Bernard Moffatt
Encyclopedia
Bernard Moffatt was born in Peel, Isle of Man in April 1946. Both his mother (Millie Cashin) and father (James Moffatt) were Manx. He was educated at Peel Clothworkers School, a stroke of luck for someone who would become a leading figure in the Nationalist movement, because at that time schools which promoted Manx cultural affairs were the exception. Peel School, although then under the headship of a Yorkshireman (George Sayle), was one such, so Manx History and Culture was on the agenda. Manx
dancing classes at the School were organised by Mona Douglas, an icon of the Manx cultural revival, and Moffatt was enrolled in one of those teams.
In his youth Moffatt came to know several significant figures (all from the west of the island) on the Manx nationalist and language scene (the brothers Walter and Leslie Quirk, Jack Irving and Alfie Cooil), although at that time there was no official Nationalist Party.
Bernard Moffatt was a founder member of Mec Vannin
, the Manx
Nationalist Party. His attendance at the inaugural meeting with a dozen other people is recorded in the original minute book of Mec Vannin, which (having inexplicably disappeared for twenty years) is now lodged with other Mec Vannin papers in the Manx Museum (MNH) Library.
Moffatt was initially enthusiastically involved in what was then a national movement which saw itself more in a national liberation mould. The island was at that time seen by some as too heavily dominated by the United Kingdom with what they regarded as a colonial administration. There were competing schools of thought on the direction nationalism should take – these included constitutional, direct action and greater commitment to language and culture. There were even attempts to forge links with Welsh and Irish republicans, although at this time, and for over twenty years thereafter, Mec Vannin was not a republican party. The party was periodically beset by crisis and splits, something which was to continue until the mid-1980s.
Bernard Moffatt's involvement in Mec Vannin ebbed and flowed over the next ten years, and it was not until the early 1970s that he committed himself totally to the nationalist movement.
In 1976 he helped found the Anti-Militarist Alliance, an aggregation of members from the Manx branch of the Celtic League and Mec Vannin. The AMA was initially formed to campaign against British military use of the Isle of Man, and it called for the closure of an army base and military bombing range. The AMA also campaigned to end the use of military facilities on the Island to support the war in Ireland. It produced the Celtic League and AMA News, a complete set of which is held in the Manx Museum (MNH) Library.
Membership of the AMA however soon became inimical to some elements of Mec Vannin, and there were attempts to expel Moffatt and others. The expulsion attempts failed, and disenchanted elements left Mec Vannin to establish a short-lived "Manx National Party".
Moffatt continued in Mec Vannin, occupying several executive positions over the years, and was eventually elected Life President.
(later to become Carn
Editor) was the branch secretary at the time. Moffatt eventually succeeded Bridson as Secretary and was later elected Assistant General Secretary to assist Alan Heusaff in overall stewardship of the League. Moffatt eventually succeeded Heusaff as General Secretary and undertook that office from 1984 to 1988 and 1991 to 2006.
During his period as both AGS and General Secretary, Moffatt oversaw the Celtic League's military monitoring campaigns. This was a long-running and diverse campaign covering all facets of military activity in the Celtic countries. It was extensively documented in Carn and a copious file of activities was accumulated.
These files were eventually deposited in the Manx Museum (MNH) Library (additional papers are also lodged in the National Library of Wales) and in November 2008 were featured in a French TV documentary (broadcast globally on TV5 Monde and also on France 3
). Moffatt was interviewed by journalist Veronica Weber in the library vault at MNH with the boxes of files.
Military monitoring materials compiled by the League have been drawn on extensively by other sources over the years. A copy of a file on munitions dumping around the British Isles was supplied to the Department of the Marine in the 1990s, and the League's archive was also used in a report compiled for the Japanese parliament.
In addition, League material was supplied to the reopened Irish government
enquiry into the 1968 Aer Lingus
airliner tragedy over the Irish sea (in which British military involvement was suspected), and League queries were responded to in the final report.
Another Celtic League campaign in which Moffatt enthusiastically participated was the initiative to have the Calf of Man
(a small island to the south of Man) returned from the English National Trust to the Manx nation. This collaborative venture between the Manx and London branches of the Celtic League was ultimately successful.
