Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - The Isle of Man

Starting point is 00:00:00 Located between the islands of Great Britain and Ireland, in the middle of the Irish Sea, lies one of the oddest political jurisdictions in the world. It's not a country, nor is it a territory of another country. For the most part, it has autonomy over its affairs, yet it depends entirely on another country for its survival. It has an ancient history, once had its own language, and is probably the world's center of motorcycle racing. Learn more about the Isle of Man, its history, and how it functions on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. What if your perceptions about the past were wrong? ThruLine is a podcast that takes you back in time to uncover the parts of the story that may have gone unnoticed.

Starting point is 00:00:52 It effectively turned day into night. And how it shaped the world now. Time travel with us every week on the ThruLine podcast from NPR. The story of the Isle of Man goes back about 8,500 years when sea levels were rising due to the retreat of the polar ice ice. sheets of the last ice age. As the waters rose, the British Isles were disconnected from continental Europe, and the Isle of Man was disconnected from Great Britain and Ireland. Here I should give a brief explanation of the geography of the region. The British Isles consist of all of the islands off the northwest coast of Europe. This includes the large islands of Great Britain and Ireland, as well as

Starting point is 00:01:35 6,000 other smaller islands, including the Channel Islands, the Orkneys, the inner and outer Hebrides, and the Isle of Man. At its closest point, it's 51 kilometers or 32 miles from Ireland and approximately the same distance to England and 29 kilometers or 18 miles from Scotland. Despite being so close to both Ireland and Great Britain, it has had a very different history. There's evidence of humans on the island dating back to the Stone Age. It's probable that the first humans crossed the land bridge connecting it to Scotland. During the Iron Age, the Isle of Man fell under Celtic influence and its culture became fundamentally Celtic. Despite how close it is to Great Britain, there's no evidence that the Romans ever bothered sailing there,

Starting point is 00:02:18 and if they did, there are no records of them doing so, and no artifacts have ever been found. The name, man, probably comes from an ancient Celtic word for mountain, Mon. In the 5th century, there was either a mass migration or an invasion of the island from Ireland. The Irish brought two things with them that fundamentally changed the island. The first was their language, which eventually evolved into the language on the island, as Manx. Manx is a Gaelic language that is closely related to Irish and Scottish Gaelic, but more on Manx in a bit. The second thing that the Irish brought with them was Christianity. According to legend, Saint Maughold, a follower of St. Patrick, was the one who converted the

Starting point is 00:02:59 island and he remains the patron saint of the Isle of Man today. In the 9th century, the island was invaded by Vikings. At first, the Vikings just came to plunder the people who live there, but eventually they established settlements. The Norse controlled the island until about the 13th century, when it came under the control of Scotland, when it was sold to the Scottish king for 400 marks. It was only in Scottish hands for about 20 years before it came under the control of the English for the first time. Through the 14th century, the island changed hands between the Scottish and the English several times before winding up a permanent crown dependency of England. And here I should note that while the Isle of Man was under the authority of the King of

Starting point is 00:03:37 England, it was never itself part of England. In 1405, King Henry IV of England gave the island to Sir John Stanley on a futile basis, on the condition that he and his heirs provide two falcons to all future kings upon their coronation. In the 17th century, the Stanley family found themselves on the wrong side of the English Civil War. With King Charles I beheaded, Oliver Cromwell, the new Lord Protector of England, appointed Thomas Fairfax as Lord of Man and the Isles. The Stanley family returned to control the island until the British Parliament passed the Isle of Man Purchase Act of 1765, known on the Isle of Man as the Revestment Act. The Act gave 70,000 pounds,

Starting point is 00:04:20 and a 2,000 pound annual annuity to the family that ruled the island and transferred the title of Lord of Man to the King. The head of state of the Isle of Man is the Lord of Man, which is the British monarch, but it's held as a separate title. When Queen Elizabeth died, who was stylized as the Lady of Man, Charles was then proclaimed Lord of Man by the Manx Parliament. In 1828, all of the remaining rights held by the descendants of the Stanleys were sold to the crown for 417,000 pounds. Over the last 150 years, the island of man has seen increased autonomy and independence. The status of the Isle of Man is very similar to that of Jersey and Guernsey, which I covered in a previous episode. All three are considered crown dependencies.

Starting point is 00:05:04 They are not part of the United Kingdom, but they are reliant on the UK government for defense and international relations. For example, when the UK was part of the European Union, the Isle of Man was not part of the EU and was explicitly excluded. There are several things that make the Isle of Man unique and very different from Jersey and Guernsey. One of the big differences is the Manx Parliament, which is called the Tinwald. The Tinwald was established during the Viking rule in the year 979, making it older than the English Parliament. The only national parliament which can claim earlier origins is Iceland, which established their legislative body in. 930. However, the Icelandic All-Thing hasn't been in continuous operation the entire time, which is why the people of man called the Tinwald the world's oldest continuous parliament.

