Blogs

Media Release from Culture Vannin:

AN EXCEPTIONAL DECISION FOR TWO EXCEPTIONAL CULTURAL CHAMPIONS THIS YEAR’S RBV AWARDED POSTHUMOUSLY TO BERNARD CAINE AND JOHN KENNAUGH

Cultural champions of the highest order, Bernard Caine and John Kennaugh, have been honoured posthumously with the Reih Bleeaney Vanannan - Manannan's Choice of the Year - cultural award for 2016.

NEWS FROM THE CELTIC LEAGUE

A film to be released this year will celebrate the heroic defence by Irish UN peacekeeping forces of the town of Jadotville in Katanga (see link):

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Jadotville

The peacekeepers, men of A Company, 35th Battalion of the Defence Forces hitherto have not had proper recognition for what they achieved as UN soldiers in the Congo in September 1961.

NEWS FROM THE CELTIC LEAGUE

Several items of Irish sport, music and folklore are to be considered for special UNESCO recognition and protection. Hurling, the Uilleann Pipes and the Irish folklore collection will be under scrutiny by the United Nations body.

The issue will be considered and a decision taken next year.

It is imperative that both the Celtic League and Celtic Congress press for a wider recognition of unique examples of wider Celtic culture and sport across all the Celtic countries.

NEWS FROM THE CELTIC LEAGUE

Allen Moore is the International Relations Officer for Mec Vannin and Environmental Officer for Celtic League Mannin.

In the article below he delivers an acerbic view of Mann’s new ‘trading partner of choice’ China following information he gleaned from contacts made after a recent visit to Australia.

His article about the conditions for fisherman matches the reports we have carried previously from Ian Urbina’s series of articles (The Outlaw Ocean) published by the New York Times.

NEWS FROM THE CELTIC LEAGUE

Looks like KPMG just can’t stay out of Court in one jurisdiction or another.

We had the CBC revelations about KPMG Canada that’s currently in the Courts there although all has gone quiet since we heard the Canadian Revenue Commissioners were trying to do a backroom deal. That provoked our ire and a series of letters to the Canadian High Commissioner which weren’t answered until we politely told him he was a cheeky bugger!

Then there was that KPMG Northern Ireland linked episode (see link):

NEWS FROM THE CELTIC LEAGUE

Crooked financial institutions, dodgy businessmen and a government in thrall to them sounds almost like Mann today but it was Ireland before the banking collapse.

In this article Eibhlin O'Neill says despite inquiries many believe the truth is still being concealed.

Paradoxically the Manx government were recently in Ireland on a ‘fact-finding’ mission over the plans for their EDF what they didn’t say was that a large percentage of Ireland’s economic development funds are wasted.

NEWS FROM THE CELTIC LEAGUE

The Corrib Gas field started to pump gas on to shore at the North Mayo terminal built by Shell.

The project one of the largest undertaken in the Irish state was also one of the most contentious. Protest initially passive eventually turned to violence and that violence was on both sides but with an overwhelming emphasis on Shell its security staff and the Irish State. Large numbers of police were deployed and in the end also the military to confront those in the small community who opposed the project.

NEWS FROM THE CELTIC LEAGUE

On the 14/15 January 2016 the French National Assembly rejected a proposal put forward by Breton ecologist parliamentarian Paul Molac supporting regional languages. Last year, France refused to ratify the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. The European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages (ECRML) is a European treaty aimed at protecting and promoting historical regional and minority languages in Europe.

NEWS FROM THE CELTIC LEAGUE

All quiet at the Lubyanka (aka the Central Police Headquarters) despite the assertion by an MHK in response to the ‘TURNERGATE’ affair that many years ago people used to turn up to banking institutions on the Island with suitcases full of money.

At the time in the mid/late eighties when the Celtic League or Mec Vannin suggested such things went on at Island banks we were, to put it mildly, lampooned.

‘There’s no evidence’ said the powers that be ‘show us the evidence’.

The Highland Council has unveiled the winning design for a new Caithness flag. Caithness (Scottish Gaelic: Gallaibh)  is in the far northeast of the Scottish mainland with the Orkney Islands to the north. The Caith part of the name Caithness comes from Cait or Cat, which was a Pictish kingdom (25–871 AD) that was located in this area. The other part of the name -ness, comes from Old Norse which means "headland".