Blogs

The Beltane Fire Festival to be held at Edinburgh’s Calton Hill on April 30 – May 1, 2017 is the premier event celebrating the Celtic Festival of Beltane. The international prestige of Beltane Fire festival grows stronger every year.  The Beltane Fire festival was first held in 1988 and has developed its own traditions built on the legacy of 2,500 years of Beltane observances. The Beltane Fire Society is a Community Arts Performance Charity that hosts the Beltane Fire Festival as well as Halloween's Samhuinn (Samhain) Fire Festival.

News from the Celtic League:

I have documented at length the impact of industrial fishing from Senegal in West Africa to Scandinavia.

Large trawlers literally vacuum the fish sticks in these areas and some of them have the capacity to process hundreds of tonnes of fish per day – they are in effect floating factories.

Scots Gaelic is getting another shot of Government funding.  Earlier this month Scotland’s Bòrd na Gàidhlig, established as a public body by the Gaelic Language (Scotland) Act 2005 to promote the use of Scottish Gaelic, awarded funding of £150,000 towards the £7 million already received through the Scottish Government for a Gaelic Culture and Language centre in Dalabrog (Daliburgh), South Uist in Scotland’s Gaelic speaking Hebrides.

News from the Celtic League:

“Trente ans après le naufrage du chalutier La Jonque, qui avait entraîné la mort de cinq personnes, un homme embarqué à l’époque à bord du sous-marin Le Tonnant vient de fournir un témoignage qui devrait relancer l’enquête.”

For over three decades via our Celtic League Military Monitoring programme we logged suspicious losses of motor fishing vessels in areas where submarines were active during the cold war.

An Sionnach Fionn or “The White Fox” is an informative independent media website, not affiliated with any political party or organisation. It features Irish Republican commentary on national and international news, politics, history and culture. This article taken from that website looks at recent speculation about the possibility of establishing joint-authority or sovereignty between Ireland and the United Kingdom over the UK-administered Six Counties. A link to the article and the An Sionnach Fionn website is at the foot of this page:

Four baby hares have been rescued by Scottish SPCA (Scotland's Animal Welfare Charity) from a garden in Kelso (Scottish Gaelic: Cealsaidh) a market town in the Scottish Borders area of Scotland. A hare that is less than one year old is called a leveret and the ones found were about a week-old. Hares bear their young in a shallow depression or flattened nest of grass called a form.

Orkney Folk Festival takes place on 25 - 28 May 2017. There can be few more wonderful locations for a Festival than Orkney. Orkney (Scottish Gaelic: Arcaibh. Norse: Orkneyjar) is an archipelago situated off the north coast of Scotland. Orkney is made up of approximately 70 islands, of which 20 are inhabited and the largest island is Mainland. The largest settlement and administrative centre is Kirkwall. Orkney is a place of great beauty that has been inhabited since Mesolithic times.

Elections are being held that will have a major impact on all of the Celtic nations. Voters in Brittany will be casting their votes in the first round of the 2017 French presidential election on 23 April 2017. Should no candidate win a majority, a run-off election between the top two candidates will be held on 7 May 2017. A victory for candidate Marine Le Pen would signal attempts to suppress the Regions which could destroy the limited regional power that Brittany currently has. Now a British General Election is to be held on June 8th, 2017.

Redruth

18 April 2017

In a clever move, Mrs May has called a General Election. Although following Cornwall's own elections on 4th May, 2017, the electorate in the Duchy are likely to be 'electioned out', in one swoop, Mrs May will look to increase her majority in the Westminster Parliament and in so doing, give her greater ability and mandate to deal with those 'rebellious Scots' and to effect whatever deal she chooses over Brexit taking advantage of the lack of any determined opposition.

However, there may be a little silver lining to the large blue cloud!

The Stornoway Gazette is reporting that the Bòrd na Gàidhlig has announced funding for the Cnoc Soilleir project in Uist.  The Cnoc Soilleir project is a partnership between both Ceòlas Uibhist and Lews Castle College (UHI) to establish a centre for Scots Gaelic Gàidhlig music, dance and cultural heritage.