Delegates enjoying a jig to celebrate the handing over of the Pan Celtic Charter.
LETTERKENNY has officially been handed the Pan Celtic Charter for 2018 following a ceremony in the town this morning.
The Pan Celtic Festival will see up to 5,000 people attend a range of events and activities in Letterkenny from April 3 to 8, celebrating the various Celtic cultures and traditions such as the languages, music, song and sport.
Delegates from Cornwall and Wales joined those from Letterkenny to celebrate the handing over of the Pan Celtic Charter.
“The Pan Celtic Charter is an important part of the festival,” said Máirín Nic Dhonnchadha of the Pan Celtic International Council.
“It is presented by the Cathaoirleach of The Pan Celtic International Council to the town mayor about six months before the date of the festival and the town is then the custodian of the Charter for the year of the festival.”
The main aim of the festival is to instil, strengthen and exchange the various Celtic cultures and traditions such as the languages, music, song and sport and to encourage inter-Celtic tourism, trade and commerce, and exchange of information.
On hand to accept the charter was Cathaoirleach Gerry McGonagle who said the festival was a great opportunity to experience and express what it is to belong to a Celtic country.
“There is little doubt that the Celtic peoples who inhabited the recognised Celtic nations of today left a great heritage for their descendants.
Pan Celticism is essentially a recognition that, because of their Celtic origins, the Irish, Manx, Welsh, Scottish, Cornish and Bretons share a special relationship,” Cllr McMonagle added.
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