taking our culture forward

An incredibly rare recording of a Manx Radio interview with Doug Fargher, one of the most important figures in the Manx language revival, has recently been discovered and we make it available here for the first time.

Doug Fargher was one of the most important figures in the revival of the Manx language in the 1960s and 70s. He was tireless in his efforts to teach and publicise the language, but he will be best known for his English-Manx Dictionary published in 1979. In 1977 Fargher visited Manx Radio to join Roger Watterson for a conversation about the language, the status of the Manx-language community at that time, his hopes for the future, his dictionary and much else besides. The half-hour-long interview offers an amazing insight into the prospects of Manx at that time and the determination and integrity of one of the most important people in its being passed down to us today.

This programme was thought to be lost, as there are no recordings of it in the Manx Radio archives and it was only saved thanks to its having been recorded at the time by Phil Kelly, who very kindly passed it to Adrian Cain, the Manx Language Development Officer at Culture Vannin.
Full 30-minute interview:

Selection of short extracts: