Alan Heusaff - The Celtic League

The Celtic League

The formation of The Celtic league is regarded as Heusaff's major achievement. The modern philosophy of Pan-Celticism, of co-operation between the six modern Celtic nations (the Irish, Manx, Scots, Welsh, Cornish and Bretons) had first been given published form by Charles de Gaulle (1837–1880), a Breton language poet who published his ideas in Les Celtes au XIXe siécle (Celts in the 19th Century) in 1864. The League was born in a meeting at the Eisteddfod at Rhos, near Llangollen, in North Wales in 1961. (18)

The principal aims were then: (1) to foster co-operation between the national movements in the Celtic countries, particularly in efforts to obtain international recognition and to share the experiences of their struggles and exchange constructive ideas. (2)

Heusaff was elected General Secretary, a position he held until 1984-85, while Gwynfor Evans, president of Plaid Cymru and later to be the first Plaid Cymru Member of Parliament, was elected as president. Dr Noelle Davis was elected treasurer. An existing magazine Celtic Voice was offered as a means of propagating the League. By the second annual meeting on 30 September 1962, the League had branches in all six Celtic countries as well as in London. The League then launched its own quarterly journal Celtic News, initially edited by Welsh historian Dr Ceinwen Thomas of University College, Cardiff. From 1963 until 1971, an annual volume was also published constituting up to 180 pages. Celtic News continued under various editors until a more professionally produced journal, Carn, was launched in the Spring of 1973, with Frank Thomson, a Scottish writer and journalist, as its first editor. Still published quarterly, Carn carries articles in all six Celtic languages, as well as in English and French.

Gwynfor Evans MP continued as President until 1972, while Vice-Presidents consisted of leaders of the main political national parties, such as Dr Yann Fouéré of the Mouvement Pour l'Organisation de la Bretagne; Dr Robert McIntyre of the Scottish National Party (and its first Member of Parliament) and Robert Dunstone, the president of the Cornish movement, Mebyon Kernow. However, by 1972, it was decided that conflicts of interest were arising and that the League should elect its own independent president and officials. Such a conflict had arisen in 1969 at the League's annual meeting it Dublin when Gwynfor Evans used his League office to speak of Plaid Cymru policies which conflicted with attitudes in other Celtic countries. Pádraig Ó Conchúir became the first "chairman" replacing Gwynfor Evans. Later the officer of "chairman" was replaced by "convenor".

Under Heusaff's enthusiastic guidance and diligent work, however, the League was viable enough to give evidence to the European Commission of Human Rights in 1963 concerning the persecution of the Breton language. This aroused media attention. The League sent an official delegation to the 14th Congress of the Federal Union of European Nationalities (representing ethnic minorities), and in November 1965, the League delivered a 62 page memorandum, arguing the case for self-government for the Celtic countries to the United Nations Organization and distributed it in 1966 to members of the Council of Europe.

The League also took a leading part in many other campaigns, for example, monitoring submarine activity in the Irish Sea where they refused to surface, snaring fishing nets and causing the loss of boats and lives. Ensuing publicity over the years to these incidents brought the League into mainstream politics. Another success was the League's spearheading of a campaign to transfer the ownership of the bird island sanctuary, the Calf of Man, from the English National Trust to the Manx National Trust. The League soon made the idea of Pan-Celticism a public issue and forced the academic Celtic Congress, founded in 1900, into actions such as adopting a "Charter of Cultural Rights" in 1974. In 1979 a Celtic Film and Television Festival was inaugurated and in 1981 UNESCO launched their permanent "Project for the Study and Promotion of Celtic Cultures". Conferences, book fairs, television programmes, and an International Federation of Celtic Wrestling was formed.

The burgeoning of the Celtic idea, came from Heusaff's original vision. Although he resigned office around 1985, he continued to work diligently for the League. As a tribute to his work The Celtic League published that year a festschrift in his honour For A Celtic Future, of essays by many leading Celticists, and edited by Cathal Ó Luain, who had become convenor of the League. Upon

his retirement from the Meteorological Service in 1986, Alan and Bríd moved to Seanadh Gharráin, near Spidéal, County Galway, where he concentrated on his lexicographical work, kept up a voluminous correspondence with his Celtic contacts, and remained involved in the League. In July 1990, Heusaff wrote of the future of the League:

"The Celtic League has a role to play in stimulating Inter Celtic contacts, Inter Celtic solidarity, which could express itself in contributing to pressure on politicians and international/European institutions to steer developments in Europe towards full recognition of the rights of our nations including languages. Other Inter Celtic organizations exist (i.e. Celtic Congress), also Inter Celtic events (Film and Television Festival. Celtic Congress of Writers etc.) – but we are the only association so far working on a continuous or permanent basis. We need to think about what contribution the Celtic peoples and their cultures can make to the development of European unity, to formulate proposals and suggestions, disseminating them, instead of adopting an aloof sort of attitude. We lack people to do this work. Many European peoples have something like an attachment to Celtic matters. I believe we should appeal to them to help to get recognition and the freedom we need to realize our national aims. Our problem is to bring young people to join in the work. The cosmopolitanization of culture, which now rules supreme, the control of the media by the agents of uniformity, are great obstacles to our progress."

(19)

Before he died it was arranged that all Heusaff's papers connected with the Celtic League should be deposited in the National Library of Wales at Aberystwyth, and are classified as 681, Celtic League Archive.