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Bernard Moffatt (born April 1946) is a Manx nationalist who was born in Peel, Isle of Man. Both his mother (Millie Cashin) and father (James Moffatt) were Manx.[ citation needed ] He was educated at Peel Clothworkers School, where Manx dancing classes at the School were organised by Mona Douglas, an icon of the Manx cultural revival. Moffatt was enrolled in one of those teams.
Moffatt's commitment to Manx nationalism was influenced by his early education, which emphasized Manx history, art, and culture. He has stated, "I'm now a fully committed Manx Nationalist," attributing this to his school experiences, including interactions with Mona Douglas and participation in Manx folk dancing. [1]
During his youth, Moffatt became acquainted with several prominent figures in the Manx nationalist and language movement, all from the west of the island. These included the brothers Walter and Leslie Quirk, Jack Irving, and Alfie Cooil. At that time, however, there was no official Nationalist Party in the Isle of Man. [2]
Bernard Moffatt was a founder member of Mec Vannin, the Manx Nationalist Party, established in 1962. His participation in the inaugural meeting, along with about a dozen others, is documented in Mec Vannin's original minute book, which is now preserved in the Manx Museum (MNH) Library after being missing for two decades. [3]
In its early years, Mec Vannin positioned itself as a national liberation movement, with some members viewing the Isle of Man as being under excessive British influence, akin to a colonial administration. The party explored various approaches to nationalism, including: Constitutional reform Direct action Increased focus on Manx language and culture There were also efforts to establish connections with Welsh and Irish republican groups. However, it's important to note that Mec Vannin did not adopt a republican stance until over two decades after its formation. [4]
The party's development was marked by internal conflicts and divisions, which persisted until the mid-1980s. These challenges reflected the diverse opinions within the Manx nationalist movement regarding the best path forward for achieving their goals. [5]
Mec Vannin's primary objective is to achieve national independence for the Isle of Man as a sovereign state, based on a republican form of government. The party also aims to protect and advance Manx interests and safeguard the rights of the Manx people. [6]
Bernard Moffatt's involvement with Mec Vannin fluctuated over a decade before he fully committed to the nationalist movement in the early 1970s. In 1976, Moffatt co-founded the Anti-Militarist Alliance (AMA), a coalition of members from the Manx branch of the Celtic League and Mec Vannin. The AMA's initial focus was to campaign against the presence of military facilities on the Isle of Man, advocating for the closure of an Army base and military bombing range on the island. Additionally, the AMA opposed the use of military facilities on the Island that supported Operation Banner in Northern Ireland during the Troubles. The organization produced the Celtic League and AMA News, a complete archive of which is preserved in the Manx Museum (MNH) Library. [7]
The AMA's activities became contentious among some factions within Mec Vannin, leading to unsuccessful attempts to expel Moffatt and other members. This internal conflict resulted in the departure of disaffected elements, who subsequently established a short-lived "Manx National Party". [8] Moffatt remained with Mec Vannin, holding various executive positions over the years, and was eventually elected Life President. [8]
Moffatt's initial involvement with the Celtic League came in the mid-1970s as a result of the formation in Manning of the AMA. Patricia Bridson (later to become Carn Editor) was the branch secretary at the time. Moffatt eventually succeeded Bridson as Secretary and was later elected Assistant General Secretary to assist Alan Heusaff in overall stewardship of the League. Moffatt eventually succeeded Heusaff as General Secretary and undertook that office from 1984 to 1988 and 1991 to 2006. [9]
During his period as both AGS and General Secretary, Moffatt oversaw the Celtic League's military monitoring campaigns. This was a long-running and diverse campaign covering all facets of military activity in the Celtic countries. It was extensively documented in Carn and a copious file of activities was accumulated.
These files were eventually deposited in the Manx Museum (MNH) Library (additional papers are also lodged in the National Library of Wales) and in November 2008 were featured in a French TV documentary (broadcast globally on TV5 Monde and also on France 3). Moffatt was interviewed by journalist Veronica Weber in the library vault at MNH with the boxes of files. [10]
Military monitoring materials compiled by the League have been drawn on extensively by other sources over the years. A copy of a file on munitions dumping around the British Isles was supplied to the Department of the Marine in the 1990s, and the League's archive was also used in a report compiled for the Japanese National Diet. [11]
In addition, League material was supplied to the reopened Irish government enquiry into the 1968 crash of an Aer Lingus Vickers Viscount. The material was used by the Air Accident Investigation Unit during their investigation, and League queries were responded to in the final report. [12]
Another Celtic League campaign in which Moffatt enthusiastically participated was the initiative to have the Calf of Man (a small island to the south of Man) returned from the National Trust to the Manx nation. This collaborative venture between the Manx and London branches of the Celtic League was ultimately successful. [9]
Moffatt has travelled extensively for the Celtic League, giving papers on nationalism, anti-militarism and civil liberties in the Celtic countries, Switzerland, Romania and Libya. [13]
Writing in the "Outside Left" [14] column in Isle of Man Newspapers, which he wrote for briefly, in December 2015, Mr. Moffatt, pointed out the misapprehension of many regarding his politics, stating that a secretary in the 1980s Isle of Man TGWU (Transport and General Workers' Union) said (of his application to be a TGWU official), "It’s your politics. You’re a nationalist they will definitely appoint someone from the (Manx) Labor Party. You’re not left-wing.", and added, "I remember being mildly amused at the idea that anyone in the MLP (Manx Labour Party) was left wing." He went on, "In some ways I’m a conservative with a small c."
