Blogs

The website "Celtic Language News" reports that outgoing Welsh Language Commissioner Meri Huws shared her 40 years of experience in revitalizing the Welsh language, noting that legal protection of minority languages is just the beginning, and it won’t stop those languages from disappearing.

A Donegal County Councillor says the Council must do more to support the Irish language. 

Councillor Mícheál Choilm Mac Giolla Easbuig was speaking after there was no translation service available at a recent meeting he attended. During the meeting, Mac Giolla Easbuig spoke in Irish although there was no translation service available. He says a number of councillors objected to this, but is stressing it’s no reflection on Cllr Frank Mc Brearty who chaired the meeting.

Protesters gathered in Strokestown (Irish: Béal na mBuillí), Ireland today calling for an end to forced evictions. This is the result of a controversial violent eviction of a farming family from their home in County Roscommon (Irish: Contae Ros Comáin). An investigation is now also under way into the conduct of a group of men, working for the Belgian-owned KBC bank, who were brought in from the north of Ireland to carry out the eviction.

Gardaí (Irish: An Garda Síochána) the Irish police service, are investigating a suspected arson attack on a branch of the Belgian owned KBC Bank in Co Dublin yesterday morning. The front window had been smashed and the fire caused extensive damage to the ground floor of the building. This was the second arson attack on a KBC Bank in 48 hours. Yesterday protesters also occupied the lobby of the head office of KBC Bank in Dublin. This is the result of a controversial eviction of a farming family from their home in County Roscommon (Irish: Contae Ros Comáin).

A sheme for  a 15-turbine wind farm, opposed by the Scottish Borders Council, has now been blocked. The size of the project meant a final decision lay with the Scottish government, which refused the project after a public inquiry. It has been rejected over concerns about its impact on the "natural beauty" of the area. It was concluded that the benefits of the scheme's contribution to renewable energy targets did not outweigh concerns about its visual and landscape impact.

News from the Celtic League:

This article from the Celtic League looks at the disastrous environmental impact of Super Trawlers overfishing. The new restrictions by the Irish Government to create a 6 mile coastal ban on fishing by large trawlers is welcome, but further action needs to be taken:

Super Trawlers Will ‘Slip The Net’ Of Large Trawler Ban

A move by the Irish government to restrict larger trawlers from a 6 mile inshore zone around Ireland is welcome but is it too little and too late (links):

Construction of a rock ramp is under way as part of a project intended to return fish to the upper reaches of a West Lothian river in Scotland. The ramp will be built at Howden Bridge as part of a project known as RiverLife in a bid to replenish fish stocks in the Rivers Almond and Avon. It will allow fish including salmon, sea trout, brown trout and lamprey to return to the spawning grounds in the upper reaches of the the rivers. Helping to form pools, runs and easy leaps to help fish negotiate difficult sections of the river.

On 21 December 1988 Pan Am Flight 103, a transatlantic flight from Frankfurt to Detroit via London and New York, was destroyed when flying over Scotland by a bomb. Eleven people in the Scottish town of Lockerbie (Locarbaidh)  died along with 259 passengers and crew on board. A service has taken place in southern Scotland to remember the victims of the Lockerbie bombing 30 years on. Victims relatives joined members of the community, many of who assisted in the aftermath of the atrocity. Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said the victims of the bombing would always be remembered:

Last Tuesday statistics were released that showed more people than ever before have reported seeing the Loch Ness Monster. Official figures revealed that 'Nessie'  was spotted by 13 people in 2018, up from 11 in 2017. This makes a total of 1106 sightings of the Loch Ness Monster since it was first spotted by St Columba over 1000 years ago. Columba was an Irish monk who in 563 AD founded the monestery on Iona (Scottish Gaelic: Ì Chaluim Chille), an island in the Inner Hebrides (Scottish Gaelic: Na h-Eileanan a-staigh) off the west coast of the Scottish mainland. 

A flag has been chosen to represent the county of Sutherland following a public vote. The winning design, which features a Saltire and a Nordic cross which is said to represent Sutherland's position as the historic mainland frontier between Scotland and the Vikings. The black is to acknowledge the peat of the Flow Country and dark skies, which together with the white recalls the central colours of the former Sutherland Council arms. There is golden sun on the flag, formed where the arms of the crosses meet.