Plaid Cymru History

  • Book Launch

    “Dros Gymru’n Gwlad – Hanes Sefydlu Plaid Cymru”.

    Pierhead Building, Cardiff Bay. 17 July 2025 6.30pm – 9pm

    Link For tickets > Linc

    Come to hear Arwel Vittle and Gwen Gruffudd discussing their new book with Karl Davies in an event sponsored by Mabon ap Gwynfor MS and organised by Plaid Cymru History Society, with an opportunity to buy the book signed by them. There is no entrance fee but you must reserve a place beforehand through Eventbrite . Proceedings will be in Welsh and simultaneous translation will be available.

     

     

     

    More 27/05/2025
  • Tributes to Emrys Roberts 1931 – 2025

    EMRYS ROBERTS  1931-2025

    The uncompromising nationalist and radical who became the first Plaid Cymru council leader.

    Dafydd Williams

     

    I met Emrys Roberts for the first time in a meeting of Exeter University’s Debating Society.  It was the early sixties, and I was a student of economics while Emrys had recently become Plaid Cymru’s General Secretary.  We were treated to a lively and effective address by a speaker with loads of charisma – he was surely one the party’s best ever orators.  It included Plaid’s views on international affairs and nuclear weapons.  

    But what sticks out in my memory is the skilful humour with which he dealt with loaded questions.  One person insisted that the only reason he wanted self-government was to wage war.  Not a bit of it, responded Emrys with his wry smile, Plaid’s master plan was to ...

    More 01/04/2025
  • Richard Wyn Jones Lecture at the 2024 Eisteddfod

     
    From Future Wales to Plaid Cymru
    O Gymru Fydd i Blaid Cymru
     
     
    At the Societies Tent,  Eisteddfod Rhondda Cynon Taf, Pontypridd on Thursday, 8 August Professor Richard Wyn Jones gave a lecture in Welsh. 
     
    On the eve of Plaid Cymru’s 100th anniversary, he considered the differences and similarities between the Blaid and the nationalist movement that preceded it, namely  Cymru Fydd (Future Wales).
     

    The Plaid Cymru History Society lecture, Pontypridd National Eisteddfod 2024

    From Cymru Fydd to Plaid Cymru

    Richard Wyn Jones

    Director of the Wales Governance Centre, Cardiff ...

    More 27/08/2024
  • Tribute to Lord Dafydd Ellis Thomas 1946 – 2025

    Tribute given in Welsh at the funeral of Lord Dafydd Ellis Thomas in Llandaff Cathedral on 14 March 2025  by Aled Eurig   

    We are here to celebrate the life of The Right Honourable Lord Dafydd Elis-Thomas of Nant Conwy – born 18 October 1946, died 7 February 2025, known to most of us here, as ‘Dafydd El’.

    He has been recognised as one of the most influential Welsh political figures of the past fifty years, a ‘founding father’ of the Senedd, a ‘political giant’.

    He was born in Carmarthen, and brought up in Llanrwst in the Conwy valley. His father, WE Thomas, was a prominent Presbyterian minister and his mother Eirlys, a cultural leader in her community. In chapel and school concerts, Dafydd was a precocious child, and trained in public performance and debating skills from ...

    More 02/04/2025
  • Book Launch – The Politics of Co-Opposition

    A new book by John Osmond was launched at a fringe meeting of Plaid Cymru Annual Conference in Cardiff on 12 October 2024.

    Sound archive of the launch meeting –

    Martin Shipton discussing the book with John Osmond
     
    The Politics of Co-Opposition reveals how a completely new form of political engagement in the British Isles – the 2021-24 Co-operation Agreement between Plaid Cymru and Welsh Labour – created history and provided the major part of the Welsh Government’s policy programme for over three years.

    John Osmond, who was involved in negotiating the Agreement as Special Adviser to Plaid Cymru leader Adam Price, provides an insider’s account of the political background to the ...
    More 14/10/2024
  • Fighting for Wales Before the Foundation of Plaid Cymru

    The history of the great poet, T.Gwynn Jones (1871-1949)

    Review of the Welsh language biography ‘Byd Gwynn’ by Alan Llwyd

    We have good reason to be grateful to the poet and author Alan Llwyd, who was brought up in the Llŷn peninsula and now lives in Morriston.  His awdl, a poem in strict metres on the subject Llif (stream, or flow) ensured that  the chair could be awarded this year, providing a real climax for the successful Llŷn and Eifionydd National Eisteddfod.

    By now Alan Llwyd has established himself as one of Wales’ outstanding poets and writers.  His output is astonishing, both in quality and quantity , and includes a number of detailed biographies of Welsh poets, among them T. Gwynn Jones.

    Today people remember T. Gwynn Jones as one of the leading poets of the twentieth century but he was much more – for decades a ...

    More 11/03/2024