Episodes
The Laxey Wheel is iconic, but combines a pleasing appearance with a serious purpose and some outstanding engineering. We hear how the London Illustrated News reported - and illustrated - the official opening on 27th September 1854.
In our story in Manx, we take the road in the canary yellow gypsy caravan so beloved of Mnr Toad - for the time being, at any rate.
As nyn giaull y cheayrt shoh -
THE STATIONARY WILLBERRIES - The Laxey Wheel
GEORGIA RUTH & ALAW - Y G'lomen
FIANA NI CHONAILL, PEDDYR CUBBERLEY & KIRSTY LAWRENCE - Tamo's frolics
AN TRI DIPOP - Tri artilheur
ANNE MARTIN - Oran lea...
In the wreck of the herring fleet at the mouth of Douglas Harbour on 21st September 1787, 21 men died. The number injured is not recorded. In the longer term, there were serious economic consequences because so many fishing vessels were damaged beyond repair. The herring fishery was important domestically as part of the Manx crofting way of life and in international trade.
We look at the Manx traditional song about that tragedy and another about loss at sea.
As y kiaull ain y cheayrt shoh -
ANDREW WILLIAMSON & FENELLA BAZIN - The wreck of the herring fleet
PLETHYN - 'Fuoch chi 'rioed yn...
The coxswain of Douglas lifeboat, William Curphey, said that the lifeboat station on the corner of the Harris Promenade and Church Road Marina was in the wrong place for launching into stormy waters. Unfortunately, he was proved right. Three men drowned whilst the lifeboat was delayed in going to the rescue of the smack 'Hero' on 13th September 1873. William Curphey resigned as a matter of principle.
In our story in Manx, Mnr Toad has given up boating as a waste of time. He's now for the open road in a gypsy caravan - and it seems he expects y Roddan Ushtey and y Kyaghan to go with him.
A...
A large crowd assembled near the foot of Castle Street in Peel on Thursday, 6th September 1906 for the laying of the foundation stone of the Ward Public Library, a presentation by the hugely successful entrepreneur, James Kewley Ward to the people of the town of his birth.
In our Manx translation, the Roddan Ushtey takes Kyaghan to meet Mnr Toad in his fine house - only to find out that he's now given up messing about in boats.
As nyn giaull -
RUNRIG - Meadhan oidche er yn acairseid
AR C'HOAREZED GOADEG - La garde-robe du mari defunt
RUSHEN SILVER BAND - Ellan Vannin
AC ERAILL - Tua'r gor...
The Battery Pier in Douglas was opened with an official "handing over" of the Battery by the designer, Sir John Coode, and Resident Engineer, William Powell, to the Receiver-General, Ridgeway Harrison, who was the Chairman of the Harbour Commissioners, on 29th August 1879.
In our story in Manx we come to the end of the first chapter with the whisper of the wind, not in the willows, but in the rushes, as Mole spends the summer learning to swim and to row and to enjoy running water.
As y kiaull ain -
PAUL REYNOLDS - Wave song
AVEL DRO - Les endives
DUDACI Z CZESKEHO IESA - Lazenska stajdyse...
The fierce King Magnus Olafson of Norway, better known as Magnus Barefoot or Barelegs, came and took the throne of the Kingdom of Man and the Isles from the dynasty of Godred Crovan from 1098 until his death on 23rd August 1103 in Ulster as he set out to conquer Ireland.
Our two animal friends, yn Kyaghan as y Roddan Ushtey, enjoy a picnic alongside the river and are joined by another friend, yn Moddey Ushtey, there's a brief encounter with Brock, and Kyaghan hears all about Toad.
As nyn giaull -
NORWEGIAN-MANX PROJECT - Ta mee nish keayney
CILMERI - Ffarwel i blwy Llangywer
DALLAHAN - H...
From the Island's transport history, we hear of the Upper Douglas Tramway, a cable-car system that went from the Jubilee Clock, up Victoria Street and the steady climb to upper Douglas, then back down via York Road and Ballaquayle Road to the foot of Broadway. The line opened to the public at 8.00am on Saturday 15th August 1896.
Our story in Manx tells of how y Kyaghan as y Roddan Ushtey meet and get to know one another on the river bank and then on the river itself - not any river, but THE river.
As y kiaull ain -
NEEAR NESAN - Ushtey millish 'sy gharee/La violetta
ARFON GWILYM & SIONED...
