Extracted from the book...Edward 1 and Wales by David Pilling
The above paragraph is, of course, a reference to the fact that our native Princes were butchered by Edward 1 in his greed for power over our nation. Tywysog Llywelyn's head was, brutally, hacked off his body in a cave in Aberedw and taken to Edward, and his brother Dafydd was publically hung drawn and quartered in Shrewsbury. The children of the two Princes were all imprisoned far away from their native land in, either, English dungeons or monasteries for the rest of their lives as means of ensuring that the Cymric Royal line was destroyed for ever. But, of course, down through the centuries following those tragic events, the Cymry continued to rebel and fight back against their English oppressors and by the year 1400, unable to suffer the cruel oppression of the occupiers of our land no more, they decided to 'go for it' under the leadership of their 'chosen' Tywysog and leader, Tywysog Owain Glyndŵr who had every legitimate claim to the Cymric throne on his side as he was descended from the three Cymric Dynasties of Powys, Y Deheubarth and Gwynedd.
Surely, I do not need to educate or remind the readers of this blog that Owain Glyndŵr's Great War of Independence lasted for over 21 yrs in all - if you take into account that his son, Maredudd, was still carrying out guerrilla warfare from Eryri in 1421, 6 yrs after Tywysog Owain had mysteriously dissapeared. Owain Glyndŵr's War of Independence lasted longer than both world War 1 and World War 2 and was a determined ferocious war carried out by a small nation of a population of 500,000 against the might of a population of 3 million and all its sophisticated war machinary - including cannons in the latter yrs of the war, which contributed greatly to the eventual Cymric defeat.
Nevertheless, the fact that Tywysog Owain Glyndŵr had mysteriously disappeared as he did, had left the defeated Cymry with hope that he, the Mab Darogan, would, one day, return to lead them to victory over the English - as was prophesized in the old Cymric prophecies which the bards and minstrels of the day (the clerwyr - the news carriers of the day) spread as they travelled over the land.
When, the English King's council realized what the Clerwyr were doing and a law was passed to stop them from spreading rebellious propaganda but, the seeds had been sewn, and the hope, in one form of another, has survived to the present day with the post Glyndŵr Cymry continuing in rebellion in such forms as the Gwerin Owain, Tir Comin struggles and industrial workers rebellions and into the latter half of the 20th century with the 1950's Republican Movement MAC, FWA, PF, Meibion Glyndŵr Cofiwn, Cymuned, Llysgenhadaeth Glyndŵr, CYIG, and other numerous dissident rebellions, carried out through the form of direct action or passive resistance.
In a nutshell, that is our history of fighting to keep our nation, our land, our culture, language and the right of 'every' Cymro and Cymraes to live, work and thrive in our land, our nation. It's a history of continued struggle and a history that we should be very proud of so, why has it been in the interest of our 'occupiers' and certain 'sell out taffys' to airbrush most of this proud history out of existance and to portray Cymru and the Cymry as a land and people of a 'passive' white gloved society?
Following Tywysog Owain Glyndŵr's Great War of Independence came the regime of the Tudors who, officially annexed Cymru to England with their enforced "Acts of Union" and apart from the time when we saw Tywysogion Llywelyn and Dafydd betrayed and "sold out" in 1282 - 33, it is with the dawning of the Tudor period that we "really see" 'taffyism' taking a hold as certain elements of the hierarchy of Cymric society, in their greed for power and prosperity, grovel their way to positions within the Tudor regime, Since those days, history shows us that those 'Tudor Taffs' and their descendants have 'feathered their nests' very well whilst, of course, the majority of the Cymric people has remained in poverty.
