A Post by Aled Gwyn Job.

 

IT’s been National Eisteddfod week in Wales these past seven days: the annual celebration of

our Welsh language and culture.

Held this time in Boduan in Pen Llyn-that arm-like part of Welsh territory, stretching out to sea-and one of the remaining strongholds of the language in Wales in 2023 with some 75%+ of the population speaking Cymraeg on the peninsula.

It was also a week to celebrate the 90th birthday of one of the icons of the national movement in Wales, Owain Williams, or “Now Gwynus” as he is popularly known here.

And although there was nothing in the Eisteddfod itself to mark the occasion- with the festival now perhaps what you could term Establishment Wales- there was still a clear outpouring of popular sentiment elsewhere.

A tweet put up on social media wishing Owain Williams a happy 90th birthday was shared

extensively and seen by 110k viewers in a matter of 24 hours.

So who is Owain Williams? And why is he still considered such an icon here- even at 90 years

of age?

Owain Williams’s name is forever associated with one of the seminal events of Welsh history in the 20th century- the drowning of a Welsh valley to satisfy the commercial wishes of the Corporation of Liverpool.

The drowning of Cwm Celyn, near Bala in Gwynedd, with the displacement of an entire village of 70 plus inhabitants, and the destruction of a church, school and post office to create a reservoir on the site, took place in the early 1960ies.

It eventually emerged the water was not actually needed by the people of Liverpool themselves, but was rather a commercially-driven enterprise by the City’s Corporation aiming to sell the water from the reservoir to neighbouring regions.

Owain Williams was one of a trio of Welsh patriots who took direct action against Liverpool

Corporation by blowing up an electrical transformer on the site of the reservoir as it was being constructed. Owain, along with Emyr Llywelyn and John Albert Jones, who set up an organisation called Mudiad Amddiffyn Cymru, had despaired of any official political resistance to the scheme.

Which had been passed easily by a Tory Government in Westminster, despite the fact that every Welsh MP bar one had voted against it. and despite the fact that the entire community of Cwm Celyn and other well-wishers had staged an emotive protest on the streets of Liverpool itself to protest against their community’s destruction.

Another emotional protest attended by several hundred patriots at Cwm Celyn itself on the

official opening of the reservoir was similarly ignored by the authorities.

Owain Williams and his two colleagues decided that enough was enough, and that a clear

signal of resistance had to be sent to the Westminster Government.

They planned their operation meticulously over several months, surveilling the building site and checking the movements of the security staff day and night.

So as to ensure the optimum time to attack the site without loss of human life.

Having purchased explosives and a timing device, they did consider blowing up a number of

buildings on the site, but eventually decided on one symbolic gesture alone- destroying the

site’s electrical transformer.

The night of the event itself, February 10, 1963 came right in the middle of a very snowy period which at one point threatened to de-rail the whole plan.

The blizzard-like conditions that night also led to a burst tire on the van they used to make their getaway after detonating the 2.3kg bomb. The delay caused by this was to prove very costly, as a passing motorist later gave their registration number to the Police.

Emyr Llywelyn, who had hired the van in his own name was tracked down and then sentenced to a year in prison.

Although Llywelyn refused to reveal the names of his helpers, Owain Williams was eventually tracked down after being involved in blowing up a pylon at a nearby village later and also sentenced to a year in prison.

Some years later, with several protests organized against the Investiture of Prince Charles in

1969, Owain Williams was arrested by the Police on suspicion of being involved with these

events as well.

With his solicitor advising him that he could potentially be facing up to ten years in prison

because of his previous history, he jumped bail and went on the run in Ireland for a year.

Being given an Irish name and a new identity in County Cork for a year before being tracked

down and brought back to Wales. However on this occasion, there was not enough evidence to charge him and he was released.

Owain Williams has remained active in nationalist politics all over the years since those events in the 1960ies, serving his community in Clynnog Fawr as a very well-respected county councillor for a number of years.

Both as an Independent Nationalist and more latterly on behalf of Llais Gwynedd- a party which won a number of local authority seats in Gwynedd, mainly based on their opposition to the closure of a number of primary schools by the ruling Plaid Cymru group.

He has published auto-biographies both in Welsh and English about his experiences and in

2021, a film about his life “The Welshman” was also released.

The incredible injustice of Tryweryn- and the resistance shown by Owain Williams and his

colleagues- had an electrifying impact on Welsh politics at the time.

Since it led to what could be described as a national awakening on so many levels, with the

people of Wales beginning to realize how powerless they were under Westminster rule.

The slogan “Cofiwch Dryweryn”(Remember Tryweryn) started to pop up all over Wales- and

even today, it’s still a slogan which can be seen in various places as you travel throughout the

country.

It’s also a slogan which is a key part of the YES Cymru independence campaign, referencing

Tryweryn in its emphasis on the potential economic benefits for Wales being properly

remunerated for its water.

In 1966, three years after Tryweryn, Plaid Cymru-40 years after their inception as a party- won their first parliamentary seat in Westminster with the election of Gwynfor Evans in Carmarthenshire.

It was also a very fruitful period for Cymdeithas yr Iaith( Welsh language society), with their

mass protests for the use of Welsh in public life eventually leading to bilingual road signs here and more latterly, the creation of S4C itself-the Welsh TV channel.

It’s long been a source of frustration for the national movement why this awakening in the

1960ies did not lead to a wider political liberation which was anticipated by so many at the time.

Indeed,the 70ies seemed to represent a rejection of all those dreams, in view of the fact that the Devolution Referendum of 1979 was lost so decisively with Welsh voters deciding to stick with the status quo by a margin of 4 to 1.

Devolution then took another twenty years to be realized when it was passed very narrowly by means of another Referendum in 1997.

And you could argue that the 20+ years of devolution since then have been a massive let-down for the people of Wales.

A further decline in the Welsh language, no economic growth and a societal decline in

education, health, infrastructure and general morale here despite the existence of the National Senedd in Cardiff.

Indeed the only real growth has been in the form of a new political class and their hangers-on in the form of lobbyists, special interest groups and various clients who have managed to co-opt the national cause for their own vested interests.

It’s been a bitter,bitter pill for Welsh patriots to see a mini-Westminster established in Cardiff Bay with the old colonial masters still calling the tune here in so many ways.

And the same old story of sleaze, self-interest, and institutional stasis being replicated in Wales. But with a Welsh flavour this time.

And perhaps all that disappointment and frustration about this also came to the fore in all the good wishes extended to Owain Williams on his 90th  birthday this week.

A sense of intense loss about the abandonment of the idealism which he represented.

His willingness to take a stand for something.

For a cause. For a dream. For a future.

Beyond himself.

Penblwydd Hapus Iawn Now Gwynus!

Aled Gwyn Jôb