The Isle of Man has a rich history of traditional folk music, dance and tales. Manx music officer Chloe Woolley takes a look at some of the stories that lie behind some of the best-known songs.

This week is the 43rd annual Yn Chruinnaght Celtic Gathering , running from Monday, July 20 to Sunday, July 26. It is the island’s long- running music and dance festival.

Yn Chruinnaght has faced many challenges over the years, but perhaps none as serious as the coronavirus pandemic which threatened to put paid to this year’s event altogether.

But rather than cancel the event, the committee called upon its ’Celtic cousins’ to create a ’virtual’ festival of online featuring workshops and performances.

When the lockdown was lifted in the island recently, an additional programme of inter-Celtic events was quickly rustled up to be enjoyed live and online by audiences around the world.

’Eisht as Nish’ (’Then and Now’) is an old Manx song, where the singer reminisces about his youth, singing:

’Once I was young and now I am old’.

This could well be applied to Yn Chruinnaght, whose origins stretch back almost a century to 1924.

After falling into abeyance with the outbreak of World War Two, it was revived as a one-day event in Ramsey in 1977 by the noted Manx folklorist Mona Douglas.

Despite roaring winds and torrential rain, the day went ahead with an arts and crafts display at St Paul’s Hall, a Manx wedding pageant and music and dancing.

Ramsey Grammar School hosted an evening concert featuring St John’s schoolchildren and a musical play titled ’Shennaghys 77’, written by Bob Carswell, based on a play written by Mona Douglas and Nikolai Giovanelli.

Yn Chruinnaght went ’inter-Celtic’ in 1978, with several days of performing arts competitions, arts and crafts, a bonfire, barbecue and fireworks display on the south beach, dance displays and ceilis, an evening of Manx plays and also a historical re-enactment ceremony in Mooragh Park.

The festival closed with a concert in Ramsey Grammar School starring Charles Cain, Bwoie Doal, Charles Guard, Bock Yuan Fannee, Mick Kneale and Bob Carswell, and visiting acts, including CilAirne, from Ireland, Woodfidley, from England, the Cornish group Bucca and the Welsh visitors Dawnwyr Brynaman.

Late-night revellers were invited to attend ’Cheshaght Yn Chruinnaght’, the festival club at Casa Siciliana, Parliament Street. The festival grew year on year reaching a peak in the 1990s with colourful parades through the town and lively late-night ceilidhs in the marquee on the Peveril Plot.

You can revisit those heady days on Culture Vannin’s YouTube where there is footage of the 1995 festival featuring Ny Fennee among others.

These days, Yn Chruinnaght is based in Peel and although smaller in scale, it has become known for the quality of the visiting acts and its innovative programming, including the world’s first Breton-Manx collaboration, which can viewed on the Yn Chruinnaght website this week.

Likewise, the music and dance competitions have evolved into the Manx Folk Awards, now run by the Department of Education and Culture Vannin and involving hundreds of island schoolchildren.

Four decades on, the location and scale may have changed, but the overall mission to celebrate Manx culture alongside that of our Celtic neighbours remains the same - then and now.

The song ’Eisht as Nish’ is this month’s Pete Lumb’s guitar tutorial from Culture Vannin, which can be seen at www.culturevannin.im

by Chloe Woolley

www.manxmusic.com