Cassan is the name of a partnership between the Manx-medium primary School in the Isle of Man and Conradh na Gaeilge in Lower Mourne in south Down. They have now come together to provide a resource with information in Manx, and Scottish and Irish Gaelic: a beautiful series of seven posters with useful vocabulary so that pupils can learn about the links between the Gaelic languages. The posters should be available to a wide range of schools.
‘Cassan’ is the Manx for ‘cosán’ or ‘path’ in Irish. The Isle of Man can be seen clearly from the Mourne Mountains, the home of Gaelscoil na mBeann, which has close links with Conradh na Gaeilge in Lower Mourne. The artists are Vicki Webb from the Ilse of Man, and Andrea McCloskey from County Down. The project has been developed by Josephine Siriu Dunbar, a linguist who is development officer with Conradh na Gaeilge in Lower Mourne, and Aalin Clague, a teacher at the Bunscoill Ghaelgach in the Isle of Man, in consultation with educational publishers Stòrlann Nàiseanta na Gàidhlig in the Scotland, and and the Áisaonad in Ireland. The project is funded and facilitated by the Colmcille project of Foras na Gaeige as part of the Colmcille 1500 programme.
Lower Mourne Conradh na Gaeilge hope to make the posters available through Irish-medium educational organisations and from bookshops such as An Ceathrú Póilí in Belfast. The posters are:
