Source:-  IOM Today

The creator of the site goes under the name of Manannan Mac Leirr who asks: 'Should the Isle of Man be an independent Nation again as it once was. Join if you agree. The Isle of Man forever — Mannin Aboo.'

Meanwhile, nationalist banners have been posted on roadsigns and graffiti sprayed across the roads on the main routes into Peel.

All read Mannin Seyr, which means 'Manx independence'. Signs written in Manx Gaelic were also posted on flagpoles in the town.

The banners were draped on roadsigns on the Poortown Road and the Peel to Kirk Michael coast road the weekend before last, but were soon removed while the graffiti, again on the coast road was washed away in the rain.

Another appeared yesterday (Monday) evening at the top of the Ballagyr hill heading north just outside Peel, and our photographer managed to capture it for readers to see for themselves.

This rise of nationalist sentiment is linked to growing anger at the UK's apparent hostility towards the Island, starting with Chancellor Alistair Darling describing us as a 'tax haven sitting in the Irish Sea', continuing with the scrapping of the reciprocal health agreement and culminating with the raid on our VAT revenues.

Founder of the Manx nationalist party Mec Vannin Bernard Moffatt said there appeared to be a growing number of young people in the Isle of Man getting involved with the Manx language and nationalism.

He said: 'I don't think the UK wants us any more. They want us to stop hanging on to their coat tails and our government is acting like a wailing baby wanting its nanny back.

'With the growing importance of international agreements and international groups, not least the European Union, I think it is possible for states to exist and operate independently.'

But Mr Moffatt criticised the tactics of painting graffiti. He said: 'I always believed in an upfront approach rather that skulking around daubing paint under the cloak of darkness.'

It's not the first time that nationalist sentiment has been expressed in graffiti.

The FSFO arson campaign — in which newly-built properties were attacked as house prices rose in the eighties — led to a number of cases of graffiti on walls.

Support for the Fo Halloo — Manx for 'underground' — movement in the 70s, which questioned immigration into the Isle of Man and the growth of the finance sector, also led to vandalism