Blogs

Seventy seven candidates passed their Cornish Language Board exams this year and successful students were presented with their certificates at a ceremony at Lys Kernow on 15 September.

The new Grand Bard, Liz Carne, congratulated the students and praised the work of our volunteer teachers.

MTTVs ‘MHK Year two’ are heavy going I’ve missed most although I did savour the ‘Thought and Teachings of Chairman Robertshaw’ MHK. I also watched part of the Clare Bettison MHK rendition before killing it. However I watch the Daphne Caine MHK one all the way through.

The big plump juicy story of the day is a bit like its persona. Its Chief Minister Howard Quayle MHK and the Tynwald Order Paper. To get to it I have to ferret about on mainstream and social media which is a cacophony of dross

Manx news is all over the show. IOM Today have caught up on the Manx Radio loss item and although they focus mainly on the facts they make sure they also home in on some of the juicy salaries for senior staff up there. They also chuck in the assertion that Manx Radio are doing ‘knockdown’ rates for advertising which of course the station of course deny.

“International Atomic Energy Agency study two decades ago: concluded that concentrations (of Technetium 99 etc) in the Lough were broadly similar to those measured elsewhere along this (Irish) coast”

Yesterday I reported on the controversy over the dumping of dredged spoil from Carlingford Lough in the Irish Sea to keep the waterway to the busy Port at Warrenpoint open.

Nicola Sturgeon, First Minister of Scotland and leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP) will close the three day SNP Conference in Glasgow today with a message of "hope and optimism".  Her speech will have a constitutional theme and point to the opportunities offered by an independent Scotland. She will say: "The Westminster government stumbles from day to day and disaster to disaster. It's hard to watch that unfolding calamity and feel anything other than despair.

"So it is up to us - now more than ever - to offer optimism and hope.

Hidden archaeological treasures are celebrated in this article from BBC Wales (link):

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-45770001

The finds together with these mentioned in a BBC NI article a few weeks ago show that ‘amateur archaeologists’ armed with metal detectors our harvesting a rich haul.

The Irish finds also mention rare Viking coins that originated from the Isle of Man and also unusually for Ireland Roman artefacts (link):

This news broke last week but was ‘embargoed’ until Monday why one wonders does the Minister only do a five day week?

One cannot help thinking that things are deteriorating I hope I’m wrong. NHS Dental care has been hived of NHS facilities at Nobles closed and there is a brouhaha about Consultants pay. It's hard not to see health service morale being further battered. Oh! Have health workers had their pay settled yet?

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Jim Masson at Down News has an interesting article here on the challenges facing small fishing ports around the Irish Sea as vessels have become much larger and literally have to squeeze into the harbours on a high tide.

He highlights the problems of under investment in the ports which traditionally were associated with long standing fisheries such as herring and prawns (link):

https://www.downnews.co.uk/herring-season-starts-in-ardglass/

Bernard Moffatt

I

Jim Masson at Down News has an interesting article here on the challenges facing small fishing ports around the Irish Sea as vessels have become much larger and literally have to squeeze into the harbours on a high tide.

He highlights the problems of under investment in the ports which traditionally were associated with long standing fisheries such as herring and prawns (link):

https://www.downnews.co.uk/herring-season-starts-in-ardglass/

Bernard Moffatt

‘I find it interesting that environmentalists and campaigners are now agitated because dredged sediment will be dumped close to home and yet no one seems to have become exercised when it was being dumped 16 miles offshore between Mann and the North of Ireland.’