An Underground Day

Today is MacManx Day. It does not appear in any official calendar. It is celebrated by a few lonely people on a little island in defiance of the rest of the world. Its story is a very instructive one.

Back in 1720 the people of the Isle of Man were ruled by the enlightened despot Lord Stanley. He may not have visited the island very often but his agents were generally lovers of justice. Several progressive measures favourable to the Manx people were introduced by him. The Manx had lost their native independence centuries before and had long had their identity seriously compromised by foreign rule. Now the solid sense of self of the locals was forging a quiet nationalism that reclaimed and reinvigorated the idea of a separate Manx people.

The problem began when the Laxey Woollen Mills showed a little entrepreneurial spirit. The Manx people were little known in the U.K. let alone internationally. The Scots however were much better known. One of the best known aspects of Scotland was the famous tartan. At this time however you could not find one in Scotland. Wearing and producing them had been forbidden as a result of the 1715 rebellion. So to supply the demand for tartans Laxey Woollen Mills invented their own. They called these Manx tartans. You can still find them today in various forms. There is a Manx National tartan and a Laxey Red and a number of other shades. They are just as good as the Scots ones. Therein lay the problem.

The Scots who once ruled Man descended on the island. Here was the only place they could wear a tartan with impunity and they could disguise their identities with this new Manx tartan. The locals were aghast. They had begun to believe in Manxness again and here were Manx themselves trying to imply that Manx and Scots were the same. Raiding parties attacked the woollen mills in the name of the Ellan Vannin nationalist party which at that time was an underground movement with a membership largely comprised of moles and worms. The men of Laxey had only one alternative. They recruited the incoming Scots as mercenaries and on September 5th 1720 fought the famous Battle of the Fleece against the nationalists. The wool workers had the advantage of the wool itself with which they wrapped the enemy up in large bales. The mills and the Scots triumphed. But now they had to press home their advantage to win the hearts and minds of the nationalist-leaning population.

The first step was to recognise the incoming Scots as a separate ethnic group and pretend they were also native to the island. They were known as the MacManx. Government officials who owed their position to votes bought by the woollen mill money started writing earnest tomes on the historic contribution of the MacManx to the island. This was quite an undertaking as only a small proportion of Manx could read at the time. It was also complete nonsense. Manx history has been characterised by its rulers underestimating the population and this was another such instance. No matter how much the locals were told that the MacManx were genuine Manx who just happened to have a Scottish background they would not fall for it. Eventually they boycotted the woollen mills and barred MacManx from their shops. Sensing that all their privileges were dissolving the government urged the mill to negotiate. In the way of things Manx the claims of the MacManx were quietly dropped and those who had been put in positions of influence were sent home to Scotland. But the tartans remained. How could they otherwise? They remained popular all over the world and brought the island much needed income. But the Manx parliament passed its own laws against wearing the tartan. Natives could wear one if they liked. But no Scotsman would be allowed to wear the Manx tartan as they were not entitled to it and no Scotsman could ever upon pain of death claim to be Manx to get hold of a tartan.

These measures were necessary and soon restored order. But the MacManx had been there just long enough to breed. A generation of Scots children lived on Man and knew no other home. The locals knew they were Scots and therefore refused to accept them as members of the community. This simply alienated them. Inevitably the children became a new MacManx community desperate to cling on to the false heritage of their forebears. They took the fight to the schools where they tried in vain to convince everyone that Ogham script was the original way of writing a separate MacManx language. They maintained their separate clubs and pubs and published illegal newspapers before anyone else had them. In time Scottish tartans were produced again and the rest of the world ignored the deviant Manx ones. Not the MacManx. They were exempt from the banning laws having been born in the island and wore the Manx tartans with pride daily. The rest of the Manx were not bothered about the tartans but the MacManx almost singlehandedly kept the woollen mills alive. To this day the MacManx insist on their non-existent traditions. In a few carefully guarded houses on the island people cast off their clothing and come out as MacManx. They drink their hybrid turnip whisky and dance their trawlerman's reels. They boast about their two and a half legs and claim descent from Douglas Peel Ramsey. They care not a wit about the ignorance of the outside world. They are MacManx and proud of it even if this means nothing whatsoever.

The MacManx are a distressed little group of people desperately trying to be something they are not to give themselves some sort of identity. It is very sad to behold. But it is far from the only example. To think of yourself as MacManx you only need to wear the tartan but to actually join them you need to know certain passwords and customs before they let you through the door. Just like it is throughout British industry in fact. You are not allowed to manage anything unless you can be the saddest of the sad little men who hide behind their jobs. Neither can you join the Freemasons. You may never have heard of MacManx Day. But you have all celebrated its equivalent. It is called the Bank Holiday. Think about it.