This year’s Arrane son Mannin (a song for the IOM) competition, sponsored by the Manx Heritage Foundation, was held at the Masonic Hall, Peel, as part of the Cooish Inter-Gaelic Festival. The competition is held in order to select an original song in Manx Gaelic to represent the Island at the Pan-Celtic Festival in Ireland. Previous winners have included Cabbyl Ushtey, Katherine Crowe, Fiona Cain and Skeeal.
Entries for 2010 may have been thin on the ground, but quality made up for quantity. Written and performed by Dave McLean’s group, ‘Ny Jinnyn’, the winning song relates a tale of one of the writer’s family from a night remembered only too well in the Isle of Man - the night that Summerland burned down. ‘’Sy Ghrianane’ tells the story of one family’s anguish which turned to joy when they learned that their daughter Vicky, thought to be in Summerland, had not actually gone there with her friends and so had a particularly lucky escape. The song was written by Vicky’s brother, Dave, in collaboration with fellow band members, Laura & Dave Rowles. It was translated into Manx by Bob Carswell, and sung by Dave’s daughter, Alanna.
The members of Ny Jinnyn will take their song to represent the Isle of Man at the 40th Pan-Celtic Festival, to be held in Dingle Town, County Kerry in Easter week 2011.
If you want to enter next year’s competition, it’s never too early to start working on a song with a helpful translator - contact Fiona on fmcardle@manx.net for details.
--ENDS--
Tuesday 14th, December 2010 12:00pm.