It was - and still is the descendants of these 'Taffs' that has collaborated with the 'occupying regime' to ensure that our Cymric history is not taught in our schools and it was one of the descendants of these 'Taffies', William Williams, the 'Taffy' M.P for Coventry that was responsible for the commissioning of the 'infamous' Blue Books. His motive for the motion he placed before parliament, he said, was concern that poor children in his homeland needed to gain knowledge of the English language. There is no doubt that education for poor children in Wales was inadequate - it was also inadequate in England! However, when it came to Cymru, an additional clause was slipped into the terms of reference, concerning the motion "to look at the morals and behaviour of the Welsh people"
WHY?
Kay-Shuttleworth, who was the secretary to the Council on Education during this period, wrote the terms of reference for the Enquiry in October 1846 and it is clear, right from the beginning, that education was only one of the government's concerns as far as Cymru was concerned. From the 1820s to the late 1840s, Wales had been the centre of major discontentment with ,In the 1820s, serious workers disturbances breaking out in Tredegar and Merthyr while in Ceredigion, there had been widespread disturbances taking place over the issue of land enclosures. Then from1839 to the mid 1840s, the Rebecca Riots had broken out across mid and South Cymru followed in 1939, with the Chartist march on Newport.
Clearly, Cymru was a continuing cause of great concern for the governing powers in England as all the signs were that a national rebellion was once again being planned and that the Cymric language was the tool that would be used to instigate such a national rebellion - as had been the case in the days of the War of Independence of Tywysog Owain Glyndŵr and the Clerwyr.
So, policies instigated by the Tudor regime to quash the use of the Cymric language in roles of authority in both England and Cymru had to be effectively accelerated into action via the schools by means of the terrorising use of the 'Welsh Not'.
The publication of the infamous reports of the commissioners of enquiry into the state of education in Cymru in 1847, a report which became more commonly known as 'Brad y Llyfrau Gleision - Treachery of the Blue books described the Cymric language as an "evil thing" and the Cymry as being ignorant and immoral! The English propaganda machine through an editorial in the times newspaper in 1866 endorsed and continued in this slanderous defamation of the Cymry and the Cymric language as "the curse of Wales" and a "dead language" and described it as a barrier to the Cymry in regards to joining civilisation.The Brad y Llyfrau Gleision report highlighted the use of the 'Welsh Not' as a means to improving the education system in Cymru but, its effect was to terrorise and brainwash Cymric children to avoid speaking Cymraeg and accept English as the moral and progressive language unless, they wanted to end up with the 'Welsh Not' around their necks,at the end of the school day and be physically punished - as had happened to one Owen M Edwards, born and bred in Llanuwchlyn, near Bala.
Llanuwchlyn, in Owen M Edwards's day was, traditionally, a predominantly Cymric speaking area; that is fast changing now due to the present 2nd and holiday home crisis. The 'Welsh Not' was in use in the Llanuwchlyn school when Owen M Edwards was a pupil there and, according to his own testimony, he often found the 'Not' around his neck for speaking Cymraeg.
He was appointed Inspector of Education for Cymru in 1907, during a period when the 'Welsh Not' was still in use as a terrifying tool to stop children from speaking their native language. By then, he was a renowned scholar. He had graduated in English and history in the London University examinations (graduating in 1883), Had further graduated in history with first class honours at Balliol College, Oxford in 1884, had returned to Oxford to teach and was elected Fellow of Lincoln in 1989, and There he remained till 1907. In 1890 . He had been co-editor of Cymru Fydd, prior to publishing Cymru on his own, following this with Cymru'r Plant, 1892, Wales, 1894, Y Llenor, 1895, and Heddyw, 1897. He had published small books in Cymraeg, such as Cartrefi Cymru, 1896, and set to work to reprint considerable selections of the Welsh classics, notably in his series ' Cyfres y Fil.' His service to Cymru in these respects cannot be over-estimated so, during his period, when he was the Inspector of Education, why on earth did he not immediately stop the 'Welsh Not' from being practised in any school in Cymru?
