New Manx Bard brings an indie and punk background to the role

The island’s new Manx Bard, who goes by the bardic name Declan, has described his appointment as unexpected for someone from the do-it-yourself world of indie music, writing in Isle of Man Today.

He said it surprised him to be taking on an Arts Council-backed post and to be presented in front of the Lieutenant Governor. He comes from a scene where musicians promote their own gigs and release their own records. Each month of his bardic year, Island Life will carry a column and a new poem from him.

He wrote that he cannot recall reading poetry at school and that his class never wrote any. He was dyslexic but was not diagnosed until his twenties. He discovered poetry through performance poets such as John Cooper Clarke and Attila the Stockbroker, who shared stages with punk bands.

For a long time he wrote lyrics to speak-sing over music, mostly for his own amusement. Eventually he realised they were poems, and he began performing them at local open mic events.

He said the post will challenge him: his work will be published in print, and he will be commissioned to write beyond his usual subjects of local pop and folk culture. He called Manx culture “our greatest asset” but said “it’s not a museum piece”. He wants his work to span the full range, from ancient folk tales and “Victorian tourist ditties” to new songs by Manx Punx bands.

His first poem, 2026: Edmundstide, takes a comic look at the TV presenter Noel Edmonds’ summer appearances on the island.