Starting point is 00:05:53 The Tinwald is a bicameral body consisting of the House of Keys and the Legislative Council. The House of Keys is directly elected by the Manx people, similar to the British House of Commons, and it has 24 seats. The Legislative Council consists of 11 seats, eight of which are selected by the House of Keys, and the other three are the president of the Tinwald, the Bishop of Man, and the Attorney General of the Island, who can't vote. The National Day for the Isle of Man is Tinwald Day,

Starting point is 00:06:20 which is usually on July 5th. One of the other notable things about the Isle of Man is the language that developed there called Manx. Manx, as I mentioned before, is a Gaelic language that is in the same language family as Irish, Scottish, and Welsh. While all of these languages have become endangered with the spread of English,

Starting point is 00:06:36 The most endangered language has been Manx due to the island's small population. The last person who was considered a native speaker of Manx was Ned Madrell, who died in 1974 at the age of 97. Thankfully, Ned lived long enough to help take part in the Manx Cultural Revival that began in the 1960s, and he worked with many younger people who were learning the Manx language. Today, there are more people on the island who are naming their children with traditional Manx names, and there's been an increase in signage with words in both English and Manx. As of 2022, there are an estimated 2,200 Manx speakers, which corresponds to about 2.5% of the population of 84,000 people.

Starting point is 00:07:16 The flag and symbol of the Isle of Man are very distinctive. It consists of a symbol known as a Triskeleon. The Isle of Man Triskeleon consists of three armored legs wearing golden spurs that are arranged like a pinwheel. And at first glance, it's kind of reminiscent of a swastika. The Triskeleon is actually an ancient symbol. that dates back several thousand years. The triskeleon can be found in the flag, license plates, currency, and other official documents. True story, the last day I was on the Isle of Man, I needed to

Starting point is 00:07:46 get some cash, so I went to an ATM machine and took out 200 pounds. When the bills came out of the machine, I didn't even look at them and put them right in my wallet. I'd been using British pounds during my stay on the island without any problem and didn't think about what would come out of the machine. The next day, I was in Glasgow and I went to a movie theater and took a 20-pound note out of my wallet to pay for the ticket. The woman at the counter looked at me funny and said, Sir, we can't accept this. I asked why not? She said, look. Sure enough, I had been given Isle of Man Pound notes with a giant triskeleon right in the front. And I had to find a bank where I could convert them to Bank of England notes. You can also find a very prominent triskeleon on the world's

Starting point is 00:08:24 largest water wheel, the Great Laxley Wheel. Built in 1854, the Great Laxley Wheel is 72.5 feet or 22.1 meters in diameter. And it was originally built to help power a mine, but today it's just a historic site. If you ask many people what they know about the Isle of Man, there's a good chance that they're going to mention the Isle of Man Tourist Trophy, or the Isle of Man T, perhaps the world's most famous and dangerous motorcycle race. The first race was run in 1907. Today, the race runs on a 37.7 mile or 60.7 kilometer road course, which goes in a loop around much of the island and through the mountainous interior of the island. Since the first race in 1907, there have been 266 deaths, and in 2022 alone, there were six people killed during formal motorcycle races. And that total doesn't even include spectators and race officials, of which there are about a dozen more.

Starting point is 00:09:19 What makes the race so dangerous is that there are 264 corners that have to be navigated on each lap. Also, because this is a road course, there are often cliffs or walls on the course, unlike what you might find on a race track with plenty of space on either side of the track. Visiting the Isle of Man is actually pretty easy to do, much easier than visiting Jersey or Guernsey, which aren't really that hard either. There are ferries that go to the capital city of Douglas from Dublin, Belfast, Liverpool, and Hacham. Likewise, there are short flights from many major cities in the region, and you don't need a visa if you're already in the UK or Ireland. Visiting the Isle of Man is very much like visiting England. If you rent a car, you can pretty much see everything of interest on the island in about four days. When you think of the British Isles, the big islands with all the people obviously get the attention. However, you shouldn't forget about the Isle of Man. It might be small, but it has a history, culture, and language, unlike any of its neighbors.

Starting point is 00:10:15 Everything Everywhere Daily is an Airwave Media podcast. The executive producer is Darcy Adams. The associate producers are Thor Thompson and Peter Bennett. I just wanted to extend a big thank you to everyone who is supporting the show over at Patreon.com. I have show merchandise available there, including hoodies, t-shirts, and stickers. Plus, it really just helps me get this show out every single day, including, of course, weekends and holidays. Remember, if you leave a review or send me a boostagram, you too can have it read on the show.

Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - The Isle of Man

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