Patroits Monuments Abound – but Not in Mann!

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Patroits Monuments Abound – but Not in Mann!

NEWS FROM THE CELTIC LEAGUE

It’s reported that on there way home after there first ‘stint’ at Westminster some of the new intake of SNP Members of Parliament stopped at the monument at Smithfield in London, the site of the execution of William Wallace. It is rumoured one of their number Tommy Sheppard wept.

Of course home in Scotland they also have the huge and striking Wallace Monument and many other commemorative statues.

Symbolic sites like this area important as I realised last month when, in Dublin for the Celtic League AGM, I visited the National Memorial Garden at Arbour Hill where those executed in the 1916 Easter Rising are buried. It is a most moving place.

Later the same day I got to visit the plot in Kilmainham Jail where the members of the Irish National Invincibles who were involved in the assignation of the Chief Secretary for Ireland and his Permanent Under Secretary in 1882 are buried – there resting place has no monument just a bare unmarked side yard.

However, in most of the Celtic countries there are significant and well kept memorials to national heroes, not least in Wales where there are innumerable monuments to Owain Glyndwr, one of the most striking being at the Square in Corwen.

Cornwall (Kernow) has fine memorials to An Gof and Thomas Flamank both at Blackheath Common in London and also at St. Keverne in Cornwall.

Which brings us to Mann!

Arguably the greatest historic figure for the Manx is Illiam Dhone without whom, even his critics have to admit, the Isle of Man would not have the unique constitutional status it has today. His memorial, however, is a tawdry brass plaque on a stump of aged concrete marking the site of his execution in 1663 at Hango Hill (the plaque is barely visible at the foot of the hill to the left of the picture. The site unkempt and overgrown as it always is. The ruined building is unconnected to the events of 1663).

It is past time the Manx Government commissioned a more appropriate memorial to this great man.

Note: There is a stained glass window tucked away in the precincts of Tynwald, but no significant public monument.

J B Moffatt (Mr)
Director of Information
Celtic League

16/05/15

(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.

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