The National Library of Wales holds Plaid Cymru’s substantial archive, which, along with a large number of the party’s publications are available for researchers to study. To mark the centenary of the founding of the party as Plaid Genedlaethol Cymru in 1925 a selection of Plaid Cymru’s manifestos, publications and items from the archive has been digitised in order to create a timeline showing the main highlights of the party’s history.
Link > Archive
“Dros Gymru’n Gwlad – Hanes Sefydlu Plaid Cymru”.
On 17 July 2025 the authors Arwel Vittle and Gwen Gruffudd came to the Pierhead Building to discuss with Karl Davies their new book about the establishment of the National Party of Wales. The event was sponsored by Mabon ap Gwynfor AS and organised by Plaid Cymru History Society.
Here is an opportunity to listen to this very interesting discussion about the start of Plaid Cymru in the period leading up to 1925.
Thank you to Senedd Cymru for providing the record.
Saturday, 21 June, 2025 a Rally was held in Pwllheli to celebrate 100 years since Plaid Cymru was formed.
Address by Kiera Marshall at the Pwllheli Rally 21 June 2025:-
It is truly an honour to be here today – to celebrate 100 years of Plaid Cymru. A century of standing up for Wales.
For our language,
For our communities,
and for our future.
Our party was founded on two simple but powerful principles that remain at our core today.
The first: Wales should govern itself. Home rule or self-determination. The belief that decisions about Wales should be made in Wales, by the people of Wales. A belief that other parties still, after all this time, still struggle to understand.
The second principle is our language. Cymraeg. The right to live in our in language. And this is deeply personal for me. As someone still learning Cymraeg, it is a particular honour to say this clearly: That the role of Plaid Cymru in the fight for the Welsh language over the last 100 years cannot be overstated.
Pwllheli and this part of Wales hold special significance for me. Usually I’m here when I’m visiting Nant Gwrtheyrn, learning the language that should have been mine from the start. The last time I was there, my tutor was one of Lewis Valentine’s great-grandchildren. A reminder of how history lives on in the everyday and how our work today builds on the foundations laid a century ago. While we have come so far, there is still much work to do.
I went through the entire Welsh education system and left unable to speak Cymraeg. That isn’t just my story but the story of a system that is still failing our young people.
Our Senedd, though powerful in principle, is still limited in practice. It’s only as old as I am. Our democracy is young and there are people who want to see it weakend and even undone. And still, we are denied the right to shape our own future, with no control over so many vital areas that shape our daily life in Wales.
But our future is bright as we look ahead to the 2026 Senedd elections. Today is a moment to reflect on a century of Plaid Cymru’s achievements, the political force we’ve become, and the future we’re ready to shape.
From S4C, to the Welsh Language Act, to the establishment of our National Assembly, now Parliament… We have led the way, We have built the foundations, And we have been the engine of Welsh nation-building.
Year after year, campaign after campaign, election after election, We have grown, we have fought, and we have delivered.
As we look back, I want to shine a light on those whose work can be often overlooked: the women who helped build this movement.
Tomorrow, I hope to visit Cae’r Gors, the childhood home of Kate Roberts. Kate was one of the early pillars of Plaid Cymru. She became the first chair of our women’s section that lives on in women I’m honoured to know and she edited the women’s page of Y Ddraig Goch. She gave voice to those who were too often unheard.
I’ve also recently learned of Elizabeth Williams. It was her home in Penarth where a new Welsh Movement was formed in 1924. She documented its growth until it merged into what would become Plaid Cymru here in Pwllheli in 1925. When she died, she left her home in Gwaelod y Garth to the party.
And now today, I stand as a Plaid Cymru candidate for Caerdydd Penarth, the very constituency that stretches from Elizabeth’s home in Penarth to her home in Gwaelod y Garth.
Her legacy lives on in our fight today.
And that fight led to another woman who shaped our movement, Leanne Wood, our first female leader. Leanne broke down barriers and took our message further than before. It was her leadership that carried the story born here in Pwllheli all the way to the very top of Townhill in Swansea. To my mum, and to me. And now, I’m proud to be standing on the shoulders of giants, of all of those who shaped our party over the last century, as a candidate for Plaid Cymru in next year’s Senedd elections.
And I do so with hope. Not just for next year’s election, but for the next generation. I’m currently expecting my first child. And I feel hopeful about raising her in a Wales that is fairer and more ambitious for the people who live here. A Wales that governs itself, with confidence.
