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Early May sees Helston town celebrate the much-awaited coming of spring and passing of winter in its own unique and colourful way. Flora Day, as it is known, is always held on the 8th unless that happens to fall on a Sunday or Monday, in which case it is held of the Saturday before.

The news that Prince Charles' Duchy of Cornwall will get a £8.7million grant from Cornwall Council along with a loan of £7.1m to fund a road to its housing development in Newquay has provoked anger and outrage in Cornwall.

The Council's Cabinet has agreed to provide the £8.7m which will plug a funding gap for the Newquay Strategic Route (NSR) which will serve the Duchy of Cornwall's Nansledan development. The heir to the throne visited the "urban extension" development in March.

As we enter the merry month of May we can also welcome an exciting new, free event in Peel, which will bring together a number of Gaelic and Norse traditions in a dramatic and exciting representation entitled the Boaldyn Fire Festival.

News from Yn Commeeys Celtiagh - Mannin Branch Celtic League:

‘Cultural’ v ‘Political’ Nationalism It's a Complex Issue

I saw this item recently on Manx Radio and was struck by the reference to Aeglagh Vannin established by Mona Douglas being set up to inspire a generation of ‘cultural’ nationalists:

In Ireland it is not unusual to have place names associated with a particular warrior, hero or deity. They can often be linked to those magnificent ancient stories involving the Gaelic gods of the Tuatha Dé Danann. However, place names do not always come from magical times and legends from long ago. Some have a brutally real meaning that point to a site of particularly negative more recent events. Take for example Misery Hill in Dublin, the name of a street that now stands in the redeveloped and  fashionable Dockland area of Dublin.

The Manx name for May Day is "Laa Boaldyn" and it is thought that the word Boaldyn derives from "boal" (wall) and "teine" (fire). In the old Manx calendar this day was celebrated on May 12 and was called Shenn Laa Boaldyn (Old May Day). Boaldyn, is known as 'Bealtaine' in Ireland and 'Bealltainn' in Scottish Gaelic, it marks the beginning of summer and is one of the four Gaelic seasonal festivals. In the Isle of Man (Mannin) the use of fire was one of a number of customs used at this time of year, to fend of witches and evil spirits.

The petition against the renaming of the second Severn Crossing to the Prince of Wales Bridge is now approaching 40,000 signatures. This makes it one of the biggest petitions in the history of  Welsh politics. Despite this the Westminster Government’s Welsh Secretary, Alun Cairns MP, had said that the “wider, silent majority is absolutely with us” on renaming the bridge. However, this claim has now been discredited after a YouGov opinion poll commissioned by Nation.Cymru found that only 17% of people in Wales support the name change.  Of those just 7% ‘strongly supported’ the name change.

Canadian media report that Randy Delorey, minister of Gaelic Affairs, revealed a new Gaelic Language license plate at a ceremony Tuesday to mark the 22nd annual Gaelic Nova Scotia Month. “The plate -- which includes the province's Gaelic name, Alba Nuadh -- will be made available for purchase later in May, with proceeds going to Gaelic language and culture initiatives. “This will allow more people to reconnect with their language, culture and heritage and to preserve these for the next generation," Delorey said at Province House.

Breton and Cornish Piran Statue Celebrations in Falmouth

The spectacular Breton sculpture park La Vallée des Saints, (the Valley of the Saints) celebrates its 10th anniversary in 2018 and will mark the milestone by unveiling its 100th giant statue in Falmouth on the 5th May, 2018.

Located on a feudal mound in central Brittany, the park immortalises the priests and monks from Cornwall, Ireland, Wales and Scotland who left their mark on the region 1,500 years ago, such as St Brieuc and St Malo. 

Yn Commeeys Celtiagh - Celtic League Mannin draws attention to this article in The Belfast Telegraph. It looks at the Harvard Archaeological Mission to Ireland in the 1930's in their search for the origin of the Celts. The archaeolgy advisor to the mission was the then director of the National Museum of Ireland, Adolph Mahr. Dr. Adolf Mahr (7 May 1887 - 27 May 1951) was an Austrian archaeologist who was Gruppenleiter (group leader) of the Dublin branch of the Nazi Party Auslandsorganisation (NSDP-AO).