Moffatt has travelled extensively for the Celtic League, giving papers on nationalism
, anti-militarism and civil liberties
in the Celtic countries, Switzerland
, Romania
and Libya
.
He became shop steward again at the Rivers and Bridges Department of the IOM government and was involved in several disputes, notably the low-pay campaigns of the early 1980s, when one-day stoppages were staged on several occasions.
Moffatt became branch chairman of the main TGWU branch (the 6/509) and also Chairman of the TGWU Isle of Man District Committee. Eventually he became full-time official for the TGWU on the island. He was involved in fuel oil disputes and brewery strikes, and also co-ordinated support for striking miners by blocking imports of coal into the island and raising funds.
Through the Trades Council, Moffatt cooperated with others in opposing new trade union laws. In a forward to On Whose Terms – The Betrayal of the Manx working class he wrote:
Moffatt retired as TGWU full-time official but continues as a member of the IOM Trades Council and also as Secretary of the IOM Whitley Council. His daughter Angela is a full-time official on the IOM for the white-collar and technical union "Prospect".
to Manx citizens (this was rescinded in 1976 and not restored until the 1990s).
He has also campaigned for the abolition of capital punishment
and judicial corporal punishment
(birching
), for reform of laws outlawing homosexuality, and for prison reform.
He was a founder member (and Secretary) with other trade unionists of the Manx Council for Civil Liberty which existed in the 1990s and was successful in seeing changes to civil liberties legislation which reformed all the aforementioned issues.
Moffatt was scathing of the Manx government and popular attitudes in the island to civil liberties. Quoting a remark made by a sentencing magistrate, he said:
He went on:
Moffatt has presented evidence on behalf of the Celtic League to various international bodies on civil liberties issues. In relation to the Isle of Man this has successfully focused on prison reform.
Manx
Manx is an adjective describing things or people related to the Isle of Man:* Manx people**Manx surnames* Isle of ManIt may also refer to:-Languages:...
dancing classes at the School were organised by Mona Douglas, an icon of the Manx cultural revival, and Moffatt was enrolled in one of those teams.
- "I'm now a fully committed Manx Nationalist" he said, and the start of this was the emphasis placed at school on Manx history art and culture. "We used to have Mona Douglas round to talk to us – and I was in the Manx folk dancing team".
In his youth Moffatt came to know several significant figures (all from the west of the island) on the Manx nationalist and language scene (the brothers Walter and Leslie Quirk, Jack Irving and Alfie Cooil), although at that time there was no official Nationalist Party.
Bernard Moffatt was a founder member of Mec Vannin
Mec Vannin
is a political party operating in the Isle of Man. Formed in 1962, it seeks to revoke the status of Man as a British self-governing Crown dependency and establish a completely sovereign state, which would be a republic....
, the Manx
Manx
Manx is an adjective describing things or people related to the Isle of Man:* Manx people**Manx surnames* Isle of ManIt may also refer to:-Languages:...
Nationalist Party. His attendance at the inaugural meeting with a dozen other people is recorded in the original minute book of Mec Vannin, which (having inexplicably disappeared for twenty years) is now lodged with other Mec Vannin papers in the Manx Museum (MNH) Library.
Moffatt was initially enthusiastically involved in what was then a national movement which saw itself more in a national liberation mould. The island was at that time seen by some as too heavily dominated by the United Kingdom with what they regarded as a colonial administration. There were competing schools of thought on the direction nationalism should take – these included constitutional, direct action and greater commitment to language and culture. There were even attempts to forge links with Welsh and Irish republicans, although at this time, and for over twenty years thereafter, Mec Vannin was not a republican party. The party was periodically beset by crisis and splits, something which was to continue until the mid-1980s.
Bernard Moffatt's involvement in Mec Vannin ebbed and flowed over the next ten years, and it was not until the early 1970s that he committed himself totally to the nationalist movement.
