Claare Ny Gael - Manx Radio

J J Kneen's chapter on nicknames in his 1937 'Personal Names of the Isle of Man' reprinted almost verbatim what A W Moore had written in his 1890 'Surnames and Place-Names of the Isle of Man', but with some additions and alternatives. We look at those  additions and alternatives. We hear that Mina Harker had a disturbed time whilst the search party was next door searching...

Having started with J B Keig's nicknames in Ballaugh, we've moved on to A W Moore's thoughts on nicknames throughout the Island. As we find out, that work from 1890 was the framework for what J J Kneen had to say about nicknames in his book from 1937. In our translation of Bram Stoker's Dracula into the Manx Gaelic, Professor Van Helsing has been given short shrift by the patient,...

A W Moore is perhaps getting a bit enthusiastic in researching the parish registers for nicknames, as he seems to want to include descriptions that have been added to give a little extra information about people mentioned. However, we do come on to ways of naming people as well at a time when surnames and forenames were quite often similar. In our episode from Bram Stoker's Dracula in a Manx t...

We've started looking at A W Moore's 1890 publication, 'The Surnames and Place-Names of the Isle of Man' for its section on nicknames, taking up where we left off with our survey of the nicknames used in Ballaugh collected by J B Keig. In our episode from the translation into the Manx Gaelic of Bram Stoker's Dracula, we're hearing from Jonathan Harker's journal about th...

After looking at a collection of nicknames used in the parish of Ballaugh from about 1860 to 1900, collected by Mr J B Keig in 1933, we go back to the work of A W Moore, printed in 1890, and first dealing generally with the theme of nicknames, but then coming on to examples from the Island. In our translation of Dracula into the Manx Gaelic, the party of friends are about to go to search Carfax, t...

We come to the end of the booklet by Mr J B Keig with his collection of nicknames used in Ballaugh parish in the period 1860 to 1900. It concludes with a postscript by Mr Keig, giving us a fascinating glimpse of the personalities of some of the people he mentions. In our translation into the Manx Gaelic of Bram Stoker's Dracula, Dr John Seward's patient, Renfield, emotively pleads his case...

In 1933 Mr J B Keig published a booklet of nicknames used in Ballaugh to distinguish between so many people who had similar surnames (though probably unrelated) and forenames. It provides an interesting social history of the parish in the period from 1860 to 1900. In our Manx translation of Bram Stoker's Dracula, Dr John Seward has been summoned by an urgent need for his patient, Renfield, to...

J B Keig published a booklet in 1933 of nicknames used by the inhabitants of Ballaugh between 1860 and 1900, when there were unrelated families with the same surname and forenames were often of a small range, so people were identified individually, often in relation to their father and grandfathers. In Bram Stoker's Dracula, Professor Van Helsing is explaining the history of Count Dracula to t...

We've looked at a Forward that was added by Charles Craine and Mark Braide to a booklet that was republished in 1940 about Nick Names of Ballaugh, and we've also looked at the original Preface by J B Keig when the booklet was published in 1933. We now move on to the text, though it's not really a text as such. In Bram Stoker's Dracula, Professor Van Helsing has returned from Amster...

We hear the Forward added to a small booklet in 1940 by two fine Manx speakers, Chalse y Craine and Markys y Braide, and then we hear the Preface by Mr J B Keig to his original 1933 publication of 'Ballaugh Nick Names', but the nick names take us back to the 1860s. Professor Van Helsing has returned from Amsterdam and now intends to devote time to tracking down and destroying Count Dracula...

We come to the final part of David Robertson's 'A Review of the Manks History', and he goes out with a bang - rather as he went in with a bang when a cell door closed behind him after his closing, heartfelt words were adjudged to be dangerous republican sedition by the nervous, late eighteenth century British monarchy. In the latest developments in Bram Stoker's 'Dracula',...

We're coming towards the end of David Robertson's 'A Review of the Manks History', published in 1794, but his footnotes are getting longer, so he's still got plenty to tell us before we reach his closing remarks. In this week's episode from Dracula, Mina Harker has just been comforting Arthur Holmwood in his distress, and warns Quincey Morris that he, too, may need to find...

