Blogs

Tonight, Tuesday 28th January the 2020 festival of Up Helly Aa will see the skies of Lerwick in Shetland lit up with burning torches. The event including a procession of about 1000 guizers celebrates Shetland's Norse heritage. There is a Guizer Jarl (Chief Guizer) who leads a Jarl Squad, which is one of the many Guizer squads participating in the event. Dressed in Viking clothing and marching through the town with battle axes and torches, they drag with them a ceremonial Viking longboat. Thousands of spectators will line the route.

Local group Clash Vooar will soon be heading to Denmark to represent the Isle of Man in the thirteenth edition of Liet International Festival, amongst a line-up of twenty participants representing regional and minority languages.

Most members of the group, described as having a gypsy/jazz groove, reside in the west of the Island, with regular gigs at both the Centenary Centre and The Whitehouse in Peel, and were selected by an international jury from an extensive list of forty five potential entries - reflecting a growing interest in the Liet International Festival.

News from the Celtic League:

One hundred and twenty years ago in 1900 the Irish radical nationalist womens organisation Inghinidhe na hÉireann was founded by Maud Gonne

The Inghinidhe's objects were defined as follows:

The re-establishment of the complete independence of Ireland

To encourage the study of Gaelic of Irish literature, history, music and art, especially among the young, by the organising and teaching of classes for the above subjects.

To support and popularise Irish manufactures.

News from the Celtic League:

The late Dr Brian Stowell was a long time member of the Celtic League and a contributor to Carn it's journal almost from its inception in the early 1970s. Brian and his commitment to the Celtic movement is often seen as synonymous with the Celtic languages he taught both Irish and Manx and was pivotal to the formal inclusion of Manx language education in the teaching curriculum in Mann.

News from the Celtic League:

I wrote a recent item at the end of last year ‘The Turn of the Year and Memories’ posted on our CL Mannin Facebook ages and on the main Celtic League website

https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=2607790599269685&id=80...

https://www.celticleague.net/…/the-turn-of-the-year-and-me…/

News from the Celtic League:

We reported back in August about Isabel dos Santos she’s a nice wealthy lady from Angola who had invested in property in London using Manx business connections.

Many Angolans struggle on subsistence earnings as the country tries to shake of the legacies of decades of colonial exploitation and Civil War,.

News from the Celtic League:

Report here in the Irish Times about the decline of Bewick Swans in Ireland the species now winter further north in Germany as temperatures are warmer:

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/environment/swan-census-part-of-european...

Link here to a trailer and also the full Welsh documentary ‘Poncho Mamgu’. It's a drama documentary (with subtitles) about the life of Elen Davies first as a child in Patagonia and later as a young woman in Wales.

It tells the story of the hardship faced by the early Welsh settlers in the Chubut Valley area of Argentina. The Death of her mother and the friendship and sympathy shown to her by the indigenous Indian people of the area.

Link here to a trailer and also the full Welsh documentary ‘Poncho Mamgu’. It's a drama documentary (with subtitles) about the life of Elen Davies first as a child in Patagonia and later as a young woman in Wales.

It tells the story of the hardship faced by the early Welsh settlers in the Chubut Valley area of Argentina. The Death of her mother and the friendship and sympathy shown to her by the indigenous Indian people of the area.

News from the Celtic League:

Back in 1999, an article in the 'New York Times' concluded with this memorable piece:

''The Isle of Man is streets ahead of other jurisdictions in this area,'' said John R. Aspden, head of the island's Financial Supervision Commission. But the entanglement with Russia still rankles. ''Is the Isle of Man a satellite of Russia?'' he said. ''Of course, it's not.''