ReviewL The Last of the Celts by Marcus Tanner

[Canuck of NI]

The Last of the Celts (2004) is a survey of the history and present-day status of all of the major and minor surviving Celtic groups, surprisingly including some rarely discussed and in fact little known communities: there are separate chapters on the Scottish Highlands, Connemara, Belfast, the Isle of Man, North Wales, South Wales, Cornwall, Brittany, Cape Breton, and Patagonia.

The emphasis is on the native Celtic languages of those areas and Mr Tanner's general thesis, which you may or may not agree with, is that Celtic culture is dead, or as good as dead, once Celts stops using their own language. As a historian and Celtic languages enthusiast, Mr Tanner has spent time in each Celtic community he describes and has developed a unique first-hand perspective on them not seen in any other single work. The book is also very well written and eminently readable. By the end, I was reminded of Alain Stivell's remark about the Chieftains: his work as seen in this book has done a real service for la Celtie.