| Montréal,
le 26 juin 1999 |
Numéro
40
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(page 6) |
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MUSINGS BY MADDOCKS
PLAID GENEDLAETHOL
CYMRU
by Ralph Maddocks
The above unpronounceable name is that of a Party that won some 17 seats
out of the available 60 in the Welsh election a few weeks ago, an election
held allegedly to devolve power from London to Wales and to create a Welsh
assembly.
About one seventy-fourth the size of Quebec, Wales has been united with
England since 1536 and has a population of 2.9 millions, which is somewhat
less than that of the metropolitan area of Montreal. In addition to English,
about one third of the inhabitants speak Cymraeg (Welsh). This is
down from around 50% in 1900, but both languages are official for legal
and administrative affairs. |
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Speak Welsh
The language is now growing again slowly as a result of the Welsh Language
Act which, in 1993, without the aid of anything coercive along the lines
of a « Bil cant-un », proclaimed
that the Welsh and English languages were to be considered «
on a basis of equality ». All Welsh speakers
were to have access to all public services in their own language if they
wished. Government institutions had to draw up plans to accommodate and
promote the use of the language. These plans are then presented to the
Bwrdd yr Iaith Gymraeg (Welsh Language Board) for approval. Private
enterprise may do the same thing if they wish, and some groups such as
Barclays Bank, Marks & Spencer and General Electric have done so. Interestingly,
the latter’s plant is near Cardiff where few of the workers are Welsh speaking.
In fact, the voters of Cardiff even objected to the location of the new
assembly in that city.
As in other places with which we are familiar there are militants for whom
none of this is satisfying and stores are picketed and management harassed
into providing Welsh language lessons for the staff. Wales has its own
nationalist party whose name adorns the heading of this piece, The National
Party of Wales. In the 1960's, Wales even had a few bombing incidents.
Perhaps there was something in the air in those days.
Most of us are familiar with the Welsh through their poetry, their male
voice choirs and their love of singing; but there are other aspects of
this race which may not be quite so familiar to North American readers.
For example, there are many claims as to who was the first European to
discover America. Apart from Columbus, claims have been advanced for the
Vikings and even the Chinese! However, for reasons which may become apparent,
I prefer to believe that it was a Welshman. According to a document published
in the 16th century, Prince Madoc (or Madog) the son of Owain Gwynedd,
King of North Wales, a convinced pacifist, grew tired of the fighting between
his brothers following the death of his father. Towards the end of the
12th century he set out across the Atlantic and landed somewhere in New
Spain, the place we know today as Florida. According to this legend, he
returned to Wales and assembled ten ships to convey the people with which
he intended to colonize his new found land. However, the fleet seems to
have been lost in the ocean, and nothing more was heard until the 18th
century when rumours of the existence of a tribe of blond, blue eyed, Welsh
speaking American Indians gained currency.
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« The
referendum on devolution, forced upon the Welsh by Tony Blair, showed only
one in four voters supporting the idea of an assembly. Nevertheless, Father,
in the shape of Mr Blair, Knows Best and they are getting one anyway.
»
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The theory advanced to explain all this is that the colonists under Prince
Madoc reached the New World, married Indian women and then emigrated to
the Dakotas where they were known as the Madogwys. Of course the legend
has many detractors, most notably the British historian Geoffrey Ashe who
said that many of the places where these « Welsh Indians
» had allegedly been discovered, were never reached by the
so-called colonists. Others, even more incredulous, feel that the period
when the legends were resurrected, corresponded to a time when Britain
was striving to justify its claims to its North American territories.
It would also be nice to believe that the name America could be ascribed
to Richard Amerik (ap Meurig or son of Meurig) a Bristol merchant who supported
John Cabot's second voyage. Whatever the truth of these legends, there
is no doubt that the Welsh have played a role in the discovery of other
parts of North America. For example, there are the place names; Mansel
Island and New Wales in Hudson's Bay, named by Robert Mansel of Margam
and Thomas Burton of St Lythan's who followed Cabot in his search for the
north-west passage.
At a time when Nova Scotia and New England were coming into existence an
attempt was made by Robert Vaughan of Llangyndeyrn to establish a New Wales
in Newfoundland. Had he been successful all three flags of Great Britain
would have flown over the eastern part of North America.
Unpronounceable names
To return to the Plaid Genedlaethol Cymru or Plaid Cymru
as it is more commonly known. The party is still seeking independence within
the European Community, a yearning which some may find has a familiar kind
of ring to it. The party has been around since 1925 when it was formed
by the combination of three different groups each with similarly unpronounceable
names. The majority of the Welsh people have not yet become enthusiastic
about the idea of separation which Plaid Cymru espouses. The referendum
on devolution, forced upon the Welsh by Tony Blair, showed only one in
four voters supporting the idea of an assembly. Nevertheless, Father, in
the shape of Mr Blair, Knows Best and they are getting one anyway; an Assembly
of 60 members (36 men and 24 women were elected), which has no law making
ability or taxing powers. Just a place to provide an opportunity for the
full flow of Welsh oratory and spend more of the taxpayers money paying
their salaries. Legislation affecting Wales will still come from London
and does not, as the nationalist’s hoped, offer more control over things
like health care and education.
The Labour party, supported by only one in five of the voters, had intended
to control the Welsh Assembly. Things didn’t quite work out the way they
had hoped, and they wound up with just 28 seats compared to 17 for Plaid
Cymru, nine for the Tories and six for the Liberal-Democrats. Now they
have to try to find a coalition partner; most likely the Lib-Dems. Blair
foisted a First Secretary, as he is called, on the assembly in the person
of Alun Michael, when Ron Davies, his former tame designate, unable to
explain his activities with some strange people on Clapham Common a few
months ago, resigned. The Welsh Labour Party is rightly mistrustful of
the London leadership because they have poured cold water on the hopes
for devolution promised by Blair’s predecessor, the late John Smith.
In the Rhondda valley, where it used to be said that Labour could put up
a donkey and get it elected, Plaid Cymru took the seat along another one
held by the former Labour Party leader, Neil Kinnock. Now that the shock
has registered, Mr Blair will have to consider if the tiger he is now holding
by the tail is going to prove the precursor of a nationalist resurgence
of just a minor hiccup before the electorate returns to its normal somnolent
state.
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