A film about the revival of teaching Manx in primary schools from 1992, which the IPGCE has unearthed as part of its centenary celebrations, has brought back memories of growing up in a Manx-speaking household.

I was one of the first of the new wave of Manx speakers, learning the language from my parents before I ever spoke English.

Each language brings with it a way of thinking about the world and for me, Manx is that unique lens through which my island and its stories, music and history can be lived.

As a young child growing up in the living folk museum village of Cregneash, I learnt all my first words in the language.

It was an isolated site, but it felt like the perfect place to use what seemed to me to be my family\’s own secret language.

Only later in life did I really understand that I was one of a new generation of children to be raised with Gaelg (Manx Gaelic) as my first language.

The last native speaker, Ned Maddrell, died in 1974.

Recordings of him speaking Manx at Cregneash are among the most precious that exist of the language, preserved on acetate disks by the Irish Folklore Commission in 1948.

Fifty years later, I was tottering around the same village unaware of any historical significance and shouting out gleefully in the ancient Celtic tongue.

My mum, Annie Kissack, told me she felt a responsibility to pass Manx on to me and my sister Kitty, as it was \”a precious jewel\” and the \”secret to understanding the island\”.

I went to Chied Chesmayd (First Step) playgroup set up in 1993 and later the pre-school Mooinjer Veggey (Little People), which was set up by my father Phil Gawne and others in 1996.

He said that everyone who \”has ever tried to plan for the revival of a language will tell you that the best way is for families to actually speak and use the language\”.

He was the assistant farm manager at Cregneash and Yn Greinneyder (Manx language development officer) for the Manx Heritage Foundation, which later became Culture Vannin.

As a result of those early successes and a growing demand for a Manx language primary school, Yn Bunscoill Ghaelgagh was set up by 2001.