A clue to answering the above question may be found on the last page of his book History of Wales, in the ' Story of the Nations ' series; which was published in 1901. He ends this book with the statement "ich dien" the motto of the English Prince of Wales, adopted with the crest of ostrich feathers after the battle of Crécy (1346), He, without doubt, loved the Cymric language but, as Emeritus Professor Robert Thomas Jenkins conceded in his biography of Edwards in the Dictionary of Welsh Biography, "his nationalism was cultural, not political". Like so many 'Welsh Taffs' preceding him, his loyalty, when it came to the crunch, was to the British Empire and its royalty. He was knighted in 1916.
It's sad to note that Cymru today is riddled more than ever before with such Brit Taffs, they can be found in powerful cultural and politican institutions such as the Eisteddfod Gorsedd, the Senedd, the Arts Establishments and the media. These modern 'Taffs' or " Crachach Newydd" as I have labelled them, ironically, differing from the Tudor and later Taffs, use the Cymric language as a medium and a tool to rule but, that is as far as their patriotic allegiance to Cymru goes. So long as they get all they want to build a well funded Cymric Crachach bubble in their own image, they do not 'really' care about the majority, the unemployed Gwerin living in deprivation in run down communities throughout our nation.
Unlike other countries that have and are 'seriously fighting for independence, these Welsh Crachach leeches have no interest in our history or, as other countries have done and do, in monopolising our history and past struggles as a tool for continuous struggle. In fact, they would rather do, as the Tudors tried to do, airbrush it out of sight for ever or, if they cannot achieve that, destroy it with slanderous propaganda as their predecessors tried to do.
Let me give some examples of their 'modus operandi' in regards to our history.
A few weeks ago, a 'big lump' of a Welsh 'overpaid' actor, if its justified to call him an actor, because he's only ever acted, badly, on S4C (anybody can be an 'actor' on S4C if you know the right people, no need to have been to drama college) Anyway, he responded to a post that Sian had put up on on social media by stating that Owain Glyndŵr had never achieved anything! And then, during an episode of the Welsh soap Pobol y Cwm', an actress read a line from a script as follows. "Some idiot wants to raise a statue of Owain Glyndŵr in the village" and her co- actor answered..." another statue to remember a violent man"
Of course, our Occupiers and Oppressors over the centuries have not used violence against the Cymry!
These may be minor statements in themselves but they do illustrate how comfortable and ready these actors and script writers are in trashing and undermining elements of our history which does not suit their plans for their crachach bubble within a Brit run banana republic.
Then this week, I came across the programme for the National Eisteddfod which is mainly on S4C in virtual form this year due to the Covid pandemic. I scanned the programme out of interest and got quite exited to see that the National Library was organising a series of talks which they described as... "An exiting programme discussing "campaigning" I eagerly read on but, was quickly bought back down to earth with a bump! I shall elaborate.
The first talk in the series of talks was entitled "Remembering the Comin" and no, it was not about remembering the struggles against the Land enclosures in Cymru but,rather, was about the Greenham Common Peace Camp that was established by women campaigning against cruise missiles being built and being kept at the Greenham Common Air Base in Berkshire in the 1980's.
Now, you can but admire these women for their long stand and endurance and bravery during the protests, God knows, we could do with some of that courage and endurance on Cymric soil today but, I question if was it the business of the National Library of Wales to stage a discussion on a campaign that took place in England and, were the four Welsh women invited to speak at this event the best qualified to participate?
One of the speakers, Jill Evans had been an MEP for 21 yrs, 'living the dream' whilst travelling the world on expenses, being more of a crusader for Palestine than Cymru. O yes, Jill has feathered her nest very nicely and as for Menna Elfyn, she may have been a member of CYIG participating in a few language protests in the 1960's but she's also done very nicely for herself as an author living on grants that come 'on tap' to publish her work in a number of languages. In fact, the common nominator for all the women invited to speak at this event is that they are established members of the Crachach Newydd, they may have visited the camp at Greenham Common back in the day but, are they 'really' qualified to talk about the experiences of the women who actively protested and endured the harshness of living at the camp for yrs?
