fauxklore

After a night at an airport hotel, I headed to the Dublin airport for the short flight to Douglas, the capital of the Isle of Man. I’d have preferred taking the ferry over, but the schedule didn’t work. Why go to IOM? Well, mostly because I’d never been there before. And then there’s a well-known Irish song “The Crack Was 90 in the Isle of Man” (which was actually written by Barney Rushe, but Christy Moore’s version of it is the best known.) “Crack” should really be “craic” which is Irish for fun. And “up to 90” is Irish slang for going to extremes. In other words, some Irish sailors had too much fun in Douglas (and got themselves deported.)

I was also intrigued by the island’s unique political status, as a self-governing Crown Dependency. Finally, I have a long standing interest in endangered languages so was interested in Manx being one of the few that seems to be making something of a successful comeback. That said, I had only a vague idea of what I was going to do there, which included going to the Manx Museum, strolling the Promenade in Douglas, and checking out some of what they refer to as “heritage transportation.”

Arrival at the airport was a bit confusing, because there were signs saying that people who weren’t UK or EU citizens have to register with immigration, but there did not appear to be anywhere to do that. I asked at the tourist information desk and was told not to worry about it. I got a bus to Douglas and had no trouble finding my hotel. I got a light lunch and then set off to the Manx Museum. This is up a steep hill from the Promenade, but there’s an elevator in a parking garage across from it which leads to a bridge, saving some of the effort. By the way, on the walk up, I passed this church with a large yarn bombed pride decoration.

The museum is free and has several sections. There’s a lot of local history going through early settlers, Celtic life, and the Vikings.

Then came the English, leading up to the rule of the Dukes of Athol. The revolution (i.e. Cromwell and the restoration of Charles II) shook things up and led to the current status as a crown dependency. The Tynwald, which dates back to the Vikings is said to be the oldest continually operating Parliament in the world. They still do an annual outdoors ceremony at the historic site on Tynwald Day. They have a short video about that, which was interesting to watch.

I looked only briefly at the natural history section, the most interesting part of which was about the Manx cat. I did not, alas, see any Manx cats during my trip.

The most interesting section to my tastes was the one on the Manx language. They had several examples of sayings and stories about the efforts to Anglicize the population and the more recent efforts to revive the language. In fact, I met a man there who was studying in a one week language class. There were also several sections about customs and superstitions, particularly beliefs held by Manx sailors.

I would also be remiss if I didn’t mention the triskelos, the three-legged symbol of the Isle of Man. This may have been brought from Sicily by Viking traders. One interpretation is that wherever you throw it, it will stand. At any rate, you see it all over the island and it is quite striking.

I strolled back down hill and walked around on the main shopping street (the Strand, which is fairly disappointing, with a lot of closed stores.) I would probably have bought something at the yarn shop there, but it closed at 4. During some additional meandering downtown, I saw a sign in the window of the library for the Manx Scrabble Club. I was disappointed to see that they apparently play in English.

My second day had me exploring further afield. You can buy a transit pass for 19 pounds, which is very good value since a regular train ticket is 18 pounds. I started with a walk to the steam railroad terminal, where I took a steam train to Port Erin. Because there was something of a heritage railroad festival, the train was fairly crowded, with several rail fans from the UK. When I got to Port Erin, I walked around the town and looked around the harbor for a while.

Then I walked back to the train station, where I took a couple of pictures of the steam trains.

I got on a train going back towards Douglas, and got off in Castletown. This is the former capital of the Isle of Man and has a number of historic buildings in the town center. I found a walking tour on-line and used it to see the outsides of some of them. I also had a very tasty cheese and onion pasty and some tea for lunch.

Here is Castle Rushen, which was built in the 13th century for a Norse king and later used as a residence for the Kings and Lords of Mann, as well as serving as a prison.

And here is the Old House of Keys, which used to be where the lower house of Tynwald met.

I didn’t have nearly enough time to spend in Castletown and I think it would be worth staying there a night or two as it felt more charming than Douglas was. But, touring as much as possible beckoned and I took the steam train back to Douglas. I then took a bus to Laxey, where there is a famous waterwheel. I didn’t get any particularly good pictures of it, alas. I’d intended to take the Manchester Electric Railway to Ramsey, but it was getting latish, so I decided to take the MER back to Douglas instead.

This is, essentially, what I would call a trolley, powered by overhead cables. It is also fairly uncomfortable.

Then there was a short ride on the Horse Tram, which is actually slightly more comfortable.

None of the historic transit systems are really practical for day to day use, so everyone except tourists takes buses (or drives themselves). Anyway, from the horse tram terminus, it’s a short walk down to the Villa Marina, which is an entertainment complex.

From there I just did more walking along the promenade back to my hotel. I also had to get a photo of the statue of the most famous people from the Isle of Man, namely the Bee Gees. Hopefully this little island keeps staying alive! (Actually, there is some sort of campaign for them to double their population. Presumably the intent is immigration, not breeding.)

While the ferry schedule had not worked for me to arrive on the Isle of Man, it did work for me to leave. In the morning, I took the steam packet Manannan from Douglas to Liverpool. Here’s a picture at the Liverpool side.

It was reasonably comfortable and was definitely more interesting than flying. Again, there were no immigration formalities. I ended up walking roughly a mile from the port to the train station and, despite a train strike, there was still pretty much hourly service to London. I spent a relaxing late afternoon and evening (during which I somehow managed to lose my wristwatch) before setting off to the IAJGS conference the next morning. Which I will, of course, write about separately.