The weather looked a little gloomy as about 40 people assembled outside the Culture Vannin headquarters in St John’s at 2.30pm on Saturday, 15th June. However, very shortly after Culture Vannin’s Online and Educational Resources Officer, James Franklin, had led us just a short way to the Bunscoill Ghaelgagh and then across to the Royal […]
Fenella Bazin gave an excellent presentation, questioning the way in which the words of Petrarch had been seized upon as a description of a 500 year period of history from the fall of the Western Roman Empire to the Renaissance. She showed how, rather than it being a period of intellectual and cultural decline or […]
On Saturday 6th April, Breesha Maddrell gave us a very interesting overview of Mona Douglas and the Welsh Connection. She suggested, to a large extent, that Mona was well-known for her Irish connections, with time spent in Dublin where Mona met a number of leading cultural figures and took her qualification in librarianship, and […]
The Manx Music Development Officer of Culture Vannin, Chloe Woolley, brought along some of the young musicians who attend Culture Vannin’s Bree sessions, so as well as hearing about the background to the sessions, we enjoyed some live music as well as video of some of the Big Bree Workshop Weekends. Bree is the Manx […]
Steve Wright demonstrated that things aren’t always as they seem with a variety of objects he brought in. It seemed obvious that this was a skull, but no, it was part of the backbone of a dolphin or porpoise. This must be a jaw – but no, it’s actually part of a lobster’s claw.
As […]
The programme for 2024 got off to a resounding start with an absolutely full house enjoying a presentation by Cori Philips about the history and community of a street in Peel. After Cori moved into a house in West View in Peel, she wanted to find out more about how the street had developed from […]
Dessie Robinson is a born story-teller, and his time spent as a warden on the Calf of Man was the basis for many a tale about people, places and things associated in one way or another with the history and natural history in and around the Calf.
With his ready wit and fund of stories, […]
Three-and-a-half centuries of ‘Education for All’ in Peel
Professor Angela Little followed up on her presentation to us last time about the history of ‘Education for All’ in the south of the Island by extending her research to Peel. Education here has been strongly linked with Philip Christian, born in 1593, and whose family home in […]
Steve Wright is enthusiastic about wildlife, and his enthusiasm is infectious. Taking his audience with him as he spoke in a knowledgeable and often amusing way, he gave an overview of some of the species we might see, but also explained the interplay between animals and birds and insects, as well as the plant life […]
There was a good turnout for our first meeting of 2023 which focussed on the Island as it appeared to the artist, John ‘Warwick’ Smith, in the 1790s.
In 1950, the Director of the Manx Museum, Basil Megaw, visited Blair Atholl, the seat of the Dukes of Atholl in Perthshire. As well as views of Perthshire […]