2nd talk was based on what Saunders Lewis had stated in his 1962 radio broadcast. "Trwy ddulliau chwyldro yn unig y mae llwyddo". ... Success will only come by revolutionary means. Chosen speakers for this event were Angharad Tomos, Bethan Sayed, Sion Jobbins and a Huw Williams.
Angharad, to be fair, was an active protester as a member of CYIG in the 1970's and was incarcerated on a number of occasions for standing strong by her principles but since, she has also benefitted handsomely with all her books being published by her 'friend' Robat Gruffydd Y Lolfa who is one of the main and lucky Cymric publishers to get rivers of 'grants on tap'.
In regards to Bethan Sayed on the other hand, the only 'action', as far as I'm aware of that she has ever undertaken, was to, 'literally', run away from pursuing reporters in Aberystwyth who wanted to interview her on some issue; all action captured on Camera!
Sion Jobbins was, until recently, the Chair of Yes Cymru. Yes Cymru was established on the tail of Yes Scotland, a movement that rigorously campaigned for a Yes vote in the 2014 Scottish independence referendum. It was dissolved in late 2014 after Scotland voted against independence in a refferendum.
Yes Cymru has also proved that it can recruit thousands of members and can organise massive street marches with an assortment of literati, politicians, media and arty farties to speak on why, in their opinion, Cymru should be Independent. Sounds great at face value but on closer speculation, we see that too many of these thousands of members that have joined Yes Cymru and participate in the marches are not from the traditional Cymric nationalist ranks. Far too many of the members are also members of other parties such as the Labour and Green parties and far too many have re-located into Cymru from England and beyond so, the question is poised as to why these people would want Cymru to be Independent? There are a plethora of answers to that question, one is that it is much nicer to live in a lovely country such as Cymru than in the drug, crime ridden environment of English cities - and whilst here of course, it would be of great benefits to these new settlers if they could get a job in such places as the Senedd or in the Arts or media environments with 'grants on tap' and, to achieve this, they will only have to learn to converse in a bit of 'token Welsh'! , so joining the right group, such as Yes Cymru' and mixing with the right people in the right social circles would prove to be very beneficial to such settlers wouldn't it ? whereas, in reality, they are a major part of the problem in regards to the growing housing and anglicization crisis we are facing in Cymric communities. I would love to see figures in regards to how many paid up Yes Cymru members are unemployed Cymry, living on council estates in deprived Cymric communities? Not many I suspect.
This 'all sorts' of membership in Yes Cymru has now resulted in friction which has caused Sion to resign and the future of Yes Cymru is very much in the balance. The friction was inevitable, it was merely a matter of time and when, in a situation where so many want to use the Yes Cymru bandwagon for their own ends.
A true campaign for a true and Sovereign Independence 'has' to have its eye on that goal only and, as Saunders Lewis stated, that goal will not be achieved without revolution. Marching is fine to draw interest to a campaign but, revolution means 'action' and I've yet to see the body of Yes Cymru in direct action such as in 'Reclaiming our land and resources campaigns', the majority of the membership could not even be bothered to sign the petition on the Senedd website to save Coleg Harlech as an educational and skill training establishment for the working class of Cymru.
As for the 4th speaker, Huw Williams, there are many Huw Williams's in Cymru, its a very common name, but I'm not aware of any current 'activist' with that name, please excuse my ignorance if I am wrong.
