[2] During this period, he found neither the Manx people nor the government was interested in learning and preserving the native language of Island.
“when they find they can’t they lose interest.” Evening classes in the main towns were abandoned recently, and so was the society’s Manx journal Coraa Ghailckagh.
On de Valera's request, Kevin Danaher of the Irish Folklore Commission travelled to the Isle of Man with a crate of fragile acetate discs to record the last remaining native speakers on 22 April 1948.
Walter Clarke along with Bill Radcliffe helped to transport the recording equipment and acted as a guide for Danaher, bringing him to the remote and isolated locations where the informants lived.
They assisted Danaher and spent considerable time before every recording carefully balancing the equipment with a spirit level and connecting batteries and converters as many of the informants did not have electricity.
Like Clarke, Kneen was from the north of the Island and was a very willing informant:I think 95 or 96 when I first met him, he lived to be over 100, of course, he went blind, sadly, towards the end, but a tremendous character.
He create the Folk Life gallery and collected stories from informants from all over the Island, as well and material and artefacts for the Museum.
[2]In recognition of his lifetime of work in preserving the culture and language of the Isle of Man, Clarke received the Reih Bleeaney Vanannan award in 2001.