This national milestone for Plaid Cymru is also a turning point for us in Cardiff.
Last year, I stood in Cardiff West in the General Election. With an amazing team of activists, we achieved the best result Plaid Cymru has ever had in a General election in Cardiff – and the second highest vote share increase towards Plaid Cymru nationally. Nearly 10,000 people in Cardiff West sent a clear message: Enough. Wales deserves better.
And this was in the very seat home to multiple Labour First Ministers. A party so out of touch, they couldn’t even find a candidate who lived in Wales, let alone Cardiff, to represent us. Labour has run Wales for over 25 years. And what do we have to show for it? Rising child poverty, Deepening inequality and a stagnating economy.
I think of communities like Ely, Riverside, and Butetown, in my constituency, on the doorstep of the Senedd, that have been left behind. Our politics can no longer fail those who need it most, it doesn’t have to be this way.
Next year, we have a real chance to elect a pro-Wales Government, led by Rhun. A government that will put the people before party.
A government that believes in our language, our communities, and our power to choose our own future.
As we have shown, time and time again over the past 100 years.
Plaid Cymru has always been the party of change.
As we enter our second century, we will do what our founders did 100 years ago, and be bold and deliver on a fairer, brighter future for Wales.
For the Wales, we all know is possible.
Diolch yn fawr.
“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.
The Coppieters Foundation in cooperation with Fundació Josep Irla has published the fourth issue of Political Lives devoted to Saunders Lewis (1893–1985).
Link to order the issue > Linc
Lewis was a prominent Welsh politician, writer, academic, and activist whose life and work significantly shaped Welsh cultural and political identity.
Born in England to Welsh-speaking parents, Lewis grew up immersed in Welsh language and culture despite his surroundings.
After serving as a lieutenant in World War I, he pursued higher education, earning degrees in English and French, and later a Master’s focusing on English poetry’s influence on Welsh writers.
His early career as a lecturer at University College Swansea marked a productive period in his literary and political development, during which he wrote plays, essays, and critiques that laid the foundation for his nationalist philosophy.
In 1925, he co-founded Plaid Cymru, the Welsh nationalist party, advocating for a Welsh-speaking society and autonomy from British imperialism.
He is considered to this day one of the most important founders of the Welsh movement and a reference who’s ideas and example have shaped Wales to this day.
. . .
This paper is financially supported by the European Parliament. The European Parliament is not liable for the content or the opinions of the authors.
REMEMBERING O.P. HUWS
On behalf of the members of the Nantlle Valley Branch.
O.P. was an inspiration to us all; a leader by instinct and full of fun and mischief. He worked tirelessly on councils and in the community for the welfare of the people of the Valley, to promote work opportunities and to protect the Welsh language and our heritage. A man of the people who did the ‘small things’ but one who saw far. The Nebo and Dyffryn Nantlle area were fortunate to have such a lively character among us.
O.P. was never still. There was too much to do. One of his frequent sayings was, “If you want something done, ask a busy man.” And O.P. was a busy man.
His great hero was Wmffra Roberts, – County Councilor and Dafydd Wigley’s Agent in the 1974 General Election. A charismatic man and an inspiration to many. O.P. had enough fire in his belly as a Welshman but Wmffra showed him how to channel that to win votes, win elections and win the hearts of the country’s folk.
And O.P. was a people person. And a man of the people; he got on with everyone. And O.P.’s was not some ‘look-at-me’ nationalism. – but a practical one. A man who always had his feet on the ground.
Immigrants to Nebo? One solution was to create Cymdeithas Fro to try to assimilate the new arrivals. And start a learners’ class.
House prices rising unreasonably? Organize a protest in Nebo and then occupying the land of a nearby house that was for sale at a bargain price and sleeping in a tent on the lawn to draw attention to the crisis. And of course that raises neighbours’ fears.
He noticed when canvassing a certain village that the population was aging and there was a lack of young families. What did we do? Establish Antur Nantlle and years of committee and organizing. But now over a hundred people work in Antur’s offices and workshops.
But that’s not all. When there was a campaign for the establishment of a Welsh Television Channel he refused to pay the license fee, – he and his friend Bryn Mosely from Nebo, and both had a period in Walton. The stories would flow about his short stay in prison and the ‘characters’ among his fellow lodgers. But there was also a deep sympathy with those who were caught in an endless cycle of being in and out of prison. “What hope did they have?” was his question.
