mojomonkey Posted October 2, 2016 Share Posted October 2, 2016 The phrase "as Manx as the hills" often seems to crop up and it has always intrigued me. How do people quantify and qualify this? I'd be interested in people's opinion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
llap Posted October 2, 2016 Share Posted October 2, 2016 It's a figure of speech used to refer to someone who is Manx and whose family have lived on the island for centuries. There is no scientific quantification or qualification for this. There's no exact number of generations or centuries you'd need to go back that people would agree upon. People understand it to be a generalisation and its meaning dependent on who is using it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mojomonkey Posted October 2, 2016 Author Share Posted October 2, 2016 But is it decades or centuries? Or at least grandparents, great grandparents or further back? If someone's parents were born in the IoM but not all their grandparents could they still claim to be as Manx as the hills? I do find how people culturally identify themselves to be interesting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
llap Posted October 2, 2016 Share Posted October 2, 2016 But is it decades or centuries? Or at least grandparents, great grandparents or further back? If someone's parents were born in the IoM but not all their grandparents could they still claim to be as Manx as the hills? I do find how people culturally identify themselves to be interesting. My point was that there is no official arbiter who decides the answer. It's a matter of opinion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mojomonkey Posted October 2, 2016 Author Share Posted October 2, 2016 But is it decades or centuries? Or at least grandparents, great grandparents or further back? If someone's parents were born in the IoM but not all their grandparents could they still claim to be as Manx as the hills? I do find how people culturally identify themselves to be interesting. My point was that there is no official arbiter who decides the answer. It's a matter of opinion. Thanks for the input, interested to hear other people's views. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barrie Stevens Posted October 2, 2016 Share Posted October 2, 2016 It's a figure of speech used to refer to someone who is Manx and whose family have lived on the island for centuries. There is no scientific quantification or qualification for this. There's no exact number of generations or centuries you'd need to go back that people would agree upon. People understand it to be a generalisation and its meaning dependent on who is using it. In 1986 when I first drifted to your shores I was told that names like Bregazzi and Kerruish and Taubman were "as Manx as the hills"...The first is Italian the second can be found in many a Brittany phone book (I am told!) and Taubman I am assured is Austrian and means "being deaf"... Other Manx names are Anglicised like "Cowley"... It is about perception and adoption over time or by conviction... As said the Indian servant in the sitcom "It ain't arf hot mum!"..."We British must stick together" (Then spits on ground)..Actually Michael Bates who played the part of Rangi Ram was Anglo-Indian and more English than the English although Urdu was his first language..He was a big time Conservative Party activist also... Harry Webb aka Cliff Richard was Anglo-Indian, presumably British and now Bajan being also now legally Cliff Richard...Then there is the Queen's hubby Phil the Greek from Corfu! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
quilp Posted October 2, 2016 Share Posted October 2, 2016 Well I'll go to the bottom of our stairs! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
quilp Posted October 2, 2016 Share Posted October 2, 2016 Not a Manx saying. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
quilp Posted October 2, 2016 Share Posted October 2, 2016 What about origins? I'm 'Manx' but my origins (blood) are Scandinavian, Irish/Scots and a tiny bit of southern European. One of my great grandfathers was probably a crewman on board one of the doomed Spanish armada vessels shipwrecked in a great storm off the west coast of Ireland, surviving to put a tail on one of the many flame-haired local lasses and adding his genes in my mix. Surely this applies to all of us? There sure as fuck ain't no pure Manx bloodline originating from these shores, after all, even those who remained when the tide came in and never went out again came from elsewhere. It's a saying popular with bone-headed, wall-eyed nationalist yessir's who believe it carries some weight to an argument or whatever; as if it conveys some mysterious and esoteric significance to be considered. Where is manxie44, anyway? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barrie Stevens Posted October 2, 2016 Share Posted October 2, 2016 Well I'll go to the bottom of our stairs! Lancashire I think...."Well I'll go to the foot of our stairs" .."Well I'll go to our 'ouse"...Used by Wigan native George Formby Jnr who was actually born George Booth and who was not as Manx as the hills... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
quilp Posted October 2, 2016 Share Posted October 2, 2016 Bloody Nora Barry, what about Jimmy Clitheroe? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BossHogg Posted October 2, 2016 Share Posted October 2, 2016 What about origins? I'm 'Manx' but my origins (blood) are Scandinavian, Irish/Scots and a tiny bit of southern European. One of my great grandfathers was probably a crewman on board one of the doomed Spanish armada vessels shipwrecked in a great storm off the west coast of Ireland, surviving to put a tail on one of the many flame-haired local lasses and adding his genes in my mix. Surely this applies to all of us? There sure as fuck ain't no pure Manx bloodline originating from these shores, after all, even those who remained when the tide came in and never went out again came from elsewhere. It's a saying popular with bone-headed, wall-eyed nationalist yessir's who believe it carries some weight to an argument or whatever; as if it conveys some mysterious and esoteric significance to be considered. Where is manxie44, anyway? You can't go far wrong with that. Sure as hell there are no records of any real true indigenous Manx. Almost all of the bloodlines were imported at some stage whether Irish, Scots, Norse etc. That argument doesn't suit some of the yessirs out there though. We have a pretty poor cultural identity when you think about it. Most of it perpetuated by a load of diehard Manx crab yessirs who just don't like change. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
llap Posted October 2, 2016 Share Posted October 2, 2016 We Manx are a Norse and Celtic people. Of course that mixture happened well over a thousand years ago. Having a Spanish ancestor wouldn't preclude you being as Manx as the hills at all. Like I said in my previous post, it doesn't pay to over-analyse the term. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
llap Posted October 2, 2016 Share Posted October 2, 2016 What about origins? I'm 'Manx' but my origins (blood) are Scandinavian, Irish/Scots and a tiny bit of southern European. One of my great grandfathers was probably a crewman on board one of the doomed Spanish armada vessels shipwrecked in a great storm off the west coast of Ireland, surviving to put a tail on one of the many flame-haired local lasses and adding his genes in my mix. Surely this applies to all of us? There sure as fuck ain't no pure Manx bloodline originating from these shores, after all, even those who remained when the tide came in and never went out again came from elsewhere. It's a saying popular with bone-headed, wall-eyed nationalist yessir's who believe it carries some weight to an argument or whatever; as if it conveys some mysterious and esoteric significance to be considered. Where is manxie44, anyway? You can't go far wrong with that. Sure as hell there are no records of any real true indigenous Manx. Almost all of the bloodlines were imported at some stage whether Irish, Scots, Norse etc. That argument doesn't suit some of the yessirs out there though. We have a pretty poor cultural identity when you think about it. Most of it perpetuated by a load of diehard Manx crab yessirs who just don't like change. It's the mixture you speak of which became the Manx. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
quilp Posted October 2, 2016 Share Posted October 2, 2016 As Manx as the mixture. Yeah, that fits. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.