Government plans to grow the island’s population were criticised as nationalists gathered at Hango Hill, Castletown, for the annual Illiam Dhone commemoration.

A crowd of more than 50 attended the annual event to mark the execution in 1663 of a man hailed a patriot by some and branded a traitor by others.

Unlike previous years, there was no speech in English.

This year’s oration in Manx was given by Cesar Joughin and covered topics ranging from support for Palestine, to green power, immigration and gender equality.

Mec Vannin chairman Mark Kermode said: ‘We are here to remember the judicial murder of Illiam Dhone, William Christian, shot here or very close to this spot in 1663.

‘And it was a judicial murder - one of the worst things about the Isle of Man today is that you still get this question mark over what happened. And there is no question mark.’

He said Illiam Dhone had risked his life to raise a Manx militia and negotiate a peaceful surrender to the Parliamentarian forces during the English civil war that protected the island’s ancient rights and laws.

The annual commemoration has traditionally been the forum of strong criticism of the government of the day.

This year was no exception.

Mr Kermode railed at ‘buzzwords and tokenism’. He said: ‘You can stick up a few windmills and it makes no difference at all to the overall picture. Yes, there is reliable tidal energy to be had from the coast around the island.

‘But it is all a waste of time unless we reduce energy consumption - and reduce fiscal expenditure. Yet again, and I’ve heard it all my life, we hear the same bankrupt policy advocated - “get in more people”.

‘And when the Chamber of Horrors turns round and says it won’t work that really tells you all you need to know.

‘How do we get things to change? What I haven’t seen in years is anybody standing for the House of Keys and saying “I oppose this policy and I will change this policy”.’

On the theme of immigration, Mr Joughin claimed: ‘Lots of business and religious related people have started to come here with no regard for anything the island stands for culturally but as an escape to a place they can flash the cash and treat us as some form of “diminutive” of England, with far fewer dark-skinned people than “back home”.’

Mr Joughin said the silence over Gaza had been ‘deafening’.

He said government was quick - and rightly so - to condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 but that ‘we haven’t heard a peep from you as Israel is quite publicly massacring the Palestinian people in a wanton display of unfeeling malice’.

Turning to green power, he said that over the year it had become clear that wind turbines ‘won’t be the perfect solution we were hoping for’.

And on the issue of gender equality, he said the Manx language must move with the times.

He said: ‘As we move into the new year, as a language we should be expanding into finding/creating words to make it easier for all LGBT+ people to feel accepted by the community.’

Following the oration a wreath was laid accompanied by a rendition of the Manx national anthem.