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Jennifer Kewley Draskau

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Margaret Jennifer Kewley Draskau (died 21 October 2024) was a Manx historian, linguist, teacher, political candidate and prominent figure in Isle of Man culture. She published several books, with her most notable work the 2008 grammar, spelling and pronunciation reference book on the Manx Gaelic language, Practical Manx.

Life

Draskau was born on the Isle of Man, where her grandfather was a Police inspector with the Isle of Man constabulary. She attended The Buchan School in Castletown, and spent periods of her youth staying with Welsh speaking cousins in Wales. She was fluent in several languages, including English, Danish, French, German and Manx, and was proficient in many others. She continued her education at the University of Manchester.

Draskau married a Danish man. She lived in Denmark for two decades, where she taught at the University of Copenhagen and University of Aarhus. She was appointed Honorary Senior Research Fellow in the Department of English at the University of Liverpool and also as a Senior Research Fellow at the University’s Centre for Manx Studies. She briefly worked as a languages tutor to the royal family in Thailand.

After returning to Man, Draskau taught German at Ramsey Grammar School in Ramsey and introduced Manx Studies to the curriculum. In 1996, she stood for election to the island's lower house of parliament, the House of Keys, in the Michael sheading. She gained 33.65% of the vote, but lost to David Cannan. She also sung with Manx choir Cliogaree Twoaie and was known to swim in the Irish Sea.

In 2006, she published a new translation of the poem An Account of the Isle of Man in Song, the oldest text written in Manx Gaelic (between approximately 1490 and 1530) and which is also known as the Manannan Ballad or Manx Traditionary Ballad. In 2008, Draskau published the Manx language reference book Practical Manx. In 2019, she translated the English version of Jon Leirfall’s Norwegian perspective of the history of the Isle of Man, A Thousand Years in Man, for Culture Vannin. She also published articles about the Manx language in numerous journal, including the Journal of Terminology Science and Research and in the "Contemporary Issues in Manx Culture" themed special edition of Celtic Cultural Studies.

Draskau was descended from the father of the 17th-century Manx nationalist and politician Illiam Dhone and published a biography of him titled Illiam Dhone: Patriot or Traitor? in 2012. A copy of the book was donated to the Tynwald Library, and in 2013 she fundraised for the Isle of Man Agricultural Benevolent Trust by delivering a lecture about him.

Her other historical research included exploring the World War I internment camps on the Isle of Man. She worked on newspapers from the Douglas Internment Camp and found evidence of black market activity. She put forward the idea that internee female impersonators on the island "played an important role in the social and psychological resilience of heterogeneous all-male societies within the internment camps." Draskau also published Lusitania: Tragedy Or War Crime? featuring new research about the sinking of the liner. The Lusitania had been carrying over 25,000 "enemy alien" internees who had been held in two camps on Man.

As well as non-fiction research, Draskau also wrote award-winning plays and novels. Her research into the Lusitania inspired the play The Sinking of Immaculate O’Shea. It was performed in the Isle of Man and New Zealand. Her 2020 fictional work Transportee aimed to highlight the plight of the Manx men and women who were transported off the island to work in the British colonies during the 17th century.

She died in 2024.

Select publications

References

  1. ^ Curphey, Tom (28 October 2024). "Tributes paid to renowned Manx historian and linguist Dr Jennifer Kewley Draskau". Isle of Man Today. Retrieved 12 January 2025.
  2. Forester, Chris, ed. (2010). "Keeping the Peace in WW1". Journal of the Police History Society. 25: 15–19.
  3. ^ "Jennifer Kewley Draskau - a tribute". Culture Vannin. 25 October 2024. Retrieved 12 January 2025.
  4. ^ Chiverrell, Richard; Belchem, John; Thomas, Dr Geoff; Duffy, Seán; Mytum, Harold (1 January 2000). A New History of the Isle of Man: The modern period 1830-1999. Liverpool University Press. pp. xii. ISBN 978-0-85323-726-6.
  5. "Michael Results (1996)". Manx Radio. Retrieved 12 January 2025.
  6. Matthews, Jodie (15 November 2011). Islands and Britishness: A Global Perspective. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. p. 164. ISBN 978-1-4438-3543-5.
  7. Draskau, Jennifer (1 January 2008). Practical Manx. Liverpool University Press. ISBN 978-1-84631-131-4.
  8. Zarnikhi, Abolfazl (11 May 2016). Towards a Systemic Model for Terminology Planning. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. p. 241. ISBN 978-1-4438-9432-6.
  9. Draskau, J.; Maddrell, Breesha (2009). "Role of Joshua Fishman's Yians in Xish Revitalization: The Case of Manx Gaelic';". Celtic Cultural Studies.
  10. "Jennifer Kewley Draskau bio". fable.co. Retrieved 12 January 2025.
  11. "Biography presented to President of Tynwald". Tynwald. 6 December 2012. Retrieved 12 January 2025.
  12. Carr, Gillian; Mytum, Harold (2012). Cultural Heritage and Prisoners of War: Creativity Behind Barbed Wire. Routledge. p. 308. ISBN 978-0-415-52215-1.
  13. Bailkin, Jordanna (2018). Unsettled: Refugee Camps and the Making of Multicultural Britain. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-881421-4.
  14. Draskau, Jennifer Kewley. (2012). "Kulturkrieg and Frontgeist from behind the wire: World War I newspapers from Douglas Internment Camp." In Carr, Gilly; Mytum, Harold. eds. Cultural Heritage and Prisoners of War. Routledge. pp. 207-226. ISBN 9780203120620.
  15. Myers, Adrian; Moshenska, Gabriel (24 May 2011). Archaeologies of Internment. Springer Science & Business Media. p. 39. ISBN 978-1-4419-9666-4.
  16. Manz, Stefan; Panayi, Panikos (2020). Enemies in the Empire: Civilian Internment in the British Empire During the First World War. Oxford University Press. p. 246. ISBN 978-0-19-885015-1.
  17. Reiss, Matthias (26 December 2019). Controlling Sex in Captivity: POWs and Sexual Desire in the United States During the Second World War. Bloomsbury Academic. pp. 147, 213. ISBN 978-1-350-14573-3.
  18. ^ Morgan, Janis (7 September 2010). "Isle of Man research inspires historical play". University of Liverpool News. Archived from the original on 30 September 2023. Retrieved 12 January 2025.
  19. "Transported away". Isle of Man Today. 10 March 2021. Retrieved 12 January 2025.
  20. Wade, Mike (21 November 2020). "Jennifer sheds new light on the 'Great Whore of Babylon'". Isle of Man Today. Retrieved 12 January 2025.
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