We've come to the final chapter of 'A Review of the Manks History', David Robertson's addendum to his 1794 publication in which he describes the Island as he saw it when he revisited it - having been based in Douglas as a revenue officer of the Crown - in the summer of 1791. Robertson's gives an overview and  draws some conclusions. As we're reading through the transla...

Despite the loyalty of the Stanley family to the Royalist cause, Charles II treated them rather poorly on the Restoration. However, they did come into the Lordship of Man again, and David Robertson's 'A Review of the Manks History' then takes us through to the advent of the Murrays, Dukes of Atholl, and the sale of the Island's regalities to the British Crown. Mina and Jonathan Har...

In his 1794 'A Review of the Manks History', David Robertson has given quick overviews of the various members of the Stanley family who were Kings, and later styled themselves Lords, of Man. However, he has a lot more to say about Yn Stanlagh Mooar, James Stanley, the Seventh Earl of Derby. In the latest episode from Bram Stoker's Dracula in translation into Manx, Mina Harker has said...

We fairly rattle through the members of the Stanley family who had been given the Kingship of Man, which became known as a Lordship to protect the neck of Thomas Stanley in the court of Henry VIII. David Robertson's 'A Review of the Manks History' has now come to Yn Stanlagh Mooar, James Stanley, the tenth Stanley king/lord of Man and Seventh Earl of Derby.  Professor Van Helsing...

David Robertson picked his way through the 1300s in his 'A Review of the Manks History', associating events from both early and late in a rather disjointed narrative. We've now reached the advent of the Stanley family in 1405. Arthur Holmwood has done the deed of driving a stake through Lucy Westenra's heart. Professor Van Helsing and Dr John Seward have a little more to do, and th...

Whatever texts David Robertson was using to compile his 'A Review of the Manks History' in 1794, he seems to have got his timelines in a muddle for the period he's writing about, racing through the 1300s. His references to people and incidents seem to concertina back and forth through the century. In our translation into the Manx Gaelic of Bram Stoker's 'Dracula', Professor...

David Robertson's 'A Review of the Manks History' was added to his description of a return visit he made to the Island where he had worked as a British revenue officer some years previously. His combined volumes were published in 1794, and he's reached the reign of Magnus, the last of the dynasty of Godred Crovan. Professor Van Helsing has brought the three men who each proposed to...

Is there something about the name, Reginald? Every time we hear of one in Manx history, he seems to have been something of a bad lot. We start and finish our dip into David Robertson's 'A Review of the Manks History' with two such flawed characters. Professor Van Helsing has brought Arthur Holmwood, Quincey Morris and Dr John Seward to the graveyard at Kingstead, and the empty tomb of...

The rule of the dynasty of Godred Crovan was interrupted as King of Man and the Isles by the arrival of the exiled but powerful King Magnus of Norway. On his death, as David Robertson's 'A Review of the Manks History' outlines it, the former line was invited back, in the form of Olave. Unfortunately, he had three troublesome nephews who took advantage of his absence to foment trouble....

In his 1794 publication, 'A Tour Through the Isle of Man', David Robertson has added 'A Review of the Manks History', and we've reached events detailed in the Chronicles of the Kings of Man and the Isles with the arrival of Godred Crovan. Professor Van Helsing has written a farewell note for Dr John Seward, just in case Count Dracula should come looking for Lucy Westenra whilst...

As it was written in the 1790s, David Robertson's 'Review of the Manks History' doesn't have the advantage of modern academic research with input from a wide range of disciplines, but still makes entertaining reading, and we can tease out some of the storylines from our own perspective. The coffin of Lucy Westenra was empty in the dead of night, but Lucy is again lying in it the ne...

David Robertson's walking tour of the Island actually was completed several chapters ago, but he had a further four chapters of observations. However, after that, although he finishes Chapter XVIII with END OF THE TOUR, the book continues with REVIEW OF THE MANKS HISTORY, which is also interesting as he views history as understood or surmised in the 1790s. During the night, Professor Van Helsi...

David Robertson made a walking tour of the Island on his return visit to it in 1791. His circuit began and ended in Douglas, but he added on three more chapters of his general observations, many of which are rather less than flattering, as we hear. After visiting a hospital to look at a child who had been lost on Hampstead Heath, Professor Van Helsing and Dr John Seward have another mission, this...