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Imbolg, observed on the first day of February, is the second of the four ancient yearly Celtic Festivals, representing the advent of the traditional agricultural year. There are four great Feast Days of the Celtic Year:

Samhain - the Celtic New Year (Halloween) celebrated on November 1st

Imbolg - the Feast of the Goddess Brigit on February 1st

Beltane – festival honouring the beginning of summer

Lughnasadh - the harvest festival and last feast day in the year which falls on August 1st

A new year and a new location for Kan Rag Kernow (Song for Cornwall)

The event was held at the Hotel Lowenac in Camborne for the first time and the move was a success with an excellent atmosphere on the evening.

Four groups took part in the competition – unfortunately a fifth could not make it – the Aggie Boys’ Choir.

On this day 31st January 1953 the coasts of northern Europe were facing one of the worst gales in living memory. It was on the morning of this day that a car ferry, The Princess Victoria, set out from Stranraer (Scottish Gaelic: An t-Sròn Reamhar) on the south-west coast of Scotland at 07.45 AM on a journey to Larne (Irish: Latharna) in the north-east of Ireland.

Shetland is an island group that lies to the north-east of Scotland. The islands are some 50 miles (80 km) to the northeast of Orkney and 170 miles (280 km) southeast of the Faroe Islands forming part of the division between the Atlantic Ocean to the west and the North Sea to the east. In Lerwick, the capital of Scotland's Shetland Islands, a fire festival named Up Helly Aa is held every last Tuesday in January. Other smaller such festivals are also held on other parts of the Shetland Islands.

The River Lee (Irish: An Laoi) rises in the Shehy Mountains (Cnoic na Síofra) in the west of County Cork (Contae Chorcaí). It flows eastwards where it splits in two for a short distance, creating an island on which Cork's city centre is built. The river then enters into the Celtic Sea at Cork Harbour. Cork was said to have originally been founded as a monastic settlement by Saint Finbarr in the 6th century. He is patron saint of the city and of the Diocese of Cork and his feast day is September 25. Between 915 and 922 the Vikings developed Cork it into a significant trading port.

Retiring Sinn Féin party president Gerry Adams is scheduled to be formally replaced by Mary Lou McDonald at a special Ard Fheis (party conference) on February 10, 2018. She is a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Dublin Central constituency. Michelle O'Neill, leader of Sinn Féin in the Northern Ireland Assembly and a Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) for Mid Ulster will become the new deputy leader of Sinn Féin.

The annual Oie'll Verree, which can still be found in a number of rural settings, takes the form of a concert and remains at the forefront of Manx life as a community event, but the occasion at Kirk Michael was tinged with sadness after the news of the sudden death of Roy Kennaugh, who was one of its most dedicated proponents and organisers.

A 435 million-year-old starfish fossil discovered in Connemara, Co Galway by an Irish geologist, Dr Eamon Doyle, in the late 1980's, has now been confirmed as a new species and the oldest of its type in Ireland. Dr Doyle has been given the the honour of it being named after him. According to the latest issue of the Irish Journal of Earth Sciences, published by the Royal Irish Academy, it has been given the Latin name Crepidosoma Doyleii by international palaeontologists. 

Manx group Biskee Brisht recently won the local competition to choose a song to go forward for the annual Pan-Celtic Song Contest, which will take place in Ireland later this year.

This is the second time in succession that Biskee Brisht has won the local heat of Arrane son Mannin (Song for Mann), which was held at the Masonic Hall in Peel and interspersed with a rich selection of musical entertainment.

Construction work being undertaken in Quay Street, Galway (Irish: Gaillimh) in the West of Ireland  has revealed the remains of a castle. Archaeologists believe it to be part of the oldest-known stone building in Galway city and that the two metre thick stone walls formed part of Dún na Gaillimhe, a castle built by the De Burgo family in 1232. The fortification was built along the then shoreline of the river Corrib. It was preceded by a wooden structure on the same site, which is mentioned in the annals of 1124.