Claare Ny Gael - Manx Radio

We learn a little more about Captain John Taubman of The Nunnery, before David Robertson points out other fine houses for hospitality in the neighbourhood of Douglas - Captain Southcote's Ballaughton, Lord Henry Murray's Atholl-lodge on Port-e-Chee and The Hague in Onchan, formerly the home of the late Richard Betham. We return to Captain Taubman for his work in agriculture. Professor Van...

David Robertson takes us on further from Captain Taubman's residence, The Nunnery, to Kirk Braddan. He introduces us to 'Graveyard Poetry', and also to a story told by another visitor, Colonel Richard Townley - to whom it sounds as though Robertson had something of an aversion. In the excerpt from our Manx translation of 'Dracula', Lucy Westenra arranges for Dr John Seward to s...

David Robertson has returned to Douglas in 1791, and gives us a description of the town and its inhabitants, before taking us a little further afield. However, there are tensions and difficulties as well as beauties and pleasure. In an episode from our translation into the Manx Gaelic of Bram Stoker's 'Dracula', Arthur Holmwood has given blood to save the life of his fiance, Lucy Weste...

David Robertson gives us a view of society in Douglas as it was in 1791, where some indulged in luxuries whilst others suffered destitution. We meet some characters whom we've encountered in other descriptions of the Island in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. In our translation of Dracula into the Manx Gaelic, Professor Van Helsing and Dr John Seward agree that Lucy Westenra...

David Robertson guides us round some of the sights of Douglas as it was in 1791, and we look into the background of them with the help of later historians and more modern research. In Bram Stoker's Dracula, Professor Van Helsing has returned to examine Lucy Westenra, whose rapid deterioration since the previous day shocks Dr John Seward. Urgent action is required. As y kiaull ain 'sy chlaa...

David Robertson was an English customs officer who had been based in Douglas in the late 1780s. He returned to tour the Island in the summer of 1791, and subsequently published a book about it. From it, we get a view of the Island about 230 years ago. In our translation into the Manx Gaelic of Bram Stoker's Dracula, Dr John Seward has a patient called Renfield in his care whose case interests...

We recently heard of a visit to the Island in 1795. The previous year, a book was published of a tour of the Island made in 1791 by David Robertson, who had previously been based in Douglas as a customs officer. We look at the opening chapter of his book. In our extract from the Manx Gaelic translation of Bram Stoker's Dracula, Professor Abraham Van Helsing has come from Amsterdam at the reque...

We hear from Sara Goodwins and George Hobbs of Loaghtan Books about their most recent publication, 'Ramsey, Past and Present', based round images from Ray Stanfield's extensive collection. In Bram Stoker's 'Dracula' in our translation into the Manx Gaelic, Dr John Seward reports on his brief examination of Lucy Westenra to her worried fiance, Arthur Holmwood, but is puzzled...

Samuel William Ryley's family surname was Romney, but he adopted Ryley as a stage name and nom de plume some time between his 1795 visit to the Island and publication of his memoir in 1808. We've been looking at just a few pages from Volume 3 of his nine volume memoir. In our Manx translation of Bram Stoker's Dracula, we hear of Dr John Seward's experiences with his patient, Renfie...

In the autumn on 1795, Samuel William Ryley and his wife, Ann, are in Castletown, where again Samuel chances upon Dr Jacob Hammer and invites him to dine with them. The Dr has no money and is in dread of ending up as a debtor in Castle Rushen, but an official pass is not available to leave the Island until all debts are settled. Bram Stoker's 'Dracula' is an epistolary novel, and in ou...

Samuel William Ryley's memoir of his three months in the Island in 1795 includes encounters with Dr Jacob Hammer. Having bearded the doctor in his den to ask him to play his violin for him, Samuel Ryley waits at the theatre for his appearance. All is not well! In our Manx translation of 'Dracula' by Bram Stoker, the patient, Renfield, is found, brought back to the asylum and restrained...

As he sails away from Douglas on 31st December 1795, Samuel William Ryley meets up with Dr Jacob Hammer. Whilst we've looked at other episodes in Samuel Ryley's memoir, published in 1808, this is by no means the first time he's encountered the doughty Doctor, so we go back to find out more. In 'Dracula' by Bram Stoker, Nursing Sister Agatha of a sanitorium in Buda-Pesth has add...

Do you know anything about a poem about the many Kelly families of Lonan? One of them was said to have purloined something from a shipwreck. The revenue officers were told it was Kelly of Lonan - but which of so many could it be? This is a query from David Kelly of The Rhaa, who learned part of the poem from his father and has recently come across a version of it. Any information gratefully receiv...

