John Gell (Manx Language Activist)
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John Gell (18991983), also known as Jack Gell or Juan y Geill was a Manx speaker, teacher, and author who was involved with the revival of the
Manx Language Manx ( or , or ), also known as Manx Gaelic, is a Goidelic language, Gaelic language of the insular Celtic branch of the Celtic language family, itself a branch of the Indo-European language family. Manx is the heritage language of the Manx ...
on the
Isle of Man The Isle of Man ( , also ), or Mann ( ), is a self-governing British Crown Dependency in the Irish Sea, between Great Britain and Ireland. As head of state, Charles III holds the title Lord of Mann and is represented by a Lieutenant Govern ...
in the 20th century. His book ''Conversational Manx, A Series of Graded Lessons in Manx and English, with Phonetic Pronunciation'' has been used by learners of the Manx language since it was published in 1953.


Early life

Gell was born in
Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...
to Manx-speaking parents who chose to raise their children through English. He spend his childhood summers on the Isle of Man staying with relatives, describing the Island as being "truly heaven on earth to me in my youth". As a child Gell and his family lived in various towns around the North West of England such as
West Kirby West Kirby () is a coastal town in the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, Merseyside, England. In the north west of the Wirral Peninsula and at the mouth of the River Dee, the town is contiguous with Hoylake. It lies within the historic county bo ...
and
Ellesmere Port Ellesmere Port ( ) is a port town in the Cheshire West and Chester borough in Cheshire, England. Ellesmere Port is on the south-eastern edge of the Wirral Peninsula, north of Chester, on the bank of the Manchester Ship Canal. In the 2021 Unite ...
. Despite winning a free place at the local grammar school, Gell left school at fifteen, and became an apprentice
joiner Joinery is a part of woodworking that involves joining pieces of wood, engineered lumber, or synthetic substitutes (such as laminate), to produce more complex items. Some woodworking joints employ mechanical fasteners, bindings, or adhesives, ...
like his father. Gell was conscripted into the
British Army The British Army is the principal Army, land warfare force of the United Kingdom. the British Army comprises 73,847 regular full-time personnel, 4,127 Brigade of Gurkhas, Gurkhas, 25,742 Army Reserve (United Kingdom), volunteer reserve perso ...
towards the end of the First World War. In September 1918 he was wounded at the Somme and was sent
Sheffield Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, situated south of Leeds and east of Manchester. The city is the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire and some of its so ...
to recuperate.


The Manx language

In 1938 Gell was inspired to learn Manx when he met a Scottish woman at the Empire Exhibition in Glasgow who was shocked that he did not speak the language:
Then she said "Shame on thee, you are a Manxman with no Gaelic. Go on and learn it while there are people speaking it." I was truly ashamed hearing so much Scots Gaelic being spoken around me and I promised that sweet young woman to do my best to learn our own Gaelic.
Throughout the
Interwar Period In the history of the 20th century, the interwar period, also known as the interbellum (), lasted from 11 November 1918 to 1 September 1939 (20 years, 9 months, 21 days) – from the end of World War I (WWI) to the beginning of World War II ( ...
, Gell lived and worked in
Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ) is an area of Northern England which was History of Yorkshire, historically a county. Despite no longer being used for administration, Yorkshire retains a strong regional identity. The county was named after its county town, the ...
as a woodwork teacher, but made frequent visits to the Isle of Man learning directly from the last remaining native speakers of Manx and by using an old Manx Bible that belonged to his grandfather.


Return to the Isle of Man

In 1944 Gell moved to Port St. Mary on the Isle of Man with his family and started working in the newly established Castle Rushen High School. He worked as a woodwork teacher during the day and taught Manx language classes at night. The following year after a visit by Irish
Taoiseach The Taoiseach (, ) is the head of government or prime minister of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. The office is appointed by the President of Ireland upon nomination by Dáil Éireann (the lower house of the Oireachtas, Ireland's national legisl ...
Éamon de Valera Éamon de Valera (; ; first registered as George de Valero; changed some time before 1901 to Edward de Valera; 14 October 1882 – 29 August 1975) was an American-born Irish statesman and political leader. He served as the 3rd President of Ire ...
to the Isle of Man in 1947, the
Irish Folklore Commission The Irish Folklore Commission () was set up in 1935 by the Irish Government to study and collect information on the folklore and traditions of Ireland. History Séamus Ó Duilearga (James Hamilton Delargy) founded ''An Cumann le Béaloideas Éir ...
was tasked with recording the remaining native speakers as the Manx Museum did not have the facilities or funds to do so. This inspired Gell and other Manx speakers such as Walter Clarke and Bill Radcliffe to make their own recordings themselves despite technical and financial restraints: "We just – we wanted to record the old people but we didn’t, we had neither the money nor the means of doing it".Clarke, Walter. "Oral History Project Transcript: Time to Remember" (Interview). Interviewed by David Callister. These recordings were often made at significant financial expense to themselves; with Gell himself loaning them £8 to purchase the necessary equipment. In 1953 Gell published ''Conversational Manx, A Series of Graded Lessons in Manx and English, with Phonetic Pronunciation'' to aid adult learners of Manx that were attending his classes which was serialised in Manx newspaper Mona's Herald, and published the next year. They were described as "one of the best teaching books we have". In the 1960s the book formed the basis of a weekly 'listen and learn' radio programme presented by Doug Fargher.


Later years

Despite Gell's work in creating new learner material and teaching Manx classes, he still found negative attitudes towards the language to be a major difficulty. After the sudden death of his wife in 1955, he retreated somewhat from Manx language movement:
But at that time there was not much attention given to the Gaelic and we made little progress. Seldom did anyone learn enough to speak it, and the old Manx speakers were dying one after the other, and I was losing heart, then after my own wife died, I did not pay much attention to the Manx either.
The 1970s saw a resurgence in interest in Manx and which inspired Gell to become active in the Manx speaking community and "do something myself for the Manx before it will be too late". In 1977 he published his bilingual memoirs ''Cooinaghtyn my Aegid'' (Reminiscences of my Youth) and ''Cooinaghtyn Elley'' (Further Reminiscences) and later provided an audio recording to help learners.


References


External links

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Conversational Manx, A Series of Graded Lessons in Manx and English, with Phonetic Pronunciation
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' {{DEFAULTSORT:Gell, John Manx language activists Manx nationalists 20th-century Manx writers 1899 births 1983 deaths