Moffatt was an active trade unionist from the 1960s. He joined the TGWU while working for the Forestry Board and was a shop steward in the building industry in the early 1970s. He left the TGWU and joined the health union COHSE (Confederation of Health Service Employees) for a period in the mid-1970s, finally rejoining the TGWU in 1980.
Moffatt became branch chairman of the main TGWU branch (the 6/509) and also Chairman of the TGWU Isle of Man District Committee. Eventually he became full-time official for the TGWU on the island. He was involved in fuel oil disputes and brewery strikes, and also coordinated support for striking miners by blocking imports of coal into the island and raising funds. [15]
Through the Trades Council, Moffatt cooperated with others in opposing new trade union laws. In a foreword to On Whose Terms – The Betrayal of the Manx working class he wrote:
"The Isle of Man Government, using the thinly veiled guise of Social Reform, is about to establish new Employment Law. This Social Legislation is designed to provide the State with a security from industrial strife that the old 1936 (Trades Dispute) Act provided. In enacting this legislation Government effectively hopes to hang the same 'albatross' around the neck of organised labour as they did in the 1930s." [16]
Moffatt retired as TGWU full-time official but continued as a member of the IOM Trades Council and also as Secretary of the IOM Whitley Council for several years. He retired completely from Trade Union duties in September 2014. His daughter Angela Moffatt is a full-time official on the IOM for the white-collar and technical union "Prospect".
Bernard Moffatt has been active in campaigning for reform of laws relating to civil liberties on the island for four decades. In the 1980s, with the assistance of the TGWU and when District Chairman on the island, he lobbied the Home Office, meeting government ministers and urging action to allow the right of individual petition under the European Convention on Human Rights to Manx citizens (this was rescinded in 1976 and not restored until the 1990s).
He has also campaigned for the abolition of capital punishment and judicial corporal punishment (birching), for reform of laws outlawing homosexuality, and for prison reform.
He was a founder member (and Secretary) with other trade unionists of the Manx Council for Civil Liberty which existed in the 1990s and was successful in seeing changes to civil liberties legislation which reformed all the aforementioned issues. [17]
Moffatt was scathing of the Manx government and popular attitudes in the island to civil liberties. Quoting a remark made by a sentencing magistrate, he said:
"I would delight in birching both of you" – Those words spoken by a magistrate nearly 30 ago, to two mentally retarded children, should be burnt into the soul of every Manxman. The remarks represent a bigotry, intolerance and fundamental disregard for civil liberty that existed and is retained to this day. The birch, of course, has since "died the death" and is consigned to "saloon bar" nostalgia for a perceived more disciplined age.
He went on:
For the past thirty years or more this Nation has consistently lacked a leadership that took a firm stand on individual liberty. [18]
Moffatt has presented evidence on behalf of the Celtic League to various international bodies on civil liberties issues. In relation to the Isle of Man this has successfully focused on prison reform. [19]
The government of the Isle of Man is a parliamentary representative democracy. The Monarch of the United Kingdom is also the head of state of the Isle of Man, and generally referred to as "The King, Lord of Mann". Legislation of the Isle of Man defines "the Crown in right of the Isle of Man" as separate from the "Crown in right of the United Kingdom". His representative on the island is the Lieutenant Governor of the Isle of Man, but his role is mostly ceremonial, though he does have the power to grant Royal Assent.
Mec Vannin is a political party operating in the Isle of Man. Formed in 1962, it seeks to revoke the status of Man as a British self-governing Crown dependency and establish a completely sovereign state, which would be a republic.
The Celtic League is a pan-Celtic organization, founded in 1961, that aims to promote modern Celtic identity and culture in Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Brittany, Cornwall and the Isle of Man – referred to as the Celtic nations; it places particular emphasis on promoting the Celtic languages of those nations. It also advocates further self-governance in the Celtic nations and ultimately for each nation to be an independent state in its own right. The Celtic League is an accredited NGO with roster consultative status to the United Nations Economic and Social Council (EcoSoc).
Peter Alfred Craine was a British baker and a politician who served as Member of the House of Keys (MHK) for Douglas South.
Yn Pabyr Seyr is the newsletter of Mec Vannin, the Manx pro-independence organisation, and publicises their policies, views and comments.
Alan Heusaff, also Alan Heussaff was a Breton nationalist, linguist, dictionary compiler, prolific journalist and lifetime campaigner for solidarity between the Celtic peoples. A co-founder of the Celtic League in 1961, he was its first general secretary until 1984.
