Claare Ny Gael - Manx Radio

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...

Rev Thomas Stephen's 1832 publication, 'A Poetical Guide to the Isle of Mann', has brought us to what he calls 'Dunlop's Ellerslie left in the lurch'. We start to find out about one-time owner of the farm, Anthony Dunlop, and we two personal glimpses of him, one as an older agriculturalist by Hannah Bullock in 1816, and the other by Scottish poet, Robert Burns, in a letter...

We return from Dalby to Douglas before setting out again on another excursion, led by Rev Thomas Stephen's 'A Poetical Guide to the Isle of Man' published in 1832. We find out something of the history behind the houses and farms he points out on the road, going west as far as St Runius and Ellerslie. In our Manx translation of Bram Stoker's 'Dracula', Mina Murray is writing...

The author of our 1832 publication, 'A Poetical Guide to the Isle of Mann', Rev Thomas Stephen, seems to have a particular interest in Sir George Moore, but we also find out about other notables that he refers to as he takes us out to Glen Maye - or Glen Moij as it was in his day. In this week's episode of a translation into Manx of Bram Stoker's 'Dracula', Dr John Seward d...

We set off on the second day of our excursions, and Rev Thomas Stephen leads us from Castletown up and over the slopes of Barrule to Foxdale, down to St John's and on to Peel. In our Manx translation of Bram Stoker's Dracula, Lucy Westenra has written to her friend, Mina Murray, about receiving three marriage proposals in a day. She's turned one down from Dr John Seward, and now she&#3...

We're visiting the Chasms with the Rev Thomas Stephen, following 'A Poetical Guide to the Isle of Mann' which he published in 1832. We'll return to Castletown by a circuitous route for our evening meal and accommodation - but not before the Rev Stephen leads us on yet another sight-seeing stroll before we sit down to eat. Not knowing of the perils facing her fiance, Jonathan Harker...

We're on an excursion, the first of several following Rev Thomas Stephen's 1832 'A Poetic Guide to the Isle of Mann'. We left Douglas via the Nunnery, Kewaigue, Richmond Hill and Newtown, and had reached Ballasalla. Onwards, then, to the Island's former capital, Castletown, where Mrs Kneen is to provide an evening meal. Despite his hopes of slipping out when the Szganee and the...

Rev Thomas Stephen is recommending that we go on excursions to see more of the Island as he describes it in rhyme in 1832, following our ramble through Douglas and surrounding area. He's critical of tourists trying to cram too much into a visit and recommends taking time to look around as he leads us off for our first excursion. Jonathan Harker knows that Count Dracula intends to hand him over...

We find out about the Fort Anne as a house and later as a hotel, before the Rev Thomas Stephen takes us down to the edge of a storm-tossed sea. Then we head inland to the Nunnery - still associated here with the Heywoods, though they had sold it many years before to the Goldie-Taubmans.  Jonathan Harker makes a bid to leave Castle Dracula immediately when the Count seems to be so disposed - o...

There is a good variety of meat and fish to be had in Douglas market, according to Rev Thomas Stephen's poem of 1832, before he takes us out onto the Red Pier, designed by George Steuart and clad in Annan sandstone. George Steuart also was the architect of the Castle Mona for the Duke of Atholl. Jonathan Harker was being lulled - hypnotised - by dancing lights, but when they started to take th...

Rev Thomas Stephen takes us for a stroll round parts of Douglas and out to old Kirk Braddan, and we look at the background to some of the things he mentions in his 1832 poem, 'A Poetical Guide to the Isle of Mann'. Jonathan Harker has been disappointed by the Szgany, who turned his letters over to Count Dracula. His renewed hope of getting information out through a part of Slovaks is soon...

We continue to follow Rev Thomas Stephen's 1832 work, 'A Poetical Guide to the Isle of Mann', in which we hear of the work of the hobblers, the harbour boatmen, and one lady's misfortune on being helped ashore at Douglas.   Jonathan Harker's hopes are raised by the appearance of a group of gypsies in the courtyard of Castle Dracula - perhaps he can send letters clandestine...