Кельт лигасы: Кельт ұлттарының біртүтастығы мен мәдениетін қолдау ұйымы

Organisation

The Celtic League is a pan Celtic organization, 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 its own right. The Celtic League is an accredited NGO with roster consultative status to the United Nations Economic and Social Council (EcoSoc).

The Celtic League publishes a quarterly magazine, Carn, which highlights political struggles and cultural preservation issues. The articles are produced in the six Celtic languages in addition to English. The cover of the magazine is a map of the six Celtic countries with their respective Celtic language names beside them. In the past, articles have appeared in French as well. For many years, Carn claimed to be the only regular publication carrying all six Celtic languages. The Celtic League, American Branch (CLAB) prints its own quarterly newsletter, Six Nations, One Soul, as of 2011 CLAB also produced a wall calendar each year, with art from members, appropriate quotations, and anniversaries; publication ceased with the 2008 issue. Other branches have published their own periodicals from time to time, but few have been very long lived.

Some of the more notable past and present members of the Celtic League have been Plaid Cymru leaders Gwynfor Evans and J. E. Jones, Scottish National Party leaders Winnie Ewing, Robert McIntyre and Rob Gibson, leader of Sinn Féin Ruairí Ó Brádaigh, prominent Breton exiles Yann Fouéré and Alan Heusaff, the historian and writer Peter Berresford Ellis, writer Bernard Le Nail, and Manx language revivalist Brian Stowell. American author and linguist Alexei Kondratiev was president of the Celtic League American branch.

The Celtic League also campaigns for a united Ireland, and the return of the Loire Atlantique department to Brittany. Over the years, the Celtic League has campaigned consistently in support of the languages in Celtic nations, and for the return of ancient artefacts, removed from Celtic countries to museums outside of these areas – amongst these are the Lewis chessmen and the Chronicles of Mann. The Manx branch of the Celtic League successfully campaigned for the Calf of Man island to be transferred from the National Trust of England, Wales and Northern Ireland to the local Manx National Heritage. In the mid 1990s, the Celtic League started a campaign to have the word "Alba" on the Scottish football and rugby tops. Since 2005, the Scottish Football Association have supported the use of Scottish Gaelic on their teams's strip in recognition of the language's revival in Scotland. However, the SRU is still being lobbied to have "Alba" on the national rugby strip. The Celtic League has also passed a motion to support the general aims of Independence First, which aims for a referendum on Scottish independence. In 2010, the Celtic League sought to prevent retailers selling the flag of England in Cornwall, criticising it as "foreign".

The presidency and vice presidency ran from 1961 to 1971 and were then abolished. They were held by Gwynfor Evans (W) and Robert McIntyre (S) respectively for the entire duration of the posts. The successor post, chairman, was held by Pádraig Ó Conchúir (I) from 1972 to 1978, then abolished. J. B. Moffatt was serving as the organisation's director of information as of 2008.