Gwenno Saunders

…de la BBC:

Gwenno Saunders, a young singer-songwriter from Cardiff, sings in Welsh and Cornish and has hit the right notes with a string of successes.

She has already travelled the world with Michael Flatley's Lord Of The Dance show, had a top five hit in the dance charts with Fire In The Sky, and even starred in the S4C soap Pobol Y Cwm.

But music was Gwenno's first love, and she decided to concentrate on her musical career. She hasn't looked back since being signed-up by Caernarfon record label Crai and releasing the Môr Hud EP…

[Dankon al "M Man"!]

Yn-Chruinnaght

...de Isle of Man Today:

Yindyssagh!

The word is Manx for 'wonderful' and is an apt description of the 30th annual Yn Chruinnaght inter-Celtic festival.

From the lighting of the bonfire on Ramsey's south shore last Wednesday night to the sell-out concert by Scottish folk legends Deaf Shepherd and the Celtic Fiddlers from Newfoundland in the Centenary Centre, Peel, on Sunday night.

John Kaneen, in the role of the sea god Manannan, lit the bonfire which cheered an otherwise damp evening. The arrival on the shore of a traditional Norwegian boat bearing Yn Chruinnaght president Fenella Bazin added to the atmosphere...

La Irlandalingvo en Georgio

...de la Rome News-Tribune:

Children were dancing the jig to the end of their summer vacation this week at the Irish Culture Camp run by local dance teacher Barbara Joyce.

The camp, held at Shorter College, was not just about dancing and music, but gave the more than 20 children who attended the camp a look at the history and culture of Ireland. Though they had a only week to cover a culture that spans thousands of years in tradition, Joyce said the children got much out of the experience…

…The campers also showed off some of their newly honed language skills for their parents by speaking Gaelic for the crowd and counting to 20 in the Irish language.

For Joyce, who hails from Ireland herself, the camp is not nearly enough time to teach the campers everything that they could learn about Ireland….

Unua Ministro de Orienta Belfasto?

...de la Andersontown News:

...When First Minister Ian Paisley exited, however, Sinn Féin rightly put its foot down and demanded the implementation of the St Andrews' Agreement, including the removal of policing and justice powers from our British overlords (whose record on policing and justice in these parts won’t be hard to beat). Another key part of the St Andrews' Agreement was an Irish Language Act but rather than take steps to deliver on that pledge, successive DUP culture ministers have made their opposition to the Irish language a touchstone of their adminstrations.

In the unusual political architecture bequeathed society by the Good Friday Agreement, the DUP can only be in power with the assent of Sinn Féin. The same goes for Sinn Féin. Faced with DUP intransigence — they want their political cake from Sinn Féin and eat it without giving anything in return — the republicans have dug in…..

…Partly in jest, they refer to Peter Robinson in Stormont as “The First Minster for East Belfast” because his eye first and foremost is on his own constituency. Note that last week in the middle of this political stand-off, he still signed off on a £500m-plus investment for Bombardier, headquarterd in East Belfast….

Cruinneachadh nan Gaidheal

...de The Chronicle Herald:

It appears Catriona Parsons has every intention of kicking up her Gaelic heels this week.
The president of the Gaelic Council of Nova Scotia is helping to host a brand new event called Cruinneachadh nan Gaidheal, or Gathering of the Gaels, to those of us not so familiar with the language.

"It’s meant to be a celebration of Gaelic language and culture," an enthusiastic and proud Ms. Parsons said Tuesday.

She is a professor in the Celtic studies department at St. Francis Xavier University in Antigonish, where the three-day event of ceilidhs, workshops and classes in language, dancing and music will take place from Thursday to Saturday.

"The whole impetus of the gathering is to recognize that Gaelic is making great strides in Nova Scotia. People are learning the language, they’re talking the language and they’re singing the language."...

La Granda Irlanda Malsatego

...de The Peninsula:

Irish government experts met yesterday to consider how to commemorate the country's Great Famine, which killed over a million people more than 160 years ago.

