When I was a young learner, I was taught in grade school how islands were formed. In very simplified terms, there is usually a push and shove from deep in the earth and an island is pushed up. Some islands, like the Hawaiian Islands, are built by volcanoes. But, the making of the Isle of Man was not made by Mother Nature, but by giants.

It happened thousands of years ago during a time when, in Ireland, the giants were always battling one another. One giant in particular, Finn MacCooil, was fighting the Red Giant of Scotland. MacCooil bested Big Red who ran to the east and MacCooil chased him. Red was getting far ahead of Finn. Fearing Red would jump into the sea and escape, Finn reached down and grabbed a handful of dirt and flung it at Red.

The fistful of dirt missed its intended target and it landed in the Irish Sea. This formed the Isle of Man. Now, the most amazing part of this story are the first Maxmen. As it turns out there were people on that clump of dirt, and they too were flung out to the sea. Luckily, the people landed safely.

They are The Manx.

Quite a hardy bunch if you ask me.

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