Events

IOMNHAS WINTER LECTURE PROGRAMME 2023-24

ALL LECTURES ARE HELD IN THE MANX MUSEUM LECTURE THEATRE,
KINGSWOOD GROVE / CRELLIN’S HILL, DOUGLAS

AT 2.30 P.M. FOLLOWED BY TEA

With one exceptions:  23 March 2024: AGM in the Manx Museum Lecture Theatre at 2.00 pm

 

2023


Saturday 14 October
Dr Marie Weale
Osteobiographies of Rushen Abbey
Osteobiographies use scientific analysis to craft stories about the life and death of past people. Each osteobiography is a unique piece of research that sheds light on the identity of the individual during their life. This talk will focus on two individuals excavated from Rushen Abbey and show a wealth of information that would not have been accessible without the use of modern osteological techniques.

Saturday 18 November
David Kneale
Resistance, persuasion and the social contracts of impressment in the Isle of Man 1750-1815
Rather than being confined to a maritime fringe, a chain of evidence demonstrates that the issue of naval impressment permeated Manx society in the Eighteenth century. The seafaring island community, dependent on fishing for essential winter supplies, had no choice but to put itself in harm’s way. Impress Officers stationed ashore, meanwhile, trod a narrow path between the demands of the Admiralty, the tolerance of local authorities and the risk of violent reprisals. This paper presents the Isle of Man as a useful case study in the complicated realities of naval manning. It will argue that the most explosive incidents, such as the press gang that fired into a crowd of civilians in Douglas in 1811, tend to obscure a picture of quietly successful recruitment and negotiation, while dozens of folk tales, unexpectedly captured in the 1950s, hint at the social impact of impressment as seen by the isolated communities which lived in its shadow.

Saturday 9 December
Steve Crellin FRES
Fascinating Flies
A tour of the island’s true fly (Diptera) fauna showing just a few of the species from a range of different families. The aim of the talk is to give an idea of why local entomologist Steve Crellin has been enthralled by flies for 40 years.


 

2024

Saturday 20 January
Dr Lara Howe
Manx eelgrass: Conservation and restoration
Lara’s talk will cover the work that Manx Wildlife Trust (MWT) has been undertaking on eelgrass. Through collaborative working, with various partners, MWT have trialled eelgrass plant relocation, and begun mapping beds, assessing abundance and species diversity within the meadows.

Saturday 17 February
Dave Martin
Thomas Burndred and Robert Teare – a pioneering Primitive Methodist missionary and his Manx son-in-law
Thomas Burndred – the speaker’s Great Great Great Grandfather - was one of the group with his friends Hugh Bourne and William Clowes in the Potteries who broke away from the Wesleyans to form what became known as ‘The Society of Primitive Methodists’. Thomas first came Missioning to the Isle of Man in about 1829-30, and eventually moved to the Island in 1847; his son-in-law Robert Teare (merchant, philanthropist, preacher and Member of the House of Keys) continued his work. This talk is founded on Thomas’s journal which records his travels and exploits, on- and off- the Island.

Saturday 23 March
Annual General Meeting at 2 pm
Followed by Prof Barry Lewis
The Irish traditions of Mac Cuill and St Maughold of Man
The most famous saint of the Isle of Man is St Maughold, the patron of Kirk Maughold, but little or nothing is known about him as a historical individual. He is first mentioned in texts from Ireland, where he appears as ‘Mac Cuill’. Yet the Irish story of Mac Cuill has been rejected by Manx historians as a bizarre folk legend, and what is more, the texts do not even agree about who he was. By re-reading these Irish sources against their proper literary, religious and political backgrounds, we may not get any closer to the real St Maughold, but we may reach a better understanding of why early Irish writers wrote about Mac Cuill in the ways that they did.

 

Any changes to the programme will be advised to members by email and also via our web site www.manxantiquarians.com and on Twitter / ‘X’:  @IOMNHAS and our Facebook page www.facebook.com/IsleofManNaturalHistoryandAntiquarianSociety