Blogs

News from the Celtic League:

Having established that the world’s largest trawler the Annelies Ilena was operating west of the Faroe Islands near an MPA we decided to check the whereabouts of another brute of the sea the Margiris:

https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=1177850342263725&id=805941286121301&substory_index=0

News from the Celtic League:

With the recent broadcast of the documentary ‘Atlantic’ on RTE attracting considerable interest we decided to take time to check on some of the really large super trawlers such as the Annelies Ilena and sure enough its active in the North Atlantic to the west of the Faroe Islands.

Interestingly having traced its fishing pattern we find that it is trawling around what’s called the ‘Faroe - Shetland Sponge Belt’ which just happens to be a Marine Protected Area.

Here’s the description:

“Faroe-Shetland Sponge Belt MPA

Protesters gathered on Nairn (Scottish Gaelic: Inbhir Narann) beach yesterday to oppose plans for ship-to-ship oil transfers in the Moray Firth. An inlet of the North Sea, the Moray Firth (Scottish Gaelic: An Cuan Moireach) is the largest firth in Scotland. The Inner Moray Firth is designated as a Special Protection Area for wildlife and noted as an important place on the Scottish coast for observing dolphins and whales. The Cromarty Firth Port Authority wants permission to transfer millions of tonnes of crude oil at sea.

News from Breizh Amerika:

Breizh Amerika is an organization that creates, facilitates, promotes, and sponsors cultural and economic projects that strengthen and foster relations and cooperation between the United States of America and the Celtic nation of Brittany.

Film retraçant la tournée des 7 villes américaines du Breizh Amerika Collective

An agreement with the National Galleries of Scotland could see the iconic oil painting of a red deer stag, Monarch of the Glen, saved for the Scottish nation. The owners planned to put the painting up for auction but have now gifted half the estimated £8 million value of the piece to the galleries in the hope that they can raise the remaining £4 million. This would enable the painting to be placed under public ownership.

Census data shows almost 1.66 million people, aged three years and over, were able to speak Irish in 2006 compared with 1.57 million in 2002. According to Census 2011, the number of people who declared they can speak Irish increased by 7.1 per cent since 2006. - Irish Times

Douglas (Manx:Doolish) is the capital of the Isle of Man (Mannin). It is also home to The Douglas Bay Horse Tramway (Manx: Raad Yiarn Cabbyl Vaie Ghoolish) the oldest remaining horse-drawn tram service in the world. Founded as the Douglas Bay Tramway, operations began in 1876. In January 2016 Douglas Borough Council announced that it would no longer continue operating the Douglas Bay Horse Tramway due to financial constraints. However, for the 2016-18 seasons, the Manx Government agreed to operate the horse tram service as part of its Isle of Man Heritage Railways portfolio.

The Irish poet John Montague (28 February 1929 − 10 December 2016) died early on Saturday morning in the Clinique Parc Impérial in Nice aged 87. Born in New York, John Montague was brought up in Tyrone. One of the best known Irish contemporary poets, he published a number of volumes of poetry, two collections of short stories and two volumes of memoir. He became the first occupant of the Ireland Chair of Poetry in 1998. 

At 8pm on Thursday, December 15, 2016, Jean-Pierre Le Mat will host a conference "1916-2016 - A century after ... - The Irish rebellion of 1916". As highlighted by the Breton website 7SEIZH, in 2000, he translated texts by Patrick Pearse and edited the book Patrick Pearse and the Irish rebellion of 1916. Political texts and unpublished literature which was published by Coop Breizh. 

News from the Celtic League:

There was a massive reaction in Ireland to the documentary ‘Atlantic’ shown on RTE last night. It chronicled the struggle of fishing communities around Ireland and farther afield to survive in the face of industrial fishing by super-trawlers.

Celtic League have been publicising for sometime now the carnage that is being wreaked on the marine environment around our shores and globally by these massive factory ships that Greenpeace term ‘Monster Boats’ which can process several hundred tonnes daily and fish for weeks.