The Mooragh estate was a rough wilderness when Ramsey Commissioners first bought it. However, plans were drawn up for it and the first stone of the North Promenade was laid - and the promenade was named - and the first sod of the Mooragh Park was cut by the Lieutenant-Governor Spencer Walpole on 11th August 1887.
We look at the opening of a translation into Manx of The Wind in the Willows, a book of which Kenneth Grahame's original English version has far more of poetry about it than prose.
As nyn giaull -
COR MERCHED EDEYRNION - Dim ond meirch y mor
BILL CORLETT & PHIL GAWNE - Y ghraih m...
The opening of the steam railway line between Douglas and Port Erin was very much a case of will it/won't it, perhaps/perhaps not. We hear about the reasons for difficulties and delays before it eventually did open for public travel - without ceremony - on Saturday 1st August 1874.
Sean O Bradaigh made a translation into Irish of one of Dora Broome's stories of Manx folklore. We hear a translation into Manx, with one eye on Sean's Irish translation, and the other on Dora Broome's English original.
As y kiaull ain:
JIM FLANAGAN - Taimse na arrears
CHRISTINE BREGAZZI & FENELLA BAZIN - White...
With elections to some of the local authorities during the week, it also happens to have been the anniversary of the first local authority election held in the Island. It took place in Douglas on 24th July 1860 - ironically as the result of legislation at a time when the House of Keys was unelected and unaccountable.
Neddy Beg Hom Ruy's reminscences of the herring fishery bring us to the end of the season.
As nyn giaull -
FLATS & SHARPS - Boat
CAARJYN COOIDJAGH - Harrish y cheayn
HELMUT ZACHARIAS & HIS ORCHESTRA - Tokyo melody
MACMASTER/HAY - Reason and love
GAI TOMS - Haul hydref y Moelw...
Yn Chruinnaght's Celtic Gathering 2021 will be taking place from Monday 19th July to Sunday 25th July. We look ahead to what will be happening with Chloe Woolley and Jo Callister. You can find out more at
https://ynchruinnaght.com/ or at https://www.facebook.com/pg/CelticGatheringIOM/
We also hear more about the nineteenth century herring fishery from a first-hand source, the reminiscences of Neddy Beg Hom Ruy.
As y kiaull ain -
KATE REID - Caroline
BRETON-MANX COLLABORATION - War Enezenn Manav/Abraham Juan
SCRAN - Our ship did sail/Dhooraght
POL HODGE, BERT BISCOE & ANGUS LAMOND - An go...
A parish and the ancient and modern cathedral are dedicated to Noo Carmane, St German, and he is celebrated in the Island on 13th July. His story is an inter-Celtic one, starting in Brittany, and coming to Mannin via Ireland and Wales.
Neddy Beg's reminiscences, written by him in Manx, continue to focus on his time at the fishing. Some of them were included in letters he wrote whilst he was away on a fishing trip, and he also recalls stories told to him by other fishermen.
As nyn giaull -
CALUM KENNEDY - Brochan lom
ANNIE EBREL - Robardig
THE SKYMASTERS DANCE ORCHESTRA - The dear little ...
Reform of the calendar in 1753 - deemed to have been backdated to 1752 - means that the Great Midsummer Fair is held in St John's on 5th July by the modern calendar, but 24th June (formerly reckoned to be midsummer) by the old style. Midsummer was a fire festival associated with Manninan, but the church made it St John the Baptist's Day. However, the Tynwald ceremony includes links with the old god.
We hear more about Neddy Beg's time as a youth at sea with his father as skipper and a crew much given to drink.
As y kiaull ain y cheayrt shoh -
NY SLOMMAGHYN - O Vanninee
CAARJYN COOIDJAGH -...
Robert Corteen was born in 1790 and was something of a polymath, successful in many fields of study and achievement, and not only in the Isle of Man. Whilst working for Messrs Gelling in Douglas, he constructed machinery to supply gas to light St Matthew's Church and other businesses on Douglas quayside. This was first used on 27th June 1832.
We continue to hear about the exploits of Neddy Beg Hom Ruy at the fishing out of Port St Mary when he was still young, among crewmen who were much given to drink.
As nyn giaull -
CAARJYN COOIDJAGH - Y folliaght
ANNETTE WYN MERRIMAN & JENNIFER JONES...
