Campaigns - Now culture is 'a bit twee'

The Story Manx Radio carried yesterday about the Calf of Man made me recall the campaign by the Celtic League to seek its return to the Manx nation.

The episode was recorded in his book on the broader Inter-Celtic movement by author Peter Berresford Ellis in the section on the Celtic League. There is often dispute over the circumstances of the return but Beresford Ellis researched newspapers in the UK and Isle of Man particularly the (UK) Guardian and the IOM Examiner and visted the Manx Museum. He also looked at accounts in Carn the journal of the League. He’s a respected author and historian so I think we can take his version as accurate.

Here is the section from his book ‘THE CELTIC DAWN’

“The League was instrumental in persuading the English National Trust to hand over the island bird sanctuary known as the Calf of Man to the Manx National Trust in 1986. The English National Trust had owned the small island off the south coast of Man for fifty years in spite of the constitutional position of the Isle of Man and the Manx National Trust had come into being in 1951. The League began demonstrating outside the London National Trust offices in 1951 and took part in talks with the trust which immediately persuaded them to hand over the ownership of the island to their Manx counterparts.

“Rather than show gratitude to the Celtic League the Manx National Trust was highly embarrassed by the fact that since 1951 they themselves had done nothing to urge the return of the calf of man from the English National Trust. They blamed the League for ‘interference’ and refused to invite representatives of the League to the handover ceremony. This only provoked more publicity for the League and showed the Manx National Trust in a bad light”

The Calf campaign showed that the old adage ‘where there’s a will there’s a way’ is apposite.

On the other hand I despair that the Manx government and Tynwald gave up on seeking the return of ‘The Chronicle of Man and the Isles’ to this country from the UK. The League of course has campaigned for the return of this and other Celtic Treasures to their homeland. I personaly have picketed and leafleted the British Library many years ago when ironically it was running an ‘Adopt a Book’ campaign

In his ‘State of the Nation’ speech this year Manx Chief Minister Howard Quayle referred to cultural success during the course of the year. However it seems when it comes to acting on issues that should be of major cultural significance his own government has done nothing. I wonder sometimes are we paying lip service to culture after all most of the items produced during the course of the year by Culture Vannin are ‘a bit twee’ to say the least.

Does anyone care about ‘The Chronicle’ anyway? After all we have especially in the past 40 years become a more ‘homogenized’ nation which is perhaps no bad thing.

Personally I think they are important because short of finding a Manx version of the Dead Sea Scrolls they are the earliest written account of what shaped the Manx Nation and led to the Tynwald we had today. What the hell are they doing in the ‘British’ Library?

Manx Radio Calf report:

https://www.manxradio.com/news/isle-of-man-news/remote-islet-seeks-enthu...

Images: Calf of Man - The Chronicle - Celtic Dawn (cover 1st Edition)

Note; Celtic Dawn 2nd Edition is still in print:

ISBN-10: 0862436435
ISBN-13: 978-0862436438

Bernard Moffatt