Blogs

Former Catalan government minister and St Andrews University professor Clara Ponsati is facing extradition from Scotland to Spain under a European Arrest Warrant. This is a result of  her involvement in the organisation of last year’s Catalan independence referendum. Carles Puigdemont, President of Catalonia from January 2016 until October 2017 when the office was abolished by Spain following the Catalan declaration of independence, was also detained in Germany on a Spanish arrest warrant on March 25 and is now released on bail.

A davit used to hold lifeboats in place on the doomed ocean liner Lusitania is being moved to the Lusitania Museum in Kinsale, County Cork (Irish: Cionn tSáile, Contae Chorcaí). The davit has stood in Annalong Marine Park in County Down (Irish: Contae an Dúin) in the north-east of Ireland for the past 30 years. It was originally found having been caught in the nets of the fishing boat Croidte an Dúin near the site of the sunken Lusitania in 1965.

This year's final for the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards, a key highlight of the folk music calendar, will be presented by BBC Radio 2 presenter Mark Radcliffe and multi-award winning Gaelic singer Julie Fowlis, at the prestigious Belfast Waterfront on the 4th April, with a number of Manx musicians competing for success in several categories.

News From Bòrd na Gàidhlig  - Launch of Scotland's National Gaelic Language Plan

Bòrd na Gàidhlig: Established as a public body by the Gaelic Language (Scotland) Act 2005 which was commenced on 13th February 2006. The legislation is designed to promote the use of Scottish Gaelic, secure the status of the language and ensure its long-term future.  The Act sets out 3 main aims for Bòrd na Gàidhlig:

Grŵp Afonydd Caerdydd - Cardiff Rivers Group (CRG) is a community voluntary action group. They work to improve the cleanliness of the rivers, streams and lakes in Cardiff (Caerdydd) the capital of Wales and surrounding areas. In doing so they are improving the habitat in and around the waterways of Cardiff, which also increases the diversity of wildlife and plants, adding to their attractiveness and importance. 

Skye (Scottish Gaelic: An t-Eilean Sgitheanach) is the largest and northernmost of the major islands in the Inner Hebrides (Na h-Eileanan a-staigh) of Scotland. Now a new study from finds on Skye, published in the Scottish Journal of Geology, is shedding new light on dinosaur evolution. This comes after the discovery of giant prehistoric footprints belonging to sauropods and therapods from the Middle Jurassic period on the Isle of Skye.

Michelle O'Neill, Vice President of Irish political party Sinn Féin and Leader of Sinn Féin in the Northern Ireland Assembly (Irish: Tionól Thuaisceart Éireann) has said there should be a referendum on Irish unity within the next five years. Speaking at an annual commemoration of the 1916 Easter Rising in Belfast (Irish: Béal Feirste) on Sunday she pointed to the benefits that a united Ireland would bring for all of the people of Ireland.

The Easter Rising of 1916 is being commemorated around Ireland today including a military ceremony in O'Connell Street in Dublin. The uprising was mounted by Irish republicans to end British rule in Ireland. It was one of the defining moments of the long struggle for Irish independence. The ceremony in O'Connell Street was led by Ireland's President Michael D Higgins and the Taoiseach (Prime Minister). Prayers of remembrance were said, along with a reading of the Proclamation and the laying of a wreath by the President.

Construction work is moving on apace at Kresen Kernow.

The roof tiles have gone on the old brewhouse and most of the windows are in.

The spine that runs across the roof line and ends in the viewing window on the first floor has been covered in copper and it looks great!

The gable ends of the brewhouse are just about finished and work has started on linking the brewhouse to the new archive store.

The archive store is just about complete and it’s huge.

News from the Celtic League:

On the fiftieth anniversary of the Tuskar Rock Aer Lingus crash I thought I would post two RTE Archive items which are seldom aired they were made some years ago.

The first deals with the sequence of events and focuses on the original report and includes an interview with the Accident Inspector who compiled it: