Cyril Clague

Cyril Clague (c.1880 – 28 July 1946) was the author of the popular Manx dialect poem, The Peel Manx Tay Party.

Life Clague was born in c.1880, the son of Henry Clague, a Douglas draper. After leaving the Douglas Higher Grade School (later the Douglas High School), Clague entered the main Douglas Post Office as a probationer, where he served until transferring to Liverpool at the opening of the new General Post Office there. After about 11 years in Liverpool, he returned to the Isle of Man in 1910, when he entered the controlling staff on the Main Post Office in Douglas. As well his performances, Clague also wrote a number of poems in Manx dialect. One of these, The Peel Manx Tea Party, became popular as a performance piece during his lifetime, including among Manx emigrants to North America. and 'The Tay Fight at Peel.' The poem can also be heard in a number of small variants, but one version of its opening stanza is as follows:

Have thou aver been to a tay fight in the counthry of oul Mona’s Isle? Thou haven’t! – well then jus’ listen a minute, sit down and res’ a while, And I’ll do me bes’ to tell yer, of a do that was given in Peel, Aw, them Peel gals are the boys, they’re sayin’, to provide a tremenjous good meal.