Claare Ny Gael - Manx Radio

As a British revenue officer, David Robinson was in favour of the British Crown buying the sovereign rights of the Island from the Lord of Mann, the Duke of Atholl, in 1765 in order to suppress 'the trade' - or 'smuggling' as the British Government considered it. Professor Van Helsing is trying to persuade Dr John Seward to open his mind to strange possibilities outside of accepted...

As a British revenue officer, David Robertson writes approvingly of the way the British Crown bought the Lord of Mann's rights in 1765 in order to suppress 'the running trade' in a move that the Manx people referred to as 'y chialg vooar' - 'the big swindle'. Professor Van Helsing returns from Exeter and starts questioning Dr John Seward about his views on things that s...

David Robertson tells us about the herring fishery and the process of preparing both white herrings and red herrings. We hear of the trade and way of life associated with them in the 1790s.  Jonathan Harker has resumed his journal, and so we hear that Professor Van Helsing finds him in surprisingly good health. However, as they part Van Helsing learns of problems in store. Dr John Seward also...

Having arrived back in Douglas from a tour of the Island with two friends, David Robertson surveys the town from Douglas Head and reflects on the herring fishery as it was in 1791. Professor Van Helsing has visited Mina Harker in Exeter. Having found out all about poor Lucy Westenra, his attention turns to Mina's husband, Jonathan, and he, too, reads Jonathan's journal of his travails in C...

David Robertson surveys the scene from the summit of Snaefell and falls to philosophising. After heading straight down the valley to Laxey, he and his two friends then complete their tour of the Island by returning to Douglas via Onchan. In our Manx translation of Dracula, Professor Van Helsing explains to Mina Harker how it is that, although meeting her for the first time, he feels that he alread...

After concluding an overview of the Island's ecclesiastical history, David Robertson continues his 1791 tour of the Island, from Bishop's Court to Ramsey, then out to Maughold, before ascending Snaefell. In our Manx translation of Bram Stoker's Dracula, Professor Van Helsing has arranged to come to Exeter to see Mina Harker. So striking is their meeting that Mina decides to give a verb...

David Robertson gives a pen portrait of Bishop Thomas Wilson and talks of his successor, Mark Hildesley, as being in the same mould. He then deals with several other incumbents up to Claudius Crigan in 1791, before looking at a range of suggestions for the name of the see as Sodor and Man. There are disturbing developments on and around Hampstead Heath, not far from where Lucy Westenra was buried....

According to David Robertson's 1791 view of history, after the suppression of the Druids of the Ancient Britons in one Mona, Anglesey, they came to another Mona, the Isle of Man, where they continued their benevolent rule and ministry until the coming of Christianity. Following the burial of Lucy Westenra near Hampstead Heath, Professor Van Helsing tries to explain to Dr John Seward how it is...

Having explored Peel Castle, David Robertson and friends set out for Kirk Michael, and there we explore the background to one of the Scandinavian runic monuments they examined, as well as other ancient monuments. David Robertson seems to know a surprising lot about Druids! In our translation into the Manx Gaelic of Bram Stoker's 'Dracula', we hear of Jonathan Harker's startling sig...

David Robertson quotes from the work of George Waldron, describing a piece of history associated with Peel Castle in the 1440s. This has given rise to some fanciful additions to the history of Eleanor Cobham, the former wife of Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, thanks in part to William Shakespeare and to A P Graves in 'Manx National Songs'. Arthur Holmwood has come for the funeral of his fian...

We've arrived in Peel in our tour of the Island in 1791 in the company of David Robertson, who gives a brief account of Peel and its bay and then draws on the work of Captain Francis Grose (a visitor to the Island in 1774) to describe Peel Castle. Arthur Holmwood has just had to attend to the funeral of his father before coming for the funeral of his fiance, Lucy Westenra. His comfort is in hi...

Our 1791 tour guide, David Robertson, takes us over the mountains from Ballafesson to Foxdale, and then we go down the valley into St John's, before going back out along the Patrick Road towards Peel. Professor Van Helsing's drastic measures for dealing with Lucy Westenra after her death are thwarted. However, Mrs. Westenra's unusual will has, to the surprise of her solicitor, settled...

David Robertson tells us how the Manx people in the late eighteenth century experienced the beings that he refers to as "fairies" and the second sight - not that these were necessarily dismissed by leading figures of the day such as Joseph Addison. Our episode from Bram Stoker's Dracula follows the death of Lucy Westenra - or does it? Professor Van Helsing proposes a startling course...