In 1976 he helped found the Anti-Militarist Alliance, an aggregation of members from the Manx branch of the Celtic League and Mec Vannin. The AMA was initially formed to campaign against British military use of the Isle of Man, and it called for the closure of an army base and military bombing range. The AMA also campaigned to end the use of military facilities on the Island to support the war in Ireland. It produced the Celtic League and AMA News, a complete set of which is held in the Manx Museum (MNH) Library.
Membership of the AMA however soon became inimical to some elements of Mec Vannin, and there were attempts to expel Moffatt and others. The expulsion attempts failed, and disenchanted elements left Mec Vannin to establish a short-lived "Manx National Party".
Moffatt continued in Mec Vannin, occupying several executive positions over the years, and was eventually elected Life President.
Celtic League
Moffatt's initial involvement with the Celtic League came in the mid-1970s as a result of the formation in Mannin of the AMA. Patricia BridsonPat Bridson
Patricia Bridson is the current editor of Carn magazine, the official journal of the Celtic League. She took up the post in 1984 and is the longest running editor to date.- References :...
(later to become Carn
Carn
Carn is the official magazine of the Celtic League. The name, which is cognate with the English word 'cairn', was chosen for its symbolic value and because it can be found in each of the living Celtic languages...
Editor) was the branch secretary at the time. Moffatt eventually succeeded Bridson as Secretary and was later elected Assistant General Secretary to assist Alan Heusaff in overall stewardship of the League. Moffatt eventually succeeded Heusaff as General Secretary and undertook that office from 1984 to 1988 and 1991 to 2006.
During his period as both AGS and General Secretary, Moffatt oversaw the Celtic League's military monitoring campaigns. This was a long-running and diverse campaign covering all facets of military activity in the Celtic countries. It was extensively documented in Carn and a copious file of activities was accumulated.
These files were eventually deposited in the Manx Museum (MNH) Library (additional papers are also lodged in the National Library of Wales) and in November 2008 were featured in a French TV documentary (broadcast globally on TV5 Monde and also on France 3
France 3
France 3 is the second largest French public television channel and part of the France Télévisions group, which also includes France 2, France 4, France 5, and France Ô....
). Moffatt was interviewed by journalist Veronica Weber in the library vault at MNH with the boxes of files.
Military monitoring materials compiled by the League have been drawn on extensively by other sources over the years. A copy of a file on munitions dumping around the British Isles was supplied to the Department of the Marine in the 1990s, and the League's archive was also used in a report compiled for the Japanese parliament.
In addition, League material was supplied to the reopened Irish government
Irish Government
The Government of Ireland is the cabinet that exercises executive authority in Ireland.-Members of the Government:Membership of the Government is regulated fundamentally by the Constitution of Ireland. The Government is headed by a prime minister called the Taoiseach...
enquiry into the 1968 Aer Lingus
Aer Lingus
Aer Lingus Group Plc is the flag carrier of Ireland. It operates a fleet of Airbus aircraft serving Europe and North America. It is Ireland's oldest extant airline, and its second largest after low-cost rival Ryanair...
airliner tragedy over the Irish sea (in which British military involvement was suspected), and League queries were responded to in the final report.
Another Celtic League campaign in which Moffatt enthusiastically participated was the initiative to have the Calf of Man
Calf of Man
Calf of Man, sometimes known as the Calf of Mann , is a island , off the southwest coast of the Isle of Man. It is separated from the Isle of Man by a narrow stretch of water called the Calf Sound. Like the nearby rocky islets of Chicken Rock and Kitterland, it is part of the parish of Rushen. It...
(a small island to the south of Man) returned from the English National Trust to the Manx nation. This collaborative venture between the Manx and London branches of the Celtic League was ultimately successful.
Moffatt has travelled extensively for the Celtic League, giving papers on nationalism
Nationalism
Nationalism is a political ideology that involves a strong identification of a group of individuals with a political entity defined in national terms, i.e. a nation. In the 'modernist' image of the nation, it is nationalism that creates national identity. There are various definitions for what...
