Isle of Man: "A Manks Concert to Celebrate St Bridget’s Day"

With the Island of Culture 2014 celebrations well underway, the Manx branch of the Celtic Congress has organised a special concert to be held on St Bridget’s Day (1st February) at the Centenary Centre in Peel.

Advertised as an evening of Manks music, dance and dialect poetry, organisers have brought together a varied selection of entertainers from different parts of the Island, to bring a true Manx flavour to the evening.

There will be some spirited performances from northern based Manx dance group Ny Fennee, up and coming musicians Tree Cassyn and established musical trio Scammylt, who represented the Isle of Man at last year’s Lorient Festival in Brittany in a bid the coveted Tropheé de Musique.

Two of our finest singers from the folk tradition, Emma Christian (Beneath the Twilight – CD) and Marlene Hendy (Mannin Folk), will be providing a range of material as solo artistes, before the evening turns its attention to dialect poetry with Philip and John Kennaugh, known to many on the Island as farmers, brothers and local personalities.

But there’s also another opportunity to see The Dumb Cake, one of the celebrated Manx dialect plays performed by the Michael Players, which was recently featured as part of a sell-out Oie’ll Verree concert at Kirk Michael.

Keen readers may have spotted a variation in the spelling of the word Manx which reflects the differences between the Manx Gaelic and English language alphabet; there being no letter ‘x’ in the former.

For those lucky ones on the Isle of Man tickets are available from Celtic Gold in Peel and Shakti Man in Ramsey priced at £7.50.

Valerie Caine © January 2014