David Robertson leads us from Kirk Malew to Kirk Christ Rushen, and on the way we pass some standing stones - but where? We then hear some romantic tales associated with Cronk Howe Mooar - the Fairy Hill at Ballafesson. Despite the ministrations of Professor Van Helsing and Dr John Seward, Arthur Holmwood's bride-to-be, Lucy Westenra, is failing. She's grateful to Professor Van Helsing for...

As David Robertson is visiting Castletown, then the seat of Government, he looks at the roles of what were then called the Governor-in-Chief, Edward Smith, and the Governor, Alexander Shaw, and also at peculiarities of Manx law - but is he right? We turn once again to Bram Stoker's 'Dracula' in translation into the Manx Gaelic, and hear more about poor Lucy Westenra who becomes restles...

Although David Robertson is describing his tour through the Island in 1791, he looks back 140 years to events of the 1650s, and we use this as a springboard to the history of the Stanley family. In this week's excerpt from our translation into the Manx Gaelic of Bram Stoker's 'Dracula', Mina Harker unwittingly writes cheerfully to Lucy Westenra, and Dr John Seward's assistant w...

Our tour through the Island in 1791 led by David Robertson has brought us to the Calf, where he refers to a 'woe-worn hermit' living in Elizabethan times. This was a legend used as the basis of a poem by Esther Nelson (1810-1843). We look at Esther Nelson and her poem, 'The Island Penitent : A Legend of the Calf'. In our Manx translation of Bram Stoker's 'Dracula', Quin...

After looking at the history and a legend of Keeill Vaayl, the chapel of St Michael that gives its name to the isle in Derbyhaven, we return to David Robertson's tour of 1791 as he takes us further south to the Calf and its avian inhabitants. An unlucky suitor of Lucy Westenra, Quincey Morris, has just given his blood to save Lucy. He is astute in realizing that another unlucky suitor, Dr John...

William Harrison retells The Legend of the Ruined Chapel in St Michael's Isle in a volume of material he collected and edited for The Manx Society in 1873, so we hear about the fate of Father Kelly and the chapel, to which we were steered originally by David Robertson's 1791 tour through the Island. Dr John Seward and Professor Van Helsing have broken into Lucy Westenra's house, findin...

Although David Robertson's 1791 tour through the Isle of Man has brought us to Derbyhaven, his reference to Keeill Vaayl, St Michael's Chapel, has already taken us to the Chronicles of the Kings of Man and the Isles, and now we've embarked on a lengthy legend, retold in 1873 by William Harrison, in which St Michael appears to a much-revered priest in the area. In our Manx translation o...

David Robertson has brought  us to Derbyhaven where we look at the Derby Fort on St Michael's Isle, and then at the chapel itself which gives its name to the isle, Keeill Vaayl, St Michael's Chapel. There's an early reference to it in the Chronicles of Man and the Isles, and then we turn to a legend that appeared in 1873 in a volume for the Manx Society, collected and edited by Wi...

David Robertson tells us the exciting tale of Ivar and Matilda, and the dastardly King Reginald, though the death of Reginald at Ivar's hand is not quite as told in the Chronicle of the Kings of Man and the Isles, which we dip into in a translation by Professor P A Munch. In this episode from Bram Stoker's Dracula, translated into the Manx Gaelic,  we hear more about the wolf, Bersick...

Our tour through the Isle of Man in 1791 with David Robertson brings us to Rushen Abbey, where we also admire the Crossag bridge and hear something of the history and the start of an ancient tale associated with it.  A wolf has escaped from a zoological gardens in London, and keeper Thomas Bilder is questioned about it by a reporter for the Pall Mall Gazette, in another episode from Bram Stok...

The Manx people of 1791 were notable for instigating court cases, and David Robertson gives us a fairly unedifying picture of how they proceeded. In our version in the Manx Gaelic of Bram Stoker's Dracula, once again Professor Van Helsing and Dr John Seward have to save the life of Lucy Westenra. With the Professor keeping watch over her, Lucy enjoys several nights of good sleep, and she quite...

Our 1791 tour guide, David Robertson, takes us out of Douglas and through Santon to Ballasalla. It gives us an opportunity to explore something of the history of Newtown (now Mount Murray) and an early industrial  enterprise in Ballasalla, using the power of the Silverburn to drive a cotton mill. Dr John Seward can't understand what Professor Van Helsing's reason is for his elaborate...