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Press Release from Culture Vannin:

CULTURE VANNIN AND UNIVERSAL HUMAN RIGHTS INITIATIVE RELEASE THE FRST RECORDING OF THE UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN MANX GAELIC.

Working in close collaboration, Culture Vannin and Universal Human Rights Initiative (UHRI) have released the first ever recording of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Manx Gaelic (Fockley‐Magh Cairyssyn Deiney cour y Theihll Slane).

Its Culture Month so over on MTTV there is a piece about carting rushes up to the top of ‘Baroole’ to placate ‘Mannan Mac y Lheir’. I find myself less intrigued by this than the possible cost of CV producing a video on it.

Of more immediate interest is that ‘Mannan Mac y Lheir’ seems so cheesed off with Geoffrey Boot MHK having a barbeque and threatening to incinerate the countryside he has called up a smidgeon of rain but as yet hardly enough to break the drought - who knows its early days.

The dangers posed by fire in the countryside is once again in the news with a major fire underway just across the Irish Sea from us in the Slieve Gullion area of South Armagh!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-44779829

Members of the Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service are being assisted by helicopter support from the Irish Air Corps offered by the 26 County government.

An Taoiseach Leo Varadkar tweeted:

I see Yn Chruinnaght is back and its had another minor make over it seems to be called CELTIC GATHERING. Now last year you will recall some of what Bob Carswell described as 'pedants and purists' were appalled at the change to CELTFEST. I’m bound to say however I didn’t whip myself into a frenzy over the change.

I recall writing at the time;

With what passes for ‘real politics’ heading into the long grass as the MHK/MLCs grab their buckets and spades and head for the seaside the media are becoming desperate. Expect a series of stories anyday about how busy Tynwald members are going to be - although Tynwald itself will be like Tutankhamun's tomb before Howard Carter arrived.

The Loch Ness Monster is rarely out of the news. Despite all attempts to dismiss tales of a monster in Loch Ness (Scottish Gaelic: Loch Nis) there appears to be no end to claimed sightings of Nessie, as the creature is affectionately known. In an interview last month Scottish First Minister Nicola Surgeon said she believed in Nessie. Over many years people have claimed to have seen Nessie in the Loch and their descriptions have led to speculation that, if it exists, it could be related to the plesiosaurs.

A former Spanish Police Chief (Civil Guard) has defended the use of torture of suspects in the Basque country.

He was interviewed by the Spanish television station TV3.

Report here from Argia:

http://www.argia.eus/albistea/former-civil-guard-defends-torture-basques...

‘ROTTEN RIGHT FROM THE START’ - RED HERRING ON THE NEW IRISH POLICE COMMISSIONER

James O’Toole pulls no punches in this YouTube report for RED HERRING on the appointment of former PSNI man Drew Harris to head the Garda Síochána.

He says:

‘the last two Garda Commissioners over their stint as Garda Commissioner became mired in corruption so Leo Varadkar has decided to cut out that developmental phase and go for someone whose rotten right from the start'

Archaeologists searching for a lost Scottish monastery linked to the famous Book of Deer, have unearthed a rare Norse artifact. Archaeologist Alison Cameron and her team have found a stone gaming board which would have been used to play the Norse strategy game Hnefatafl. Hnefatafl is a board game with an odd number of playing spaces. The pieces would have been set out on the board with the king on the central square, surrounded by his defenders. The attacking pieces would have been asymmetrically placed around the edge of the board. 

Hardly has Nicola Guffogg and her Treasury chums socked me with another extortionate tax demand this year than the latest report from ‘Popeye’ (aka Alex Allinson MHK) and Co suggests that Alf Cannan should take over Manx Radio or at least pour more money into it. This will be grist to the mill for Alf and his trusty sidekicks like Nicola and Sheila at the Treasury bunker. Meanwhile the other political members like Bill Henderson MLC will nod their heads like those santa figures you saw in toy shops years ago.