Sophia Morrison

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Sophia Morrison (May 27, 1859 – January 14, 1917) was a Manx cultural activist, folklore collector, author born in Peel, Isle of Man. Secretary to Yn Cheshaght Ghailckagh, the Manx Language Society (see Manx language), from 1901 until her death, she was one of the key players in the period of nation-building at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries. She was active in the pan-Celtic movement.Pan-Celticism

Morrison worked for the promotion of Manx Gaelic, music, folklore and literature, editing Yn Cheshaght Ghailckagh's journal Mannin, which appeared between 1913 and 1917 in nine volumes. Her role as secretary of the Society brought her into contact with all the important names of the period – both within and without the Isle of Man. She corresponded regularly with Manx scholars Arthur William Moore, J J Kneen, W H Gill, William Cubbon, for example, as well as with leading language activists in the other Celtic countries.

A collector of folklore, Morrison becoming internationally-renowned as an authority on Manx fairylore. She contributed Manx sections to Evans-Wentz's Fairy Faith in the Celtic Countries and to Rhŷs Phillips’ Celtic Nations & their Literary Activities, for example. Her own Manx Fairy Tales (1911) represented stories collected from informants and friends such as J R Moore and William Cashen.

Morrison was also important in the development of a new literary code, a new literary language – Anglo-Manx writing. Together with Arthur William Moore and Edmund Goodwin, she was responsible for A Vocabulary of the Anglo-Manx Dialect, a glossary of dialect words and phrases. The Isle of Man's small but important theatre company, the Peel Players, was under her direction – members carried her coffin at her funeral in 1917.