Samuel William Ryley and his wife, Ann, expected to earn money from theatrical performances in the Island in 1795. After three months, that had not happened and they were about to leave - but not before a real-life drama unfolded. In our translation into the Manx Gaelic of Bram Stoker's 'Dracula', we infer what is happening from entries in Mina Murray's Journal and from letters sen...

An actor, Samuel William Ryley and his wife, Ann, have come to the Island in 1795, obviously expecting to stay a while as they have brought their furniture with them. However, they have found a pleasant furnished cottage on the sea front in Peel - but will they be able to stay there after all? After Lucy Westenra's sleepwalking exploits ending up in the churchyard of St Mary's in Whitby, s...

Samuel William Ryley (1759-1837) had a book published in 1808 : 'The Itinerant : or,  Memoirs of an Actor'. Part of the book deals with a visit he made with his wife, Ann, to the Island in September 1795. We look at some of what he has to say about his experience here. Mina Murray searches for her sleepwalking friend, Lucy Westenra, and finds her lying on their favourite bench in the...

We find out a little more about George Stepney of Belle Vue in Maughold, before exploring old Laxey and the Laxey valley. After that, we head for Douglas and the end of our excursion led by Rev Thomas Stephen's 1832 publication, 'A Poetical Guide to the Isle of Mann', and the end of his book. We return to Mina Murray's Journal in the translation into Manx Gaelic of Bram Stoker'...

Our 1832 publication, 'A Poetical Guide to the Isle of Mann' by Rev Thomas Stephen, has brought us to explore down north, to which we came via the western route. After seeing some of the sights - including Thomas Stephen's old family home in Ballaugh - we set out to return to Douglas, this time by the east coast route. In this episode of our Manx translation of Bram Stoker's 'D...

Our jaunt through the Island as it was in 1832 has brought us to Ramsey. We look at St Paul's Church, its history and appearance in the time of Rev Thomas Stephen, Ramsey harbour and then we exert ourselves to enjoy some wider sight-seeing on the north. The captain of the Russian schooner, Demeter, kept a ship's log of the troubled voyage from Varna to Whitby. His was the only body on boar...

We move on northwards from Ballaugh, and the area is notable for being wooded - something rare in the Island in 1832 when the Rev Thomas Stephen published 'A Poetical Guide to the Isle of Mann'. We find out about Sulby and Milntown before arriving in Ramsey. In our translation into Manx of Bram Stoker's 'Dracula', we hear of the aftermath of the surprising arrival into Whitby H...

This week we hear from Paul Quayle about his exhibition of haiku, wood carvings and single-stroke artwork at the Hodgson-Loom Gallery at Laxey Glen Mills, '36 Views of Snaefell', which also feature in his new book of the same title. Music for the exhibition - which includes the work of several friends - is by Sid Gilbert. We hear from both Paul and Sid. The cutting from The Dailygraph stuc...

We look at Glen Helen, although it was developed after the time of our 1832 poem, before resuming the road as it climbs round Creg Willy Syl and we quickly make our way northwards to Kirk Michael, Bishopscourt and Ballaugh, where we look at St Mary's, completed in 1832. In Bram Stoker's 'Dracula', in our Manx translation, a violent storm has suddenly erupted at Whitby after a fine...

From Crosby, Rev Thomas Stephen's 'A Poetical Guide to the Isle of Man' of 1832 takes us over the parish boundary from Marown into German and we spend quite a bit of time progressing slowly to Ballacraine, before we turn northwards towards Glen Helen - bearing in mind that we're bound ultimately for Ramsey. Mina Murray's Journal is the focus of our attention in our Manx transla...

We find out about the unfortunate history of Anthony Dunlop, a Scot who was a leading agriculturalist in the Island and was chosen as a Member of the House of Keys. However, events went against him and he died leaving debts here in the Island, but a farm in Marown renamed from Ballakilley to Ellerslie. In our translation into Manx of Bram Stoker's Dracula, we hear of Dr John Seward's thoug...

There is a brief but intriguing reference in 'A Poetical Guide to the Isle of Man', the 1832 work of Rev Thomas Stephen, to 'Dunlop's Ellerslie left in the lurch'. Ellerslie is in Marown, but we find out about Anthony Dunlop through an article which was reprinted in the Peel City Guardian in 1899. In our extract from the Manx translation of Dracula, the first of the three men w...