The Dhone Chair - 'It's priceless' - so is the interview!

MTTVs Paul Moulton is at Milntown talking to Charles Guard about the ‘chair of Illiam Dhone’ that the Milntown Trust have recently purchased.

I’m sure that Paul mentioned at the Illiam Dhone ceremony that he was off to the Antipodes later in the month so these must be news items that were ‘in the can’ so to speak.

Anyway it's a real gem (both the table and the Guard - Moulton interview).

The last interview from Milntown was ‘the rumble in the jungle’ when Guard confronted Moulton over his Manx Radio stance - an all time youtube classic I still rerun. This however is a much more genial affair and both men seem genuinely pleased to be standing with a item of great historical value.

Paul tries to get Guard to adopt of position on the Dhone ‘patriot or traitor’ argument but Guard skillfully deflects this however I think he leans more towards the former and less towards the IOM Newspapers Alistair Ramsay reconstruct published when Ramsay was still overcome with an overdose of post Xmas bile.

Anyway Guard is a ‘division one commentator’ where as Alistair is ‘division two’. I ponder why Guard has never been advanced as a Legco member but swiftly dismiss it - he’s much to sensible.

The interview rolls on with Guard demonstrating the manner in which the chair which is actually a table becomes a chair. He wonders if Dhone planned his political moves on that very chair - I think that's a given.

Guard also intriguingly speculates that there is more Dhone memorabilia out there and lost to the nation. It's so easy to lose things. The Irish lost Cín Dromma Snechtai ("book of Druimm Snechta") one of the early Irish manuscripts - who knows where it is. We lost the Chronicles of Mann and the Isles although we know where they are!

Charles Guard finishes the interview by saying of the chair; ‘it’s priceless’ and it is - so is the interview!

The link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch…

Bernard Moffatt

Assistant General Secretary
Celtic League