Any comments, errors or omissions gratefully received
The Editor
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© F.Coakley , 2026
[from A.M Harrision's Descriptive List of Insular Societies]
The purpose of the League 'is for those churchmen who will
pray daily for the recovery of the religious houses on St.
Patrick's Isle into the possession of Holy Church, that the
desire for the recovery of the same may spread, and that all
things may be removed that hinder the attainment of such a
hope'. An association only for clergymen, with a closely
defined Manx-centred aim, the restoration of the ruinous
church of St. Germain's, cathedral of the ancient diocese of
Sodor and Man, situated in Peel Castle on St. Patricks Isle,Peel, a Crown possession,
was organised by an ardent High
Churchman, Archibald Knox, the Manx-born designer of world
renown at the start of his London career in teaching and
design.
Knox's letter from his house in Fulham, published in the Isle of
Man Examiner of 26 December 1896 which aimed to increase
the membership of this esoteric group is written in unusually
passionate and nationalist terms. 'There are some churchmen
in Douglas who desire that the very real, active blasphemy of
the ruin and abandonment of those houses may be brought to
an end; that the place where now blow blight, and deathly
agony, may once more be the beautiful place in Man; that the
Holy Spirit of their thousand years may once more be a power
for life; that the lantern chancel of St. Germain may once more
be a source of the light that shall guide the feet of Manx meninto the way of
peace'.
While addressed specifically to churchmen, required only to
act through the passive resistance of prayer and with the
forming of opinion as the ultimate weapon, the distance
between the native Islanders and their rulers is expressed in
terms far removed from the usual mildness of Manx discourse.
'Lieutenant Governors come and go; Lord Bishops come and
go; Vicars of German come and go, and to the Manx spirits in
prison comes no friendly minister. A body of opinion on the
subject must be formed in the Island that it will be impossible
for Englishmen or any who hold office in Man to resist'.
An expert in Celtic design, Knox's work was greatly Inspired by
the Island's Celtic and Norse past and the Manx people's
growing enthusiasm for its beauty, and the importance of the
material remains of the Manx past, during his lifetime and
beyond is largely due to his work. As a youngish man of 32,
exiled from the Island for the first time, his efforts on behalf of
the old cathedral shows signs of unusually vehement
polarising definitions of Manx and English identity, an element
never an open factor in the later development of a Manx
national culture, and from which he moved in later life. His
work for the cathedral's restoration continued until his death in
...Isle of Man Examiner.
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Any comments, errors or omissions gratefully received
The Editor |
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