Have you found St Mary's Castletown the oldest
RC church on the island opened in 1826 but now
much renovated ? Your family must have attended
services there. Local expert, Manx speakers can indeed make
themselves understood with Gaelic speakers in western
Scotland & Ireland. To my shame I only know
about 10 phrases but received a warm welcome in
some little Irish isles this summer although only
a few words were identical. I presume they thought I
was an English person badly pronouncing their language !