoration of the 1916 Easter Rising in Dublin it was agreed that the AGM should again use Dublin as a venue next years. Eire branch are to look into the practicalities of this as it was noted that given the likely influx of visitors, that the commemoration will attract, plans will have to be put in place fairly speedily

J B Moffatt (Mr)

Director of Information
Celtic League

12/04/15

(Please note that replies to correspondence received by the League and posted on CL News are usually scanned hard copies. Obviously every effort is made to ensure the scanning process is accurate but sometimes errors do occur)

ISSUED BY THE CELTIC LEAGUE INFORMATION SERVICE

The Celtic League has branches in the six Celtic Countries. It works to promote cooperation between these countries and campaigns on a broad range of political, cultural and environmental matters. It highlights human rights abuse, monitors all military activity and focuses on socio-economic issues

Internet site at:

http://celticleague.net

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/celtic_league/

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