Blogs

News from The Manx Wildlife Trust - Treisht Vanninagh Y Doogys Feie:

The Manx Wildlife Trust (Manx: Treisht Vanninagh Y Doogys Fei) has announced that naturalist and writer Mark Crooker will be appearing at the Centenery Centre in Peel (Manx: Ynnyd Keead Blein ayns Purt ny h-Inshey). He will be talking about and signing copies of his new book Our Place.  There will be a discussion about wildlife, conservation and environmental protection

Liet International was invented and developed in 2002 to give modern bands who sing in a minority language a stage. In ten years it has grown to be a multilingual alternative of the Eurovision Song festival, with the main difference that singing in English is prohibited.

After a long night at Neushoorn, with 14 songs, a break and a long jury-meeting the results were as follows:.

Jury Award:

1. The Rowan Tree (Cornish)

2. Nastasia Zürcher (Galician)

3. Gerda Stevenson & Kyrre Slind (Scots)

The Isle of Man Civil Aviation Administration has issued a warning about the flying of drones near the TT course during TT fortnight and has introduced a prohibition. The move, which no doubt is a very sensible one has been taken in the interests of ‘safety’. However paradoxically hundreds of riders had been killed and many more injured, during the period in which Races of this type have taken in the Isle of Man, before drones had been invented.

The prohibition also applies to the Southern 100 races and an air display.

Here’s the IOM CAA missive in full:

Following a statement by the Prime Minister, Steve Double, Member of Parliament for St Austell and Newquay, has been appointed to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.

The Manx MHK, Alex Allinson. who has pushed abortion reform legislation through the Keys says that when adopted the Manx legislation will be an indicator to people on ‘the Island of Ireland’ to create a framework for reform there. He was speaking ahead of the ‘Repeal the 8th Amendment’ referendum this week which would if successful remove a bar in the 26 county constitution on introducing abortion law reform (link):

Australia is home to one of the largest Celtic Diasporas in the world. With substantial emigration from countries such as Cornwall, Ireland, Scotland, Isle of Man, Wales and Brittany approximately half of its population can lay claim to Celtic roots. The Celtic Council of Australia is an important organisation in bringing together those from the various Celtic societies. Since its formation the Celtic Council has encouraged Celtic activities, including establishing the Australian Standing Stones at Glen Innes, achieved along with the local community of the town.

A motion to be moved Ireland’s Seanad today will call on the Irish Government to meet its international obligations by designating extensive coastal areas and seas around Ireland as “marine protected areas” (MPAs).

Ireland already meets obligations under OSPAR and has Special Areas of Conservation (SACs) but this motion if adopted will provide much more extensive and wide ranging protection.

It is truly shocking and sounds like a crisis you would expect to hear reported from a third world country however it is Mann (Isle of Man) 2018 where the Foodbank say children are not being fed at home - not because of neglect but because hard pressed families cannot afford it:

https://www.manxradio.com/news/isle-of-man-news/hungry-pupils-slipping-t...

One of the high points for me at the 2015 Celtic League AGM in Dublin was a personal trip that my good friend Tom Hanley arranged for me around the various sites of importance to the 1916 Easter Rising.

The centenary of the rising was the following year so the various places such as museums and Kilmainham jail where the leaders of the Rising were executed were under siege already from the tourism traffic but somehow Tom always managed to get us to the head of the queue.

Councillors in the Irish city of Derry (Irish: Doire) have voted to light up local government buildings in the colours of the Palestinian flag. The motion was passed at a special meeting of Derry City and Strabane District Council on Monday. It follows events last week when more than 60 Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces in Gaza, which met with widescale condemnation in Ireland.