Fourth event was on the subject of Pop and Protest with Dafydd Iwan heading the discussion. Dafydd Iwan most certainly has been very productive since the early 1960's in producing protest songs in Cymraeg to support the language campaign in the main but, many of the songs that he has written has also been about events that have taken place in our history and such has been more than useful in raising awareness of our history. He, of course has been a language activist, participating in many protests and was, even, a guest of her HMP in Caerdydd in 1970 where he served three weeks of a three month sentence for refusing to pay a fine for daubing English road signs. Over the yrs, he has also been active in many other ways, instrumental in the forming and running of, both, Cymdeithas Tai Gwynedd and, Sain Records as well as in taking on many roles within Plaid Cymru and as a Plaid Cymru County Councillor. Nobody can deny his past dedication and contribution to the Cymric cause and he most certainly was the ideal person to speak on Pop and Protest music in the fourth and final event organised by the National Library as part of the alternative National EisteddfodWithout any doubt, out of all the early protest songs he produced in the 1960's, the most popular, and most commercial, of all was 'Carlo', a 'tongue in check' satirical song which he produced in 1969 in protest of the 1969 Investiture of Charles Windsor as another English Prince foisted on Cymru. Both Carlo and another protest song 'Croeso 69' produced by Dafydd Iwan on the theme of the Investiture, clearly illustrated his feelings in regards to the Investiture. with 'Croeso '69 pointing out the servile adherence of the Cymry in general towards the British monarchy, an adherence that, in his opinion, would need to be expunged from the Cymric psyche in order for Cymru as a nation to realize its true potential and achieve both political and cultural independence.
Looking back at such songs as Carlo, Croeso 69 and Merthyron Abergele, I have to ask here, what on earth possessed Dafydd Iwan to go all the way from Caeathro to Myddfai last year to, publically shake hands and have tea with Carlo aka Charles Windsor in his holiday home?
So many questions are poised - and answers are needed. Why did he need to? Who suggested that he should go and for what reason? and what was to be gained by the visit? Did the suggestion come from a Plaid Cymru 'bigwig' who is also well into royal circles? Was the suggestion anything to do with promises of more funding being made available for the Welsh Government’s campaign to achieve the target of a million Welsh speakers by 2050?.
By meeting Charles Windsor as he did, not only did Dafydd Iwan betray his own principals but he betrayed any loyalty and consideration for his own Princes and all those that had suffered and sacrificed so much over the centuries for the continuance of our nation and its people. By meeting Charles Windsor, He also, disgracefully,, betrayed the memory of all the active campaigners of the 1960 - 70's and the two Abergele Martyrs that he had been so ready to write a song to in 1969. So, what was to be achieved by this meeting - apart from a promise of additional funding for the Welsh Government's campaign to achieve the target of a million Welsh speakers by 2050?
Without doubt, the British Government are preparing the ground for the Investiture of William as the next English 'Prince of Wales' at Caernarfon castle and they certainly do not want to see another Anti- Investiture campaign so, undoubtedly, they have, already, held meetings with the current day ,'bigwig token taffs' to discuss how to try and ensure that any opposition is negated. One of those 'token taffs' came up with the idea that if Dafydd Iwan was to meet Charles Windsor at his holiday home in Myddfai and shake his hands for an arranged press shoot then the British publicity machine could get to work to 'hoodwink' the Cymric people into thinking that if the current English Prince of Wales is now accepted by the 'guru' Dafydd Iwan, who would also declare that he would not participate in any protests against a future Investiture, then, It would go a long way towards negating any trouble, would not 'rock the boat' as far as the Cymry being seen as not showing allegiance to the English Royals is concerned, and would save the Government a fortune in surveillance and security during the lead up and during the day of the next Investiture.
If there was one sure way to get Dafydd Iwan to betray his own beliefs and loyalty to his compatriots and all those who had sacrificed all for our nation, it was to promise further funding to try and save the language - and he swallowed the bait but, precious as the language is, language alone does not make a nation - ask the Irish, and there's no guarantee that the British Government will keep their promise of further funding and certainly no guarantee that the tide can be turned back and the language saved by 2050 considering all the other outside influences that are prevalent, Cymru could be further galvanised and absorbed into England by then and our entity as a nation totally lost for ever.
Dafydd Iwan, you have been used as a Brit 'stooge' mate and as a consequence can only now be considered as a traitor who has joined the ranks of lick spitting taffs that have come down through the ages from the Tudor period to the present day.
