Annie Kissack awarded the RBV for 2025

Annie Kissack awarded the RBV for 2025

Sat, 15 Mar 2025

“If there is one person who truly lives and breathes Manx culture, and deserves to be Manannan’s Choice of the Year, it is Annie Kissack.”

What a stunning way to sum up the Reih Bleeaney Vanannan for 2025!

Annie Kissack has been awarded the Isle of Man’s highest cultural honour for her lifelong contribution to creativity and education in Manx culture, with a particular emphasis on the Manx language, traditional and original song, music and choral arranging, poetry, literature and folklore.

Annie is someone who tells and shapes the stories of these shores with care, passion, and the deepest of integrity. She is one of life’s natural communicators, and her contagious enthusiasm and often no-nonsense delivery ensure that everyone, young and old, can get involved in or simply sit back and enjoy Manx music, song, and poetry. She wears her learning lightly, though, for Annie has honed her knowledge for more than five decades. She is equally at home with her nose in old books as she is talking to people who hold a store of Manxness in themselves – and she is a very good listener.

All that she carries with her embodies this living spirit of the Manx tradition, as expressed in the poems, songs and music she creates; in so many ways, Annie represents the beating heart of the Isle of Man.

For full details of Annie's remarkable contribution, please read on here.