My reply to a piece entitled "We're Proud to be Yma o Hyd - now it's time to learn what that means" penned by Heledd Fychan for the Nation.cymru web page.

 See Nation.cymru opinion page 20th Nov for the full read of what Heledd had to say.

I, myself,  have just read the 6 mins read and as Heledd was still but a mere twinkle in her father's eyes or, at the least, still in nappies when the song was first composed almost 40 yrs ago to coincide with the Cofiwn Movement's protest campaign against the Welsh Tourist Board's 1983 Festival of Castles, it may be understandable that Heledd, like most that sing the song today, do not know the full history as to how the song came about, so, I would like this opportunity to enlighten one and all.

As aforementioned, in 1983, the Welsh Tourist board, then chaired by Lord Parry of Neyland, in their wisdom, launched the Festival of Castles which was to be a celebration of the commencement of the building of Edward I's ring of castles in Cymru in 1283 following the murders of our native Princes and the successful Anglo Norman occupation of our nation. The Cofiwn movement launched a year long protest campaign against this 'insult' which we entitled the 'SARHAD 83 Campaign' where upon street protests and pickets took place outside Welsh Tourist Board shops and Edwardian castles throughout Cymru. A protest rally took place in Caernarfon in late July 1983 and the castle was stormed by over 500 protesters, many got inside before the castle doors were closed and the castle was occupied by the protesters for the day with tourists still within. The occupation made headline news on the English 'News at Ten' programme on television.

During thie period, Dr Gwynfor Evans was working closely with Cofiwn and as a part of the 'Sarhad 83' campaign, had written a pamphlet on the history of the Roman Magnus Maximus and the birth of the Cymric nation which explained how Cymru had become a nation, responsible for its own defences when Emperor Magnus Maximus and the Romans left in 383.

Gwynfor also approached Dafydd Iwan to write and record a song on the subject for the purpose of assisting the protest campaign against the Festival of Castles, the result was 'Yma o Hyd'. Dafydd Iwan and Ar log, recorded the song, performed it at 'gigs' all around Cymru that year and it became a powerful protest song, initially, as part of the Sarhad 83 campaign and thereafter against the continual occupation of Cymru.

Dafydd Iwan now claims that he was inspired to write the song as he was  going through a divorce at the time and was depressed in regards to the breakdown of his marriage and because of the result of the 1979 referendum campaign, he may have been depressed at the time but, it is not the whole truth in regards to what inspired him to compose it; he should give thanks to the Cofiwn movement and SARHAD 83 protest campaign for the inspiration and to Dr Gwynfor Evans for the request to write a song on the subject of his pamphlet.

Initially, we in the Cofiwn movement were delighted that the song was recorded and Dafydd Iwan's bank balance has certainly benefitted but, as the years passed by and the Cymric cause waned, I, personally, began to detest the song as I found it patronising and misleading as it continued to be sung in concerts to crowds that would sing the chorus with gusto whilst clenching the air with closed fists when, in reality, we are barely 'still here' as a nation and have no 'true warriors' left that will 'really' continue the struggle to 'really' be 'Yma o Hyd!

Heledd poses the question... "What better song? Well, I can suggest a number of songs that would be much more fitting to 'encourage' the continuation of our struggle rather than 'patronise' or mislead as, in my view,  'Yma o Hyd' currently does but, if the whole point of the media created 'mad hysteria' was to find a song  for the football world cup and it had to be a Dafydd Iwan song  'Cerddwn Ymlaen' would have been just as catchy and more meaningful as it gives the history in regards to the murder of Llywelyn and that the struggle continues. But no, they, the media musn't upset anybody by declaring that we are still in a struggle.

The 'Wal Goch' and the Cymric media are doing a grand job of promoting the "Tudor Rag" when if they were anywhere 'near' serious about the ambition to be 'Yma o Hyd' they should be flying the flag of Tywysog Owain Glyndŵr, the only flag that 'can' represent his and our continuing cause for Independence because that is what Yma o Hyd' means in reality.

Heledd thanks Plaid Cymru and "others" including 'Crachach historians' for campaigning to have Cymric native history taught as part of the curriculum for decades! is that really true Heledd? Plaid Cymru has been a political party for almost a century, the rank and file of the membership is, traditionally, made up of pacifist Crachach so, what has taken the party so long to ensure that 'all' Cymric children are taught their native history in all Cymric schools? Why hasn't Plaid Cymru been active in teaching native history in communities throughout Cymru since being established in 1925 in the same way that Cofiwn and Embassy Glyndŵr have done for the last 50 yrs with the launching of major historical commemorations, rallies, field trips and exhibitions throughout Cymru which has been successful in educating many of the working class and Gwerin of Cymru in our history and in mobilizing and rallying them to our cause - and all achieved without a penny of the tax payer's money? Had Plaid Cymru commenced on the task of ensuring that every family in communities throughout Cymru were taught their own history from the date that the party were established as Plaid Cymru, our nation would have a restored national identity now, they would have a strong national membership and we would be in a much stronger place to fight for the restoration of our Independence but, they didn't.

Irish nationalists understood the importance of teaching history to Irish people and they had 'community hedge teachers' doing so, whereas in Cymru, our history has been contained in the Ivory towers of universities where only the 'privileged minority' have had an opportunity to study it. 

Heledd then mentions '"rouge historians" naming none of these but, does she mean volunteer unpaid groups such as Cofiwn and Embassy Glyndŵr I wonder?  if that's the case, I'm proud to be a 'rogue historian' who, with others in Cofiwn and Embassy Glyndŵr has struggled for over 50 yrs to be Cymru's 'hedge teachers' who has taken history out of the Ivory towers and into communities in ways that have got those in our communities engaged. The truth is, the establishment, in any country, do not want the masses to know their history because knowing their history makes them dangerous to the power of the establishment of that country and that is certainly true in Cymru.

