Recording the Manx

In July 1947 the Isle of Man received a surprise visit from the President of Ireland, Eamonn De Valera. His tour of the Island included a visit to Cregneash where he spoke to native speaker Ned Maddrell. The conversation led to De Valera offering to facilitate tape recordings of the Island's last surviving native speakers, tapes which are now a priceless record of spoken Manx. In this programme, which was first broadcast in July 2017, Charles Guard discovers how it all came about.