, anti-militarism and civil liberties
Civil liberties
Civil liberties are rights and freedoms that provide an individual specific rights such as the freedom from slavery and forced labour, freedom from torture and death, the right to liberty and security, right to a fair trial, the right to defend one's self, the right to own and bear arms, the right...
in the Celtic countries, Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
, Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
and Libya
Libya
Libya is an African country in the Maghreb region of North Africa bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad and Niger to the south, and Algeria and Tunisia to the west....
.
Trade unionist
Moffatt was an active trade unionist from the 1960s. He joined the TGWU while working for the Forestry Board and was a shop steward in the building industry in the early 1970s. He left the TGWU and joined the health union COHSE for a period in the mid-1970s, finally rejoining the TGWU in 1980.He became shop steward again at the Rivers and Bridges Department of the IOM government and was involved in several disputes, notably the low-pay campaigns of the early 1980s, when one-day stoppages were staged on several occasions.
Moffatt became branch chairman of the main TGWU branch (the 6/509) and also Chairman of the TGWU Isle of Man District Committee. Eventually he became full-time official for the TGWU on the island. He was involved in fuel oil disputes and brewery strikes, and also co-ordinated support for striking miners by blocking imports of coal into the island and raising funds.
Through the Trades Council, Moffatt cooperated with others in opposing new trade union laws. In a forward to On Whose Terms – The Betrayal of the Manx working class he wrote:
- "The Isle of Man Government, using the thinly veiled guise of Social Reform, is about to establish new Employment Law. This Social Legislation is designed to provide the State with a security from industrial strife that the old 1936 (Trades Dispute) Act provided. In enacting this legislation Government effectively hopes to hang the same 'albatross' around the neck of organised labour as they did in the 1930s."
Moffatt retired as TGWU full-time official but continues as a member of the IOM Trades Council and also as Secretary of the IOM Whitley Council. His daughter Angela is a full-time official on the IOM for the white-collar and technical union "Prospect".
Civil Liberties
Bernard Moffatt has been active in campaigning for reform of laws relating to civil liberties on the island for four decades. In the 1980s, with the assistance of the TGWU and when District Chairman on the island, he lobbied the Home Office, meeting government ministers and urging action to allow the right of individual petition under the European Convention on Human RightsEuropean Convention on Human Rights
The Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms is an international treaty to protect human rights and fundamental freedoms in Europe. Drafted in 1950 by the then newly formed Council of Europe, the convention entered into force on 3 September 1953...
to Manx citizens (this was rescinded in 1976 and not restored until the 1990s).
He has also campaigned for the abolition of capital punishment
Capital punishment
Capital punishment, the death penalty, or execution is the sentence of death upon a person by the state as a punishment for an offence. Crimes that can result in a death penalty are known as capital crimes or capital offences. The term capital originates from the Latin capitalis, literally...
and judicial corporal punishment
Judicial corporal punishment
Judicial corporal punishment refers to the infliction of corporal punishment as a result of a sentence by a court of law. The punishment can be flogging, caning, birching, whipping, or strapping...
(birching
Birching
Birching is a corporal punishment with a birch rod, typically applied to the recipient's bare buttocks, although occasionally to the back and/or shoulders.-Implement:...
), for reform of laws outlawing homosexuality, and for prison reform.
He was a founder member (and Secretary) with other trade unionists of the Manx Council for Civil Liberty which existed in the 1990s and was successful in seeing changes to civil liberties legislation which reformed all the aforementioned issues.
Moffatt was scathing of the Manx government and popular attitudes in the island to civil liberties. Quoting a remark made by a sentencing magistrate, he said:
- "I would delight in birching both of you" – Those words spoken by a magistrate nearly 30 ago, to two mentally retarded children, should be burnt into the soul of every Manxman. The remarks represent a bigotry, intolerance and fundamental disregard for civil liberty that existed and is retained to this day. The birch, of course, has since "died the death" and is consigned to "saloon bar" nostalgia for a perceived more disciplined age.
He went on:
- For the past thirty years or more this Nation has consistently lacked a leadership that took a firm stand on individual liberty.
Moffatt has presented evidence on behalf of the Celtic League to various international bodies on civil liberties issues. In relation to the Isle of Man this has successfully focused on prison reform.