Ned Maddrell


Edward "Ned" Maddrell was a fisherman from the Isle of Man who, at the time of his death, was the last surviving native speaker of the Manx language.

Life and legacy

Following the death of Sage Kinvig, Maddrell was the only remaining person who could claim to have spoken Manx Gaelic from childhood, although at the time some other people spoke it as a second language, having learned it later in life.
Maddrell recorded some of his speech for the sake of linguistic preservation; for example, in 1948 he recorded the following about fishing :
A newspaper article about the decline of Manx from about 1960 mentions and quotes him, since at the time he was, along with Kinvig, one of only two native speakers:
Maddrell appears to have enjoyed his minor celebrity status, and was very willing to teach younger language revivalists such as Leslie Quirk and Brian Stowell. When Irish Taoiseach Éamon de Valera visited the island he called upon Ned personally. De Valera had been angered some years before at the inaction of the British and Manx governments over the demise of the language, and had sent over a team from the Irish Folklore Commission with a sound recording van to preserve what was left.
The Manx language has undergone a revival after his death, partly thanks to the support that Ned Maddrell gave to younger learners of the language towards the end of his life. Today he is remembered by an annual lecture on Celtic language survival hosted by Culture Vannin and Yn Çheshaght Ghailckagh.