King Robert the Bruce is a well-known figure in Scottish history. Perhaps less-known is the fact that he spent a month here in the Island, arriving on 18th May 1313 and leaving after the fall of Castle Rushen after a siege, when the Lord Dougal Mac Dowyl held out for a month. A W Moore gives the date of the end of that siege as 21st June 1313.
Neddy Beg Hom Ruy's reminiscences give us a good description of how the herring fishery was conducted in the mid- to late-nineteenth century.
As y kiaull ain y cheayrt shoh -
BREABACH - Coisich a ruin
MEIC STEVENS - Ar y mynydd
THE SKYMASTERS DANC...
A meeting of Ramsey Commissioners on 13th June 1928 became the cause of quite a lot of interest and sundry mocking comments, not only in the Island's newspapers, but in the British national dailies and on the BBC. Should they put out the flags on the promenade on a Sunday, or was that commercialising and compromising the Sabbath? Even the ministers of religion thought it was a minor matter.
In Manx, we continue with Neddy Beg Hom Ruy's reminiscences of life at the fishing in the 1840s as a boy and later as a man, fishing round the Island and off Ireland.
As y kiaull ain y cheayrt shoh -
B...
We find out more about Neddy Beg Hom Ruy and his work in Manx. In his Skeealyn Aesop he was translating from the English. In his letters, reminiscences and other stories, he writes the Manx as he hears it and thinks it, so it gives a window on the language in the nineteenth century.
The foundation stone for Peel Breakwater was laid 6th June 1863 by the Lieutenant-Governor, Henry Brougham Loch. We hear an overview of how the day went and about some of those who took part.
As nyn giaull -
CAZ DOUGHERTY & PAUL ROGERS - Birlinn Ghorree Chrovan
HOLMAN-CLIMAX MVC (as Sydney Mitchell) & CAMBORNE...
We finish off those of Aesop's Fables that were translated into Manx by Neddy Beg Hom Ruy - twenty-five of them were published by Karl Roeder in 1901. We also hear excerpts from a letter from Neddy Beg from his son's Derbyshire home to his friend, Rev John Kewley, in 1899.
Bishop Samuel Rutter had a short episcopacy, and is well-known for the epitaph he wrote for himself, about sharing a home with his brothers, the little worms. He was a surprisingly robust existentialist when it came to his songs of drinking and carousing. He was buried in the chancel of St German's Cathedral on 30th May...
In the early nineteenth century, there was very little money of a small denomination in circulation. The effect was to stifle trade, so from 1804 enterprising traders began to issue their own tokens for small denominations, known as 'card money' . Some issued more that they could redeem. However, the biggest problem was of forgery. The situation came into such disrepute that Tynwald passed the Bankers' Notes Act on 23rd May 1817 to put an end to small demonination card money.
We look once again at translations into Manx made by Neddy Beg Hom Ruy of Aesop's Fables, which were published by K...
By 1911 there were no visible remains of a keeill known as Cabbal Rhullickey. Renowned scholar J J Kneen traced its name to an earlier Cabbal Ronnican, named for an Irish saint who was celebrated on 15th May with a fair in Ballaugh. Nearby, Bishopscourt was the scene of a fire which destroyed much of the middle block and led to the death of Mary Gardner in the early hours of Tuesday 16th May 1893.
We have a series of short stories in Manx, Skeealyn Aesop, in the translation by Neddy Beg Hom Ruy, Edward Faragher of Cregneash, published in 1901.
As y kiaull ain -
MARCAS MAC AN TUAIRNEIR - N...
At 6.00am on Monday 10th May 1897, the morning shift of 35 miners climbed down into the shaft of the Great Snaefell Mine. Within a short time, 19 of them were dead, overcome by a build up of carbon monoxide after a fire which had occurred some time after the final shift on Saturday and during the Sunday when the mine was not being worked.
Our short story in Manx is about a tourist in Florence and the caprices of fate - is it wise to know the future or not?
As nyn giaull -
RUTH KEGGIN - Holdfast
THEO LE MAGUET - Les gars de Locmine
DA CAMERA - The Irish ground (Thomas Tollett)
MAGI TUDUR -...
A party of 37 men left Peel aboard a two-masted schooner called the Vixen to sail to Melbourne in Australia. The idea was that they would seek their fortune in digging for gold. We hear a poem about their departure and then entries in the diary kept by Henry Maddrell Graves about some of the events on their voyage. After 92 days - which included 21 days becalmed - they reached Melbourne on 2nd May 1853.