If our children, at long last, are to be taught their native history in all Cymric schools, then, they should be taught their history in its wholeness and not a history that has been cannibalized to appease a certain class that is hell bent on forging a new Cymru in their own image. Past heroes such as Tywysog  Owain Glyndŵr and his followers the Gwerin Owain, the Merthyr Insurrectionaries, the FWA, Patriotic Front, MAC Cofiwn and Embassy Glyndŵr do not fit into this new "all inclusive" image that the Cymric Crachach and media wish to portray to serve their selfish greedy comfortable world so, they are doing their utmost to air brush this revolutinary part of our history out of our historical canvas and in doing so, we, as the nation that Macsen Wledig left as a 'whole entity' is being destroyed and  will not be Yma o Hyd for much longer. 

Plaid Cymru and Yes Cymru state they are campaigning for Independence status for our nation but the leaders of, both, Plaid and Yes Cymru know very well that the Westminster Government are not going to hand back our nation and its Sovereignty and cut out a portion of their British State in the process, no, they will continue to throw a few crumbs off the British table to our greedy leaders who will certainly be happy with that so long as it sustains their positions and comfortable lifestyles. The only way to achieve 'real' Cymric independence would be for the Cymry to unite in action throughout our nation to make it impossible to be governed from Westminster, and, from what I can see, we have long missed that chance, our 'supposed' political leaders will never lead the nation down that path so, our nation's destiny will be to remain under British rule.

 

The most important symbolic symbol of our history as a Sovereign nation struggling to be Yma o Hyd has to be the flag of Owain Glyndŵr and and I'll continue to state it that, whilst the "Tudor Rag" continues to be embraced in Cymru, the Cymry will always be under English rule. 

Now back to Heledd,she has actually been to a medieval banquet at the Cefn Caer Medieval Hall House, an important Medieval house and site that Embassy Glyndŵr has assisted to publicize over the years. We also produced a very detailed exhibition on the life of Tywysog Owain Glyndŵr and his association with Cefn Caer for Cefn Caer and have placed memorials to many of 'Glyndŵr's Heroes in a memorial garden on the site. See YouTube film in link below:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJ2LMqnbxr0 

Therefore,  I cannot but  wonder if Heledd is suffering from amnesia as, although she's more than familiar with what we have done and what we still do, she totally forgot to mention all the hard, unpaid, work carrried out by Cofiwn and Embassy Glyndŵr but, no worries,  all those wishing to catch up with our work and achievements to date, can do so by following our numerous blogs (many can be accessed via GethinapGruffydd.blogspot) and you may also enjoy and learn a lot about our history and associated campaigns from our numerous SianIfan Youtube films.

Now, let's return to Yma o Hyd and the launch of the new DVD version to promote the song as the Welsh football anthem. Fair enough, if that is all that is promoted but it's not, is it? The "Welsh" media, especially Tinopolis  have bent over backwards to use the 'occasion' to place Dafydd Iwan on a God' like pedestal making him out to be the 'messiah' who has saved the nation with this song. Let's have a reality check here, yes, he has been an active Welsh language campaigner and has written some really good political songs - including Yma o Hyd until it became misleading and meaningless and he has done very well for himself as a result of his song writing and out of his recording company Sain Records and I was one that used to admire him for his achievements - although Sain Records has had funding from the public purse along the way but, a messiah he is certainly not, he spent 3 days in prison in 1970 as part of a CYIG campaign to take down English road signs before his fine was paid by Crachach jurors which he gladly agreed to. There were leading members of the FWA in HMP Caerdydd at the same time as him, no Crachach jurors came forward to offer to pay their way out of the prison, not that any of those men would have accepted such a cop out. He claims to be a Republican, what true Republican would accept an invitation to hot foot it down to Myddfai to have afternoon tea with the then 'usurper' Charles Windsor at his holiday home! He did so on July 1st, on the date that two patriotic MAC members lost their lives placing a bomb in an attempt to blow up the railway line that would take the 'usurper and his family to Caernarfon for his Investure as another 'usurper' Tywysog Cymru. Whilst he was having afternoon tea with Carlo at Myddfai, Cymric patriots was commemorating the Abergele Martyrs at their graves. So much for his 'strong' patriotic principles and his Republicanism. I will not go into the reasons as to why I think he thought it necessary to accept Charles Windsor's invitation as I have outlined what I believe was behind the invitation in another blog post but, the fact that he did accept the invitation sickened me and showed him up to be the unprincipled patronising Crachach he really is.

 And now, the Cymric Crachach and media are promoting him as the Messiah of Cymru! He is, supposedly, a strong Christian, a big campaigner of civil and human rights yet, he's out there in Quater, a country well known for it's total lack of civil and human rights, singing 'Yma o Hyd' at the top of his voice in the company of many others of the new "all inclusive" Cymric Crachach.

Don't get me wrong, I am pleased and proud that Cymric Football have done so well as to get on the world stage and I am sure that the exposure will pay dividends for Cymru as a nation in regards to trade but, the person that is benefitting from it all more than anybody or anything is Dafydd Iwan, the Crachach and media created 'messiah' who is singing all the way to the bank as 100's of thousands of pounds are added to his already coffers of millions. This is money he will never need or spend at his age so, being such a strong self proclaimed Christian like, maybe he would like to donate the money that he will make on the new DVD version of Yma o Hyd to a well deserving charity such as the Ukranian War fund or Barnados? Will he though?