Statue representing Isle of Man's 'Viking legacy' approved
The proposals for the artwork were approved despite a recommendation from the planning officer to refuse the application, which was submitted by the Department of Infrastructure. Skelly said King Orry was "everywhere on this island" and ingrained in Manx culture."Godred Croven is listed in the Chronicles of Mann, our most important written document of the history of the Isle of Man," he added.
The structure, which will be put in place facing east near the junction of Peel Road and Glen Mooar Road, will be illuminated.It has been designed by artists Darren Jackson and Stephanie Quayle-Jackson, who also created a heron sculpture in Castletown.Planners were told the location had been chosen to be easily visible but not to intrude on the hill, national cenotaph or the Royal Chapel of St John's. Historian Charles Guard said the statue next to the hill where the annual open-air sitting of Tynwald takes place would mean "you can see immediately this is our Viking heritage".He drew the parallel with Parliament Square next to the Houses of Parliament in London, where there are 12 statues."They are all celebrating the development of democracy in the adjacent island, our parliament is older and it's more distinguished," he said."We need a Viking there to tell us who started it all, and that's the man who was involved in it."It's a metaphor and he is pointing to Tynwald Hill, he's saying this is your legacy from the Vikings."Objectors have 21 days to appeal the planning decision.
Read more stories from the Isle of Man on the BBC, watch BBC North West Tonight on BBC iPlayer and follow BBC Isle of Man on Facebook and X.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Guardian
5 hours ago
- The Guardian
Trump administration to reinstall Confederate statue toppled in Black Lives Matter protests
A statue of a general in the Confederate army that was toppled and set on fire during social justice protests in 2020 in Washington DC will be reinstated, the National Park Service (NPS) has announced. The bronze statue depicting Albert Pike is being restored, the Park Service said in a statement on Monday, sharing a photo of the statue undergoing cleaning to remove corrosion and paint prior to repairs, with a view to reinstalling it by October. 'The restoration aligns with federal responsibilities under historic preservation law as well as recent executive orders to beautify the nation's capital and re-instate pre-existing statues,' a statement from the agency said, including an executive order issued by Donald Trump in March calling for 'restoring truth and sanity to American history'. The restoration is just the latest action undertaken by the NPS, faced with unprecedented staff cuts and threats to some $1bn of its federal funding, that falls in line with Trump's agenda to sanitize and rewrite the country's history. It has come under fire in recent months for removing or editing content to scrub references to certain historical narratives, including slavery, stories of women, African Americans and LGBTQ+ individuals. It removed references to transgender people from its Stonewall national monument webpage in February, while pages about Harriet Tubman and a Black Medal of Honor recipient were restored after public backlash. The agency also faced scrutiny for directing park staff to review gift shop items for content deemed 'anti-American'. In the wake of the police murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, antiracism protestors used rope and chains to topple the Pike statue – the only one of a Confederate general in the nation's capital – and set it ablaze on Juneteenth, the day marking the end of slavery in the US, in 2020. Floyd's death had sparked a nationwide reckoning with racism and calls for the removal of monuments to the Confederacy, more than 300 of which were eventually removed nationwide. Trump, then in his first term, quickly tweeted about the toppling: 'The DC police are not doing their job as they watched a statue be ripped down and burn. These people should be immediately arrested. A disgrace to our country.' Several days later he reportedly requested that the statue be restored. This time around the president has tasked the Department of the Interior to look into restoring monuments, memorials and statues that have been removed since 2020, and the Pentagon has restored Confederate names to army bases (something Trump said he 'would not even consider' in 2020). The statue had long been a source of controversy, as have Confederate statues and other markers of the Confederate legacy across the US more generally. Many were put up long after the civil war had ended as a way of continuing to intimidate Black Americans and serve as monuments to white supremacy. Pike was a longtime leader of the Freemasons, a centuries-old secretive society, who paid for the statue. His body is interred at the Washington headquarters of the Scottish Rite of Freemasonry, which also contains a small museum in his honor. The statue, dedicated in 1901, was located in Judiciary Square about half a mile from the US Capitol. It was built at the request of Masons who successfully lobbied Congress to grant them land for the statue as long as Pike would be depicted in civilian – not military – clothing. Civil rights activists and some local government officials in DC had campaigned for years to get the statue taken down but needed the federal government's approval to do so. A proposed resolution calling for the removal of the statue referred to Pike as a 'chief founder of the post-civil war Ku Klux Klan'. The Klan connection is a frequent accusation from Pike's critics and one which the Masons dispute. Since NPS announced its plan to return the Pike statue, Eleanor Holmes Norton, DC's House delegate, announced plans to reintroduce her bill to remove the statue and donate it to a museum. 'I've long believed Confederate statues should be placed in museums as historical artifacts, not remain in parks and locations that imply honor,' she said in a press release. 'The decision to honor Albert Pike by reinstalling the Pike statue is as odd and indefensible as it is morally objectionable. Pike served dishonorably.'