Our short story in Manx is about a self-confessedly boring man, rather old-fashioned and lacking in confidence, whose life is changed when he's unexpectedly tempted to buy an electric tooth...
We look back 200 years to the first edition of a newspaper called The Rising Sun, or, Mona's Herald, which was published on Tuesday 24th April 1821. We then look at the sweep of the history of the newspaper itself, which ran from 1826 to 1906 as The Manx Sun. Our informant is the man who was the final editor of the newspaper, and later Librarian and Director of the Manx Museum, William Cubbon.
Our short story in Manx takes us back even further, to the days of the cavedwellers, but enjoys, and makes the most of, some amusing anachronisms.
As y kiaull ain -
MAC-TALLA - Barcelona
KLERVI RIV...
Having looked last time at the enthronement in April of a Bishop appointed the previous November, we do the same this time, but rather than going back to 1697-8 in the case of Thomas Wilson, we look only as far as 1911-12 in the case of James Denton Thompson. His enthronement took place in St George's Church in Douglas on Thursday 18th April 1912.
Our short story in Manx is about a young scientist, new out of university, whose expertise enables him to attach a radio signal to a tachyon - tachyons theoretically travel faster than the speed of light - to try to contact an alien from a planet...
The figure of Bishop Thomas Wilson looms large in Manx history. We go back to the very start of his episcopacy, with his appointment in November 1697 and the other official stages leading up to his installation and enthronement in St German's Cathedral on St Patrick's Isle on 11th April 1698. There then followed a long tenure of office until his death in 1755.
Our short story is based on one written originally in English by Simon J Wood - but without the emphasis on a heavy Scottish accent. In this translation it's called Cheer Cooie da Treanee - A Land Fit for Heroes.
As nyn giaull:
PLET...
We look at the background to yn Chaisht, the Eastertide - , starting with the origin of the names of this moveable feast of the church in English and in the Celtic languages. The Manx traditions of Jeheiney Caisht, Good Friday, include an apparently pagan element. Overall Manx farmers were pessimistic about stock born at this time and by some it was considered an unlucky time.
Our short story in Manx is another of Virginia Woolf's allusive pieces about Miranda sleeping 'In the Orchard'.
As nyn giaull -
SAMLING - Giulleachan/Gakkori
LINDA GRIFFITHS A SORELA - Can Mered
MILLADOIRO - Axeitam...
Johnson's Guidebook of 1850 describes Laxey as a cluster of cottages down by the shore, with a dangerous, steep approach down from Fairy Cottage on the south side and Minorca on the north. Leech's Guide of 1861 shows a larger, bustling Laxey with a mining industry. Contemporary newspapers tell of the New Road, opened 28th February 1854, with its magnificent viaducts, giving travellers a view up to the Great Laxey Wheel.
Our story is a Manx translation of an English translation from the original Spanish of Colombian writer, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, about a dentist and a mayor.
As y kiaull...
The steamer Victoria from Fleetwood for Belfast had run aground at Port Mooar in Maughold. Edward and Isabella Christian of Baldromma were fined for keeping goods from the wreck. However, two servants at Baldromma stashed away more loot in the adjacent churchyard. This led to a parochial visitation and remonstrance by Bishop Thomas Vowler Short with the police and other officials on 21st March 1842.
Our short story in Manx is about an actor whose fantastic skills - and one particular role - brought him only too closely to the attention of an unscrupulous politician.
As nyn giaull :
KEVIN ...
We recap and hear more from brilliant academic and author, Dr Jennifer Kewley Draskau, about her latest novel, 'Transportee', available as a book or in a Kindle edition. Jennifer explains how she has based it on the transportation of felons from Castle Rushen to Jamaica in 1698, and on her research into slavery and indentured servitude and much more.
With the feast day dedicated to St Patrick on the 17th March, we hear of a man who was involved in the foundation of Irish language and musical societies and who did much to encourage the formation of similar support for the Manx language and ...
We hear from academic and author, Dr Jennifer Kewley Draskau, about the background to her recently-launched novel, 'Transportee', taking as its starting point the decision in 1698 to commute the death penalty on a dozen felons lying in chains in Castle Rushen to one of transportation to Jamaica.
In celebration of Gool Piran, the Feast Day of St Piran (5th March), patron saint of Cornwall, we hear of a Cornish academic, Henry Jenner, and how he gives us a view of the Manx language in 1874, as well as all he did to promote the Cornish language.
As dy yannoo ard eailley jeh'n Noo Piran neesh...