Blogs

I hear the Manx Radio report on Minister Geoff Boots ‘Pauline’ conversion from being a climate change heretic. He is now ‘born again’ and extends an olive branch to the newly formed ‘Green Coalition’.

I wonder if he’s been summoned to the ‘headmaster's study and given a quiet talking to by Chief Minister Howard Quayle MHK. After all Howard has enough on his plate with Brexit, Beecroft and Chris Robertshaw MHKs - not to mention the Social Attitude Survey which suggests that two thirds of the Manx population want to cast him adrift like Captain Bligh in an open boat.

Robert Burns was born in the scottish village of  Alloway (Scottish Gaelic Allmhaigh) on January 25, 1759. The eldest of the seven children of  William Burnes (1721–1784), a tenant farmer from Dunnottar in the Mearns, and Agnes Broun (1732–1820), the daughter of a Kirkoswald tenant farmer. His parents ensured that their son received a relatively good education.  He died at the age of 37 on 21 July 1796 and his Mausoleum is at St Michael’s churchyard in Dumfries (Scottish Gaelic: Dùn Phris). Throughout his life he was a practising poet and wrote many poems, lyrics and other pieces.

Perran Round is the best surviving example of a plen an gwary, a Cornish medieval amphitheatre. Indeed, it is often described as Britain’s earliest theatre.

Cornish language miracle plays were performed in these structures across much of Cornwall throughout the Middle Ages. It is widely believed that Perran Round was specially created as an open air theatre, although it is possible that it was an Iron Age or Romano-British enclosure adapted for use in medieval times.

Recently Transceltic reported on moves to turn, “The Flow Country”, a large area, of peatland and wetland in Caithness and Sutherland in northern Scotland, into a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Peatlands are one of the most important natural ecosystems in the world. Peat bogs are a rich wildlife habitat and home to plants that are unique to that environment. Bogs also store more carbon than any other land-based ecosystem, giving them an important role in the defence against the effects of climate change.

A 150-year-old bottle of Tennent's beer discovered on the shipwreck of the Light of Age off the coast of Australia has been returned to Scotland. Diver Jim Anderson found it on a shipwreck in the 1970s. It is thought to be the oldest bottle of beer in Scotland. The bottle was on board the Light of Age which sank near Melbourne on 16 January 1868. He has now returned it to the Glasgow brewery. The Light of the Age was a fast and large wooden clipper ship  built in 1855 and originally named the Beacon Light.

Cascade Dance Theatre is a Cardiff based repertory touring company. In Wales, their work is focused on the Creu Cymru dance touring network that reaches across the whole of the country in venues as disparate as Theatr Taliesin in Swansea, Aberystwyth Arts Centre, Blackwood Miners Institute and Neuadd Dwyfor in Pwllheli. This month the company is presenting an adaptation of Mary Shelley’s gothic masterpiece FRANKENSTEIN in venues across Wales.

“The Flow Country”  is a large area, of peatland and wetland in Caithness and Sutherland in northern Scotland. It covers about 1540 square miles (4000 km2). It is the largest expanse of blanket bog in Europe. Blanket bog only forms in cool places with plenty of rain. The blanketing of the ground with a variable depth of peat gives the habitat type its name. The few plants that can grow here don’t rot away, but build up to form deep layers of peat.

Isle of Man Post Office (Manx: Oik Postagh Ellan Vannin) has released a Christmas issue of stamps to celebrate eighty years of Beano, the world's longest-running comic. The Christmas story sees Dennis, Gnasher and friends on various locations on the Isle of Man raising a laugh and causing mischief. The children's comic the Beano is celebrating its 80th birthday and is published by the Dundee based publisher DC Thomson. The comic first appeared on 30 July 1938.

Hartes Ease is a group of Manx musicians who give regular concerts throughout the Island. Their performances include mainly renaissance music for recorders, viols and voice. Following successful Christmas concerts in recent years Hartes Ease will give another concert at 8.00pm on Sunday 6 January 2019 at Holy Trinity Church, Patrick, Isle of Man. Money raised will go towards the Isle of Man local charity www.Knockaloe.im. 

The Irish Aviation Authority is investigating sightings of bright lights and UFO's seen over the coast of south-west Ireland. They were reported by a number of pilots of commercial aircraft while in contact with Shannon Air Traffic Control last Friday. A British Airways pilot spotted bright lights moving past her plane. The fast moving, very bright object was seen to disappear at very high speed. Air traffic control confirmed to the pilot that there was no military exercises taking place in the area at the time.