Plaid Cymru History

DAFYDD HUW JOHN

The Plaid Cymru History Society is grateful to Councillor Peter Hughes Griffiths  for his tribute  to the late Huw John, which appears in full on the Welsh language page of the website.

Remembered as a Welsh patriot, a friend to all, and for many years the organiser and leader of Twmpath Dances the length and breadth of Wales, Huw John died at his home at Maesglas, Peniel, Carmarthen on the 13th of August 2025 at the age of 86.  He was fond of organising and taking part in traditional Plygain services across Wales, as well as non-stop activity on behalf of Plaid Cymru.

The Plygain at Capel Penygraig, where Huw served as a deacon and led the singing for over 30 years, has become an important fixture on the Plygain circuit since 2012.

Huw came from Crymych in north Pembrokeshire, and was the brother of Glanville and the late Peter John.  ...

At the Parish Hall, Llandaf, Friday 21 November 2025, an evening was organised by Plaid Cymru History Society to hear Aled Eirug  discussing his new book about Dafydd Elis-Thomas with Vaughan Roderick.

 

 

Here is a recording of the simultaneous translation of the evening by Steffan William.  

 

Looking at his background, Alan Jobbins wasn’t the obvious person to found the Plaid Cymru Historical Society. He was born in 1940 to a non-Welsh speaking working class family in Brecon. Generations on his mother’s side had lived in Brycheiniog and his father’s family had followed the Monmouthshire canal before settling in the town. His father was active with the railway workers’ union and voted for the Labour Party and, as a young man, Alan was a supporter of the Labour Party too, before he became active with Plaid, the national movement and started learning Welsh in the 1970s.

He was undoubtedly heavily influenced by his wife, Catherine, who was from Eifionydd and a first language Welsh-speaker. They met at a dance at the London Welsh Centre on London’s Gray’s Inn Rd in 1965 where ...