The 'Island' that we dream of!

With Manannan obviously unimpressed either by the rushes on ‘Baroole’ or Geoff Boot’s fire raising skills I emerge blinking to see a brief shower of rain has ‘blessed’ us.

I decide to settle down with De Valera for the day and am immediately struck by the fact that we may in Mann be revisiting the great mans vision of Ireland set out in his 1943 St Patricks Day message sometimes referred to as the ‘comely maidens’ speech (which it turns out is a misquotation).

Its ‘Culture Month’ so Chris Thomas and his ilk are determined to remind some of us Manxies of the Culture we have always had - I find that a tad irksome but not unduly so.

In tandem I see aspiring fitness enthusiast Ray Harmer wants us to get on our bikes and become more fit. ‘Weighing’ up the front bench COMIN it is a bit hypocritical of them to be moralising on fitness, culture or fire safety but that's the nature of the Island we live in. COMIN - with the exception of Howard of course my favourite person for this ‘Culture Month’ - are an uninspiring bunch. As for a Tynwald generally it’s a freakshow - find the bearded lady!

Dev in his famous 1943 missive said:

“The ideal Ireland that we would have, the Ireland that we dreamed of, would be the home of a people who valued material wealth only as a basis for right living, of a people who, satisfied with frugal comfort, devoted their leisure to the things of the spirit – a land whose countryside would be bright with cosy homesteads, whose fields and villages would be joyous with the sounds of industry, with the romping of sturdy children, the contest of athletic youths and the laughter of happy maidens, whose firesides would be forums for the wisdom of serene old age.”

The opening bit sounds like something written by the Isle of Man Chamber of Commerce - kind of there’s nothing wrong with poverty along as its other people who are poor.

What with a ‘Year of our Island’, ‘Culture Month’ and Harmer’s latest fitness crusade we’ll all soon be ‘romping’ and ‘sturdy’ or in the case of old buggers like me sitting in our ‘cosy homesteads’, ‘frugal’ and ‘joyous’!

Happy Culture Month!

Bernard Moffatt