The common denominator apparent in the speakers chosen for all the talks organised by the National Library on 'Campaigning' for the Alternative National Eisteddfod is that they are all 'Crachach Newydd pacifists', Why wasn't somebody like Owain Williams or Emyr Llywelyn invited to participate to talk on MAC's campaign to save Tryweryn? Why wasn't anyone invited to talk on the militant side of the Anti Investiture campaign? Why wasn't Cofiwn invited to discuss the campaign against the Festival of castles? Why wasn't Embassy Glyndŵr invited to talk about our many campaigns including Land and Liberty and Anti - windmilling of Cymru campaigns. Why wasn't a member of the Cymuned Group invited to talk about their campaigns? Why weren't the current campaigning groups against Holiday homes, such as Gorau i Gymru and NA NA Tai Ha invited to participate?
If 'Campaigning' was the chosen topic for debate,why not a balanced and honest debate based on the truths of history? But no, instead, what the Cymry are fed, once again, is that we are a pacified 'white gloved', nation that will be content to remain that way so long as you feed us enough crumbs from your table to sustain our New ruling elite in the Crachach Newydd lifestyle they've been able to build for themselves since the dawning of the Welsh Assembly and S4C, a TV service that has a budget of £84m a year and which produces 'crap' programmes such as 'Heno' which is more of a 'social media' programme for the Crachach Newydd to support and publicize their 'in the bubble' Crachach friends' than a magazine programme geared for the rest of Cymru! This is not what I want to be paying for when I pay my annual TV licence fee.
Have no doubt in your mind, The Crachach Newydd or the New Taffs of Cymru will be more than happy to remain within the British United Kingdom State so long as they can keep their lifestyles and privileges and, o yes, if they can keep yr 'hen iaith' as well, that would be 'very nice' but would not be 'really' the defining factor if push came to shove. They may, at the moment be prepared to step out of their ivory towers and on to the streets to march behind a red Yes Cymru flag because that is the latest trend which all their friends do and gives them the opportunity to socialise and network but, how deep is their commitment for Independence beyond that? Let's go back to Saunders Lewis's statement..."only by revolutionary means will we succeed" Do these Crachach Newydd seriously believe that Westminster will hand over Independence to Cymru merely because they are marching behind a Yes Cymru flag? If they believe so, then what type of Independence do they have in mind because, I know only too well - and history shows us that whenever we have tried to 'seriously' regain our independence back by revolutionary means, we have been denied it by the full wrath and military might of the British state! If the Crachach Newydd's idea of fighting for Independence is to fight for 'more jobs for the boys' in the Senedd or S4C and in the Arts, then, I have news for them, that is not the Independence that Llywelyn, his brother Dafydd, Llywelyn Bren, Owain Llawgoch, Owain Glyndŵr and all their families and compatriots suffered and perished for. It is not the Independence that so many, including the Abergele Martyrs fought for, and it is not the Independence sought for by the majority of Cymric patriots which would be an Independence that would lead to a complete divorce from England so that our land and resources can be exploited by us as a nation for the benefit of all of the people of our nation and not an elitist few.
The Crachach Newydd and collaborist traitors may want and try to bury our heroic and militant history for their own selfish ends, but, will we allow them to get away with that? No! in response to this treachery, we will prove that we are not the 'nation of the white Gloves' and toothless tigers as they wish to portray us but rather that we are a resilient nation that is more than able and capable to militantly fight for the preservation and continuance of our nation and people. So, always remember that, prepare yourselves in your communities throughout Cymru to continue the struggle whenever you hear the warning screeches of the phoenix rising from the fires of Eryri and the phoenix is screeching now!
In regards to 'campaigning', the biggest issue in Cymru at present is the Holiday Home problem and seeing as Charles Windsor has got the biggest one of all in Myddfai, perhaps a mass protest should be organized there. Who will pick up this gauntlet this time I wonder ?
