Logo
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Formation | Established in 1961 First publication of Carn in 1973 |
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Official languages
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General secretary
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Rhisiart Tal-e-bot (2006–present) |
Editor of Carn
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Rhisiart Tal-e-bot (2013–present) |
Website | celticleague |
The Celtic League is a pan-Celtic organisation, founded in 1961, that aims to promote modern Celtic identity and culture in Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Brittany, Cornwall and the Isle of Man – referred to as the Celtic nations; it places particular emphasis on promoting the Celtic languages of those nations. It also advocates further self-governance in the Celtic nations and ultimately for each nation to be an independent state in their own right. The Celtic League is an accredited NGO with roster consultative status to ECOSOC (The United Nations Economic and Social Council).
The Celtic League presents its aims as including:
"Each Celtic nation is conditioned by a different history and so we must not expect uniformity of thought, but instead allow diversity to express itself within the Celtic League. In this way, we may better recognise those areas of possible co-operation and eventually formulate a detailed common policy. With this we can work out which kind of relations between our communities will enable them to enjoy freedoms and liberties at both individual and community level."
Politically, the Celtic league seeks to create six sovereign states from the six Celtic nations it acknowledges as existing, associated in some way. There is some variation in the understanding of these aims, which ranges from annual general meetings (AGMs), to an actual federation along the lines of the Nordic Council.
The 1987 Celtic League Annual General Meeting stated that it: "firmly reiterates that the Celtic League has a specific function within Celtia, i.e. to work for the reinstatement of our languages to a viable position, and the attainment of sufficient economic, cultural and political autonomy to guarantee the survival of our civilisation into the 21st century. This emphasis on the languages of our six nations marks us now as distinct cultural communities, and therefore as distinct nations."
Founded in 1961, the present Celtic League grew out of various other pan-Celtic organisations, particularly the Celtic Congress, but with a more political emphasis. Previously, Hugh MacDiarmid and others had suggested something along the same lines.