Blogs

CORNISH TICK BOX ON CENSUS FORM

Cornwall Council, Mebyon Kernow - the Party for Cornwall and now, Derek Thomas Conservative MP for St Ives (& West Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly!) are rightly calling for a Cornish tick box on the next census form! 

This will then further comply with the incorporation of the Cornish people into the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities.

Do tick the box to say YES on Derek Thomas's website and if you are able, his Facebook site and let's drive the message home!

Continuing an historical, family legacy can be viewed by those lingering around the outside of the circle as labouring, challenging, or even unnecessary, but Dr Helen Pankhurst carries her public mantle with a quiet, but dignified determination.

With the commemoration of women in Britain securing the vote dominating news coverage today, it's also an opportunity to explore the lives of the women who fought for democracy, but a Manx link with the powerful Emmeline Pankhurst may hold the key to her personal vision for women's suffrage.

This article in Yn Commeeys Celtiagh - Celtic League Mannin highlights the continuing importance of traditional fishing to island and coastal communities in Ireland. Something that is under threat by EU Fisheries policy and the catastrophic impact and environmental damage caused by the overfishing of giant Super Trawlers:

IRELAND: ISLAND FISHERIES BILL STRESSES VALUE OF TRADITIONAL FISHERIES TO SMALL COMMUNITIES

There are monuments, statues and place names throughout the Celtic lands honouring foreign rulers and colonisers. Many of them paying homage to those who are despised by the indigenous peoples whose lands they helped colonise or those used as symbols of the colonising force. Some have been removed officially and some unofficially. One such case that comes to mind was the statue of Horatio Nelson, built in the centre of what was then Sackville Street (later renamed O'Connell Street) in Dublin, Ireland.

Imbolg, observed on the first day of February, is the second of the four ancient yearly Celtic Festivals, representing the advent of the traditional agricultural year. There are four great Feast Days of the Celtic Year:

Samhain - the Celtic New Year (Halloween) celebrated on November 1st

Imbolg - the Feast of the Goddess Brigit on February 1st

Beltane – festival honouring the beginning of summer

Lughnasadh - the harvest festival and last feast day in the year which falls on August 1st

A new year and a new location for Kan Rag Kernow (Song for Cornwall)

The event was held at the Hotel Lowenac in Camborne for the first time and the move was a success with an excellent atmosphere on the evening.

Four groups took part in the competition – unfortunately a fifth could not make it – the Aggie Boys’ Choir.

On this day 31st January 1953 the coasts of northern Europe were facing one of the worst gales in living memory. It was on the morning of this day that a car ferry, The Princess Victoria, set out from Stranraer (Scottish Gaelic: An t-Sròn Reamhar) on the south-west coast of Scotland at 07.45 AM on a journey to Larne (Irish: Latharna) in the north-east of Ireland.

Shetland is an island group that lies to the north-east of Scotland. The islands are some 50 miles (80 km) to the northeast of Orkney and 170 miles (280 km) southeast of the Faroe Islands forming part of the division between the Atlantic Ocean to the west and the North Sea to the east. In Lerwick, the capital of Scotland's Shetland Islands, a fire festival named Up Helly Aa is held every last Tuesday in January. Other smaller such festivals are also held on other parts of the Shetland Islands.

The River Lee (Irish: An Laoi) rises in the Shehy Mountains (Cnoic na Síofra) in the west of County Cork (Contae Chorcaí). It flows eastwards where it splits in two for a short distance, creating an island on which Cork's city centre is built. The river then enters into the Celtic Sea at Cork Harbour. Cork was said to have originally been founded as a monastic settlement by Saint Finbarr in the 6th century. He is patron saint of the city and of the Diocese of Cork and his feast day is September 25. Between 915 and 922 the Vikings developed Cork it into a significant trading port.