A national day of commemoration is expected to emerge from the committee-the first time the forgotten victims would be officially remembered since the Famine, which triggered an enormous exodus from Ireland. "There is nothing else in the history of the Irish people that can be likened to the Great Famine," Community Affairs and Gaeltacht (Irish language) Minister Eamon O Cuiv told the inaugural meeting.

"The involvement of this committee will help to ensure that the Famine, its victims and its legacy are not forgotten," said O Cuiv, a grandson of former prime minister and president Eamon de Valera. The huge death toll from starvation and disease was caused by successive failures of the potato crop-then a key part of the staple diet for many Irish people-in 1845-49.

The population of Ireland, which exceeded eight million in 1841, plummeted as a result of death and emigration. The famine triggered a surge in emigration as an estimated 1.5 million people headed for England, Scotland, Australia, New Zealand, the US and Canada.

As a result, in 1850 a quarter of the populations of Liverpool, Boston, New York and Philadelphia were identified as Irish.

The following year, a census in Canada indicated more than half the inhabitants of Toronto, Ontario, to be Irish. The ministry said themes that will be investigated by the committee will be the "general legacy of emigration, cultural loss and the decline of the Irish language" as a result of the catastrophe….

Ysgol Croes Atti

...de la Evening Leader:

An innovative project aimed at encouraging Flintshire children to learn Welsh as they play is proving a hit with youngsters.

A series of weekly 'Yard Games' have been running at Ysgol Croes Atti in Flint.

The school's Year 4 pupils have been working with children and youth officer Alaw Lewis, of Welsh language body Menter Iaith Sir y Fflint.

Alaw has been running sessions with the children, supporting the school in encouraging and developing the children's confidence in using the Welsh language in the schoolyard as well as the classroom.

During the first session the children were given homework to find out what games their parents and grandparents used to play during their childhoods. Alaw will prepare a booklet of all the old games ready for the new term in September, and says she hopes to resurrect some of the classics of the past among the younger generation….

Pastro Cathal Ó Gallchoir

[Bildo de la Ceithearna Coille en Nov-Jorko]

...de la Irish Times:

A Donegal priest has won his battle to remain in the United States after the authorities there dropped proceedings to have him deported.

Fr Cathal Gallagher (58), from Gweedore, said yesterday that US immigration authorities, who had moved to deport him on July 1st, have told him he can stay.

He now plans to return home to Donegal for the wedding of his niece,

TG4 reporter Áine Ní Ghallchoir…

…"I couldn't go home, not even for special family events. Now I'm looking forward to attending my niece's wedding next month," he said.

Ms Ní Ghallchoir, who reports from Belfast for TG4, weds Patrick Duffy in her native Gortahork, Co Donegal, on August 23rd when another uncle, local parish priest Fr Seán Gallagher, will officiate…

[***Pastro Ó Gallchoir (“Cathal Johnny Sheáin”) instruis la Irlandolingvon en Japanio!]

Sarkozy en Irlando

...de Agence France-Presse:

...Most protesters, though, were out in force to register their outrage at Sarkozy's suggestion that Ireland should vote again on the treaty, after rejecting it in a referendum last month, leaving the 27-member bloc in limbo.

Anti-war protesters, trades unions, Irish language groups and an assortment of mainly leftist organizations held aloft their placards in English and French, calling for him to respect their democratic will...

Eisteddfod

...de la Denbighshire Free Press:

Trwy gydweithio â Bwrdd yr Iaith Gymraeg, roedd staff a gwirfoddolwyr yn brysur yn ymarfer eu cyfarchion Cymraeg.

Mae Mervyn Cousins, cyfarwyddwr gweithredol newydd Eisteddfod Llangollen, wedi bod yn brysur ei hun yn gwrando ar dapiau dysgu Cymraeg, ac mae'n paratoi i gofrestru ar gyfer cwrs dysgu Cymraeg ym mis Medi.