Illiam Dhone or Illiam Dhône, also known as William Christian, was a Manx politician and depending on viewpoint, patriot, rebel or traitor. He was a son of Ewan Christian, a deemster. In Manx, Illiam Dhone literally translates to Brown William—an epithet he received due to his dark hair—and in English he was called Brown-haired William. Dhone was a significant figure in the Isle of Man during the English Civil War and the Manx Rebellion of 1651. He was executed for high treason in 1663. In the centuries after his death he has become a "martyr and folk-hero, a symbol of the Island's cherished freedoms and traditional rights".
The Manx are an ethnic group originating on the Isle of Man, in the Irish Sea in Northern Europe. They belong to the diaspora of the Gaelic ethnolinguistic group, which now populate the parts of the British Isles and Ireland which once were the Kingdom of the Isles and Dál Riata. The Manx are governed through the Tynwald, the legislature of the island, which was introduced by Viking settlers over a thousand years ago. The native mythology and folklores of the Manx belong to the overall Celtic Mythology group, with Manannán mac Lir, the Mooinjer veggey, Buggane, Lhiannan-Shee, Ben-Varrey and the Moddey Dhoo being prominent mythological figures on the island. Their language, Manx Gaelic is derived from Middle Irish, which was introduced by settlers that colonised the island from Gaelic Ireland. However, Manx gaelic later developed in isolation and belongs as a separate Goidelic language of the Insular Celtic languages.
Philip Anderson Gawne, better known as Phil Gawne, is a former Member of the House of Keys for Rushen, a constituency in the Isle of Man.
Peter Karran is a Manx politician, who is a former leader of the Liberal Vannin Party and former Minister of Education and Children. He was a Member of the House of Keys for Middle, and then for Onchan, from 1985 to 2016.
The Liberal Vannin Party is a political party in the Isle of Man. It was founded in 2006 by Peter Karran, then an Independent MHK for Onchan. Karran had been, until 2004, a member of the Manx Labour Party. The "Vannin" in the party name is a form of the name of the Isle of Man in the native Manx Gaelic language, while "Liberal" is a reference to the general political position of the party. The party is currently led by Lawrie Hooper MHK.
The Manx National Party was an offshoot of Mec Vannin, a nationalist party in the Isle of Man. Divisions within Mec Vannin caused the split in 1977, and the single Mec Vannin member of the House of Keys transferred his loyalties to the new party. When Craine ceased to be an MHK in 1981 the Manx National Party soon ceased to exist.
Mona Douglas was a Manx cultural activist, folklorist, poet, novelist and journalist. She is recognised as the main driving force behind the modern revival of Manx culture and is acknowledged as the most influential Manx poet of the 20th century, but she is best known for her often controversial work to preserve and revive traditional Manx folk music and dance. She was involved in a great number of initiatives to revive interest and activity in Manx culture, including societies, classes, publications and youth groups. The most notable and successful of these was Yn Chruinnaght.
Colin Jerry was a Manx cultural activist best known for his contributions to Manx music through his books, Kiaull yn Theay, published in two volumes. He was awarded the Reih Bleeaney Vanannan in 1991 for his contributions to Manx culture which were 'extensive and staggering.'
Rhisiart Tal-e-bot is a Welsh activist, Early Years lecturer who has been General Secretary of the Celtic League since 2006 and editor of Carn magazine since 2013. He is also the former president of the European Free Alliance Youth.
The Isle of Man Green Party is a green political party in the Isle of Man founded in August 2016 by Andrew Langan-Newton, who still leads the party along with Deputy Leader, Lamara Craine. Success has been achieved at local authority level with the first seat won in a by-election in 2018 and today the party has 4 elected members on 4 different local authorities. The Party proposes that it provides a forum for citizens of the Isle of Man to build a movement seeking change and direction in Isle of Man politics.
Lewis Crellin (1901–1990) also known as Louis Crellin or Lewis y Crellin was a Manx language scholar and teacher who was involved with the revival of the Manx language on the Isle of Man in the 20th century and the Manx independence movement in the 1960s.
Doug Fargher (1926–1987) also known as Doolish y Karagher or Yn Breagagh, was a Manx language activist, author, and radio personality who was involved with the revival of the Manx language on the Isle of Man in the 20th century. He is best known for his English-Manx Dictionary (1979), the first modern dictionary for the Manx language. Fargher was involved in the promotion of Manx language, culture and nationalist politics throughout his life.
The Manx Rebellion of 1651 was an uprising against the ruler of the Isle of Man during the English Civil War. It was led by William Christian, better known by the epithet Illiam Dhone, due to his dark hair. The Rebellion was mainly in response to agrarian and land ownership reforms enacted by Lord of Mann James Stanley, 7th Earl of Derby, and the increased burden on the Manx people during the English Civil War. It was a bloodless coup with English Parliamentary forces taking control of the island. The Rebellion temporarily ended control of the Isle of Man by the Stanley family until the Restoration when King Charles II returned from exile in Europe.