Blogs

Aberdeen (Scottish Gaelic: Obar Dheathain) is a city in the north-east of Scotland. The island of Vanna is on the northern coast of Norway, about 1,118 miles (1800km) away. So it was with some surprise that a local Aberdeen football club got a message from Johnny Mikalsen, who is a shopkeeper in Vanna, saying that he had their football. The Banks o' Dee youth team can regularly see their footballs going over the fence of their ground and dropping over into the nearby River Dee. Once that happens it is just accepted that they are lost.

Early yesterday morning (May 26 2017), dragons Dewi and Dwynwen, saw their eggs hatch in the grounds of Caerphilly Castle. Two beautiful baby dragons were brought into the world. The twins are the latest addition to Cadw's family of dragons along with their parents, Dewi and Dwynwen. Brought to life by Cardiff-based prop designers Wild Creations, the twin boy and girl dragons (yet to be named)  and Dewi and Dwynwen, which weigh two tonnes each, were sculpted and moulded before being cast and built out of fibreglass.

News from Irish Branch of the Celtic League:

Saturday’s Lá Dearg in Belfast was an historic day by all accounts.  Irish language speakers and supporters marched for their rights, for equality and for justice through the streets of Belfast with the demand that an Irish Language Act be introduced in the Six Counties.  An estimated 12,000 people attended, mainly from the Six Counties, but with strong contingents of support from Irish speakers from Gaeltacht regions and the Twenty Six Counties.

The President and Taoiseach (Prime Minister) of Ireland have both condemned the terrorist attack that deliberately targeted children and teenagers attending a concert in the English city of Manchester last night (22 May 2017). At the time of writing twenty-two people have been killed and at least 59 people injured in a terrorist bombing during an Ariana Grande concert at Manchester Arena. Some of those in hospital have life threatening injuries.

Our contemporary lifestyle may have brought additional benefits to Island life, but for one annual summer visitor from Africa it has made a significant impact on their much needed habitat.

The Manx Ornithological Society, in conjunction with Manx BirdLife, have now joined forces under the banner of Swift Action to assess the breeding population of the swift, and monitor current numbers after a visitor from Tasmania noted a decline in the local population in comparison to a previous visit and suggested setting up a project to help them.

News from the Celtic League:

It says something for the anger over the mining licence granted to Variscan Mines that a second bomb attack has been made on the organisation which has a massive 400sq km licence to develop mineral extractions in Central Brittany.

Archaeologists at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland are to return more than 50,000 artefacts rescued from the archaeological site of Nunalleq on the southwest coast of Alaska. The objects, which had been frozen in time, were everyday things that the indigenous Yupik people used to survive and created. They began to emerge as temperatures continue to rise. The team from Aberdeen has spent more than seven years recovering and preserving the objects at Nunalleq in a race against time.

The Scotsman has an article, linked below, highlighting an historical map of the Gaelic language in Scotland which, among other things, illustrates the effectiveness of the British governments persecution of the Gaelic tongue: “Published in 1895, the map which charts the prevalence of Gaelic speaking in Scotland, is the first of its kind. Produced by Edinburgh map company Bartholomew’s, the map contains information distilled from the first census, in 1881, that counted Gaelic speakers in Scotland.”

News from Kernow Matters To Us:

AN INVITATION TO HUSTINGS

General Election 8th June, 2017

REDRUTH HUSTINGS

YOU ARE INVITED!

Come and put your question (s) to the four Parliamentary candidates standing for election in the Redruth, Camborne & Hayle Constituency!

George Eustice  - The Conservative Party

Geoff Garbett - The Green Party

Geoff Williams - The Liberal Democrat Party

Graham Winter - The Labour Party

This question and answer panel will commence at 7pm on Friday 2nd June, 2017

News from Kernow Matters To Us:

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST

Last year, during November, we submitted a Freedom of Information Request as follows to the Department for Communities & Local Government (DCLG) following the announcement that Westminster had ceased its funding for the Cornish language:

“Please provide all and any documents relating to this

decision including, among others, the brief for ministerial decision,

any explanatory notes, any impact assessment, other documents