taking our culture forward

Daphne Caine MHK

Oltey y Ving - Board Member

Daphne Caine MHK

Daphne Caine MHK was appointed to the Culture Vannin board in 2023.

After spending 20 years as a civil servant mainly promoting the Isle of Man's culture, visitor attractions and heritage railways, Daphne stood for the House of Keys in 2016 and was elected to serve the Garff constituency.

Born and raised in Sheffield, Daphne moved to the Isle of Man in 1989 to work as a journalist with Isle of Man Newspapers, managing to join the Manx Youth Choir for their Lithuania tour as both soprano and reporter. Previously she had sung in the Royal Albert Hall and the Royal Festival Hall in London with her school choir. However, after a single musical appearance on the Gaiety stage in A Chorus of Disapproval, she now stays firmly in the audience enjoying the diversity of the hugely talented musical and performance artistes on the island along with its writers, poets and visual artists of all genres.

Since becoming a politician Daphne relinquished membership of the NUJ and Prospect unions but retains her membership with the actors’ union Equity having appeared in numerous island film productions from 1990 to 2005. She has performed in and directed many plays on the island with the Service Players, and is also a playwright having produced three one-act plays, one of which, Green Grass, won multiple awards at the island’s One Act Festival 2005.

Sadly she now has less time to enjoy the island’s rich culture as much as she would like so is delighted to be involved with Culture Vannin. Following the 2016 general election, Daphne was appointed political lead for the Digital sector within the island’s Department for Enterprise. After re-election in 2021, she became Deputy Speaker of the House of Keys and chairs the Isle of Man's Climate Change Transformation Board.

Full parliamentary appointments and interests can be found here https://www.tynwald.org.im/members/daphne-caine

Click on links for Daphne’s own website  and her Wikipedia entry