Celtic Recipes

Attending the world music trade fair WOMEX last October paid dividends for Manx traditional music trio Barrule when they secured a highly coveted gig at the annual Celtic Connections festival in Glasgow, which specialises in folk, roots and world music.

Held over an eighteen day period at numerous venues in the Scottish city, this is a much sought after engagement and an important opportunity to raise awareness of Manx music globally with many other festival organisers, who use Celtic Connections as a template for booking artists for their own events.

As reported in the Irish Times on January 16, 2014, a committee of the Council of Europe has criticised the Stormont Assembly for hostility toward the Irish language. Stormont, which currently has political control over the north east of Ireland, was accused of a “persisting hostile climate”.

United kingdom Prime Minister David Cameron’s reluctance to debate idependence with Scotland’s First Minister Alex Salmond is starting to become an issue with Scotland‘s voters. In a poll commisioned by the Scottish National Party carried out by Panelbase in December 63% of people in Scotland wanted this debate. Even across the UK a majority of 56% thought a referendum debate should take place.

Divisions are again beginning to emerge in the anti-independence ‘No‘ vote campaign. The pro-union supporters have long been criticised for their very negative campaign stance. Comprising of Labour, Conservative, Liberal Democrat and others who oppose independance the ‘Better Together‘ ‘No‘ grouping have been seen as over concentrating their efforts on adopting scaremongering tactics rather than constructive arguements in favour of keeping Scotland within the United kingdom.