The Independent
a day ago
- The Independent
Statue of Confederate general torn down in 2020 protests to be restored in Washington DC
A statue of a Confederate general that was torn down in 2020 during racial injustice protests will be restored in Washington, D.C., the National Park Service has announced. In June 2020, the Albert Pike statue near D.C. police headquarters was toppled and vandalized by protesters. NBC4 Washington was there when protesters used ropes to pull the statue down. 'Many of these protesters say that the Confederacy represents racism, slavery and here on Juneteenth they are trying to pull down…this statue,' local reporter Shomari Stone said during a broadcast at the time. 'People have spray-painted BLM, for Black Lives Matter, they have written Black Lives Matter on it, and they are continuing to try to pull this down.' Protesters later poured lighter fluid on the statue and set it on fire. On Monday, the National Park Service said it will restore and reinstall the statue. 'The restoration aligns with federal responsibilities under historic preservation law as well as recent executive orders to beautify the nation's capital and re-instate pre-existing statues,' the service wrote in a press release. The release cited two executive orders signed by Trump in March, including 'Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History.' In this executive order, Trump ordered the Interior Secretary Doug Burgum to determine whether, since January 2020, public statues and other monuments 'have been removed or changed to perpetuate a false reconstruction of American history, inappropriately minimize the value of certain historical events or figures, or include any other improper partisan ideology,' and to take action to reinstate these statues as appropriate. Pike's statue was dedicated in 1901 and has sat in storage since its removal in 2020. It is currently being restored. 'Site preparation to repair the statue's damaged masonry plinth will begin shortly, with crews repairing broken stone, mortar joints, and mounting elements,' the National Park Service said. The service hopes to reinstall the statue by October 2025. Pike's statue was vandalized nearly a month after George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man, died in Minneapolis after a white police officer, Derek Chauvin, knelt on his neck. Floyd's death sparked nationwide protests, some of which turned violent, against racial injustice, particularly police violence against Black Americans. Journalist Geoff Bennett reported in June 2020 Trump, who was nearing the end of his first term, had moved to reinstall Pike's statue. 'Two sources tell NBC News that Pres. Trump personally called Interior Sec. Bernhardt and asked the Park Service to put back up the statue of Gen. Albert Pike – Washington, D.C.'s only outdoor Confederate statue, which protesters tore down and set on fire the night of Juneteenth,' Bennett wrote on X.
BBC News
2 days ago
- BBC News
Residents' views wanted on Manx way of life to help 'shape future'
The views of thousands of Isle of Man residents on a variety of topics from crime to healthcare are being sought in a bid to help the government "shape policies for the future".The 2025 Social Attitudes Survey is the latest annual consultation that is sent randomly to 3,000 is wanted on issues from public services and healthcare to safety and crime.A government spokeswoman said it would help to "shape government policies for the future and can be used to better understand public opinion". It would also help "assess government initiatives", she voluntary survey, run by Statistics Isle of Man, runs until 6 September, and is accessible by invitation only. 'Representative' The process was previously conducted annually between 2016 and 2019 but was paused due to the coronavirus pandemic and started up again last results of the 2024 survey found that housing and financial pressures were making local residents less the questionnaire is sent to 3,000 households, the resident that completes it is decided by who has the closest birthday to the date the letter is is to "ensure that the responses are as representative as possible of the island's community", the spokeswoman explained. Once the invite is extended, people can complete the survey either online, by requesting a paper copy, or by arranging a face-to-face meeting with a member of the Statistics Isle of Man responses remain anonymous. Read more stories from the Isle of Man on the BBC, watch BBC North West Tonight on BBC iPlayer and follow BBC Isle of Man on Facebook and X.
