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The Editor
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© F.Coakley , 2026
[from A.M Harrision's Descriptive List of Insular Societies]
The object of the Society 'namely to teach the poor Irish [in Ireland] to read the word of God in their own language' echoes the principle behind the 'Manks Society for the promoting of the education of the inhabitants of the Isle of Man in their own language', founded itself, in 1822, on the model of two Irish Societies, the Society for the support of Gaelic Schools, and the Irish Society for promoting the education of the native Manx through the medium of their own language.
It started in some controversy, with an unfavourable Press reception for its first public appearance in the reports of the Manx Sun and Manx Advertiser of the meeting for the purpose of forming an auxiliary of the Irish Society of London held in the Old Assembly Rooms in Douglas on 28 August 1827. The case for action was stated in the letter of 'A Friend to Education' with a positive contribution to what is a perennial Manx debate in a letter to the editor of the Manx Sun of 9 September 1827. 'The condition of the unlettered poor in every country, ought to awaken our sympathy, and to induce all who have it in their power, to contribute to their education. I agree with you, that our Insular institutions have the first claim on our charity, but cannot approve of the sentiment, that it ought to be confined to them; according to this opinion, those who are in a state of barbarism must forever remain so'.
For six months lists of subscriptions and donations are published in the Sun and Advertiser, collected by the anonymous ladies of the Auxiliary,trusted with this typically female task. Lists of quarterly contributors from Castletown and Peel, published in the Manx Sun for 15 January 1828, are as follows, Castletown headed by Cornelius Smelt, Lieutenant Governor, the only man, eighteen ladies including Miss Smelt, the Governor's daughter, and 'a friend', with £6. 7s. 6d.; Douglas, with five male contributors, 'the Ladies of Miss Dutton's Establishment', a Douglas school, and four other women, only £2..2s. ..6d. The businesslike committee invited subscribers to inspect the detailed accounts and proceedings of the Society, 'for that purpose at the Committee Room, in the Poor House, Fort Street, [Douglas] on every Friday between the hours of ten and noon.' A further list of subscribers, in the Manx Sun of 8 April 1828 is the last record of the Society's contact with the Island on this particular occasion...
M.N.H.L., Isle of Man newspapers, ut supra et passim
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Any comments, errors or omissions gratefully received
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