Eisteddfod 2014 – Pabell y Cymdeithasau 2 at 3:30pm, Wednesday, 6 August
With Simultaneous Translation
CELEBRATING A GREAT CARMARTHENSHIRE HERO
The achievements of one of Wales’ best loved twentieth century writers will be celebrated during the National Eisteddfod in Llanelli.
A memorial lecture will mark the life of D.J. Williams (1885-1970), one of Carmarthenshire’s most famous literary figures and a staunch nationalist who was brought up in Penrhiw, Llansawel.
At the age of 16 he left his childhood home for the mining valleys, working underground before becoming a teacher and carving out a distinguished career as an author.
‘D.J.’ was a dedicated nationalist and one of those who founded Plaid Cymru in 1925. Together with Saunders Lewis and Lewis Valentine, he helped in the celebrated burning of the bombing school at Penyberth, for which he was sentenced to a gaol sentence in Wormwood Scrubs.
During the mid-1960s Plaid Cymru faced a critical financial situation, and it is doubtful it could have contested the 1966 general election without his gift of the proceeds of the sale of Penrhiw.
The lecture, organised by the Plaid Cymru History Society, will take place in the societies pavilion (Pabell y Cymdeithasau 2) at 3:30pm, Wednesday, 6 August. It will be delivered by Emyr Hywel, author of the biography of DJ, ‘Y Cawr o Rydcymerau’.
A native of Blaenporth, Ceredigion, Emyr Hywel was headmaster of Ysgol Tre-groes until his retirement. He studied the life and work of DJ Williams for an M Phil. degree in the University of Wales, Aberystwyth, and has also published a number of stories and poems for children.
The Plaid Cymru History Society aims at promoting discussion, information and research about he party and at extending knowledge about people and events that contributed to the constitutional history of our country before 1925.
Contact: Dafydd Williams (07557) 307667