Blogs

A relaunch will take place this week of Edinburgh Napier University's War Poets Collection. Books and other items are housed within the university's Craiglockhart campus. A permanent exhibition gives visitors an opportunity to view the collection, and gain an insight into the personal and social experiences of war through the words, memories, voices and objects that the officers, medical staff and relatives left behind.

Hop-tu-Naa is a Celtic festival celebrated in the Isle of Man (Manx: Mannin) on 31 October. Predating Halloween, it is the celebration of the original beginning of the Celtic New Year. As with Halloween and the customs associated with it, Hop tu Naa is a festival with pagan roots, particularly the Gaelic festival of Samhain (Manx Gaelic: Sauin). It is one of the four Gaelic seasonal festivals, that include Imbolc, Beltane and Lughnasadh. Widely observed throughout Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man.

Press release from Culture Vannin:

The search for a Manx cultural champion is on

News from Kernow Matters To Us:

Went the day well?

The Polson Bridge occupation of Sunday 30th October, 2016

A fine day weather wise on Sunday 30th October, 2016 bode well for a good protest on the bridge at Polson just beneath Launceston in Cornwall. At Polson the bridge crosses the River Tamar, the time honoured and ancient thousand year old boundary between Celtic Cornwall and Anglo Saxon England, the eastern border of which was set in 936AD  by the then King Athelstan of the Anglo Saxons.

With Cornwall's international Celtic festival, Lowender Peran, firmly ensconced in its new location in Newquay, both singers, dancers, musicians and visitors (including those from the Isle of Man) will converge on the Atlantic Hotel, for a festival which has long held ties with the Island.

As in previous years, organisers of this popular festival will shoe horn a large number of family-friendly events into a five day period, with some free time to explore the surrounding area and sample a selection of typical Cornish fare.

A special bronze plaque commemorating miners who helped found the town's community hospital 102 years ago was unveiled in the Welsh town of Maesteg yesterday (29th October). Miners from the Llynfi Valley donated a penny a week from their own hard earned wages to enable the hospital to be built in 1914. Over the years many increased their contributions to support the hospital and provide a vital health service, which continues to serve the Llynfi Valley.

The search is on to find a song to represent Ireland at the Pan Celtic International Song Contest 2017. Entries on Cd with completed entry form have to be submitted by 5pm on Friday, 20th January, 2017. Details can be obtained from the Pan Celtic Festival website. The winning song receives the National Trophy and €1,000. It will also represent Ireland at the Pan Celtic International Festival to be held in the Irish town of Carlow (Irish: Ceatharlach), on 18th-22nd April 2017.

News from Kernow Matters To Us:

Following numerous complaints received following the announcement of a less than transparent and highly unpopular cessation of funding for the indigenous Cornish language by the Westminster Government announced during April, 2016, Kernow Matters To Us (KMTU) has today written to the Department for Communities and Local Government with the following request made under the terms and provisions of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

News from the Celtic League:

Proposed ship to ship oil transfers have been slammed by environmental groups in Scotland.

‘The proposed location is in the Moray Firth Special Area of Conservation (SAC) for bottlenose dolphin, and the proposed Moray Firth Special Area of Protection for a range of seabirds. Other European protected sites they say could be harmed by the operations include the Cromarty Firth, Inner Moray Firth and the Moray and Nairn 
‘Coast Special Protection Areas, as well as the Culbin Bar SAC.

News from Mannin Branch of the Celtic League:

The Isle of Man will celebrate a unique UN award next week when the Secretary of UNESCO’s Man and the Biosphere programme formally inaugurate our status as part of the World Network of Biosphere Reserves.

At an event at the Manx Museum on Tuesday, Mr Han Qunli will present Chief Minister Howard Quayle MHK with a certificate marking the island’s achievement.

The International Co-ordinating Council of the Programme on Man and the Biosphere announced the island’s acceptance into the world network in March 2016.