Dywedodd cyn yr Eisteddfod: "Er bod rhai aelodau o'r tîm yn siaradwyr Cymraeg rhugl (18 y cant), rydym wedi cynnig hyfforddi staff a gwirfoddolwyr sy'n ymwneud â'r cyhoedd yn unionyrchol, i gyfarch cwsmeriaid a chynnig gwasanaeth trwy gyfrwng y Gymraeg i'r rheiny fyddai'n well ganddynt drafod busnes â ni yn y Gymraeg....

Sri-Lanka Ekspozicio

...de LankaWeb:

Recently (19th July, 2008) the pro-LTTE diaspora held a photo exhibition titled “60 years of Oppression of Tamils in Sri Lanka” to the British MP’s. It is highly unlikely that the diaspora would ever hold a public lecture such as “The Benefits of Free Education of Sri Lanka” and tell the world about the great C.W.W. Kannangara’s concept of Free Education which allowed countless diaspora members to become doctors, lawyers, engineers, accountants and graduates. These qualifications funded by taxpayers money of Sri Lanka would have undoubtedly given them the vital points (along with bogus refugee claims) to gain permanent residence in western countries.

Choosing Britain, a country which defines the term “double standards” as the host country is also highly appropriate. The term “Celtic Fringe” was used by the English to derogate the regions of Celtic minorities (Scots, Irish and Welsh). The Irish are the prime example of English mistreatment and persecution of minorities.

Even today anti-Irish sentiment is strong, a relict of the war against the Irish people which included linguicide (systematic destruction of language) of Irish Gaelic by banning its use in schools until 1871 and through sycophant politicians like Daniel O'Connell who denigrated his own mother tongue as “backward” and advocated the use of English (I guess this concept sounds very familiar among many Kalu-Suddhas as well!). It was only the Gaelic Revival Movement (akin to the Helabasa movement of the great Munidasa Kumaranathunga) that saved Irish Gaelic from extinction…

David Cooney

...de Isle of Man Today:

The new Irish ambassador to the UK is spending five days in the Isle of Man promoting the business and cultural links between the two jurisdictions.
David Cooney, who is currently head of Ireland's United Nations mission in New York, takes up his new post later in the summer..

...On Wednesday he went to the Yn Chruinnaght Festival of music, dance, drama and language in Ramsey and completed a visit to the old House of Keys, Castle Rushen and the Manx Museum.

Also on the itinerary are visits to the House of Manannan, Cregneash and the Manx Language School...

...The visit to Cregneash and the Manx Language Centre marks the 60th anniversary since members of the Irish Folklore Commission visited the Island in 1948 to record some of the last surviving native Manx language speakers.

Kampa Fajro

...de The Telegraph:

And, along with the promise of witnessing an event that, though once widespread, occurs now only in Cornwall, it is this remoteness that brings me here.

"Here" turns out to be between Penzance and Zennor in a field near the hamlet of Boswarthen, which is, itself, just off an isolated road north of Madron. Despite the abundance of place names, I am bang-slap in the middle of nowhere.

I'm here for a bonfire - a midsummer's eve bonfire on a hill overlooking Mount's Bay - one of at least half a dozen such events arranged by Old Cornwall societies.

The guiding principle of these societies is to keep old customs alive for the next generation - a process of ''gathering the fragments" of Cornish culture, language and traditions that has grown in popularity over the years...

Uwcheglwys San Bened

...de Wales on Line:

The Welsh-speaking congregation of one of London’s finest churches has been locked out of its building, the Western Mail can reveal today.

Parishioners have responded by celebrating evensong on the church lawn in Welsh.

Located in the heart of the City of London, St Benet Paul’s Wharf is a landmark of Welsh heritage and among the best examples of Sir Christopher Wren’s architecture.

But the diocese of London could not come to an agreement with the church wardens about future plans for St Benet and has taken control of the building, which it may use for “educational” purposes.

The small congregation has been encouraged to travel to Paddington where Welsh-language services are held at the church of St David’s...