But O.P. was not a man to despair. There was too much to do and ideas to realize! I called to see him in Bryngwyn when he was confined by the cancer and despite his pain the conversation flowed. As I was leaving he said, “Thank you for calling. Thank you for the conversation. Where did the years go?” Of course I had no answer. But I do know one thing, that Owen Pennant Huws made full use of his years in his adopted Valley surrounded by his family and his neighbourhood. He will leave a big gap behind him.
Alun Fred
Tribute given in Welsh at the funeral of Lord Dafydd Ellis Thomas in Llandaff Cathedral on 14 March 2025 by Aled Eirug
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 an early age. His first political memories were of the Parliament for Wales campaign in the 1950s, and Llanrwst boys being conscripted into the Army at the time of the Suez crisis.
In 1958, he became a member of CND, and in 1962 joined Plaid Cymru. In 1964 he went to Bangor University, where as a brilliant scholar, he gained a first-class degree in Welsh, and established himself as a formidable debater, student politician, and literary critic.
As chair of Plaid Cymru’s youth section, he opposed the Investiture of the Prince of Wales in 1969, ironically given the warm personal friendship he developed with Prince Charles in later life. In February 1974, he won the Meirionnydd seat and became the youngest Member of the House of Commons at the age of 27. An energetic and campaigning MP, he supported Labour’s devolution proposals, which ended in failure in 1979. Following that, he moved Plaid Cymru towards the left.
In the House of Commons, he showed bravery in opposing the Falklands/ Malvinas War, and a readiness to court unpopularity by moving the writ for the Fermanagh and South Tyrone byelection after the death of its Member of Parliament, the IRA hunger striker, Bobby Sands.
In 1984, he became Plaid Cymru’s President, led it to support the miners’ strike, and aligned the party with the decade’s main causes – anti-Thatcherism, the Welsh language movement, Greenham Common, and the anti-apartheid campaign.
Throughout his life he had a strong connection to the countryside. He was a passionate walker and runner in the landscape, and an early champion of the environmental movement.
After 18 years in the Commons, in 1992, he controversially took a seat in the House of Lords and was appointed Chair of the Welsh Language Board, where he ensured that the language was seen as available to all, and above party politics.
In May 1999, he was elected to the National Assembly for Wales, and undoubtedly the political highlight of his life was as the Assembly’s first Presiding Officer. He worked with the First Minister, Rhodri Morgan, to embed the new institution into Welsh life, and secured an iconic home for the Assembly – the award-winning Senedd building, which reflected the principles of a transparent democracy.
The 2011 referendum gave reality to Dafydd’s teenage dream of a legislative Senedd. After standing down as Llywydd that year, he found it difficult to settle into life as a backbencher, and in 2016, left the party on the occasion of his seventieth birthday, to become an independent Member. In 2017, he was appointed deputy Minister for Culture, Sport and Tourism in Government – a role that he delighted in and was eminently suited to.
He was mischievous, challenging , entertaining and provoking, but Dafydd was also a profoundly serious man – he retained his interest in the semiotics of language, philosophy and the arts; and in religion, he moved gradually from the ascetic Calvinism of the Presbyterian church, through the liberalism of Congregationalism, to the Church of Wales, where he was made a lay canon in this very Cathedral.
Even his friends thought that Dafydd could sometimes be inconsistent in his political judgement – but he would argue that he was simply adapting to the political realities of the time. He was perceptive, lively, hugely charming, courteous and inspirational.
His critics have characterised him as a political chameleon, and of failing to rein in, his intellectual agility. He could certainly be a contrarian and was remarkably adept at presenting unorthodox political views. But he was true to his fundamental belief in that whatever he did, he did wholly for the benefit of Wales.
He understood the need for Plaid Cymru to extend its political hinterland, and as Presiding Officer, he knew the importance of ensuring that the legitimacy of the new Assembly, was recognised by the support of the members of the Royal family for instance, who attended every official opening.
His public roles were many but they came at a price. His time with the family was sacrificed to the needs of his party, parliaments and the public. His first victory in 1974 came as a seismic shock to him and Elen, and Dafydd found it difficult to balance the many calls on his time. One of his boys memorably said that Dafydd’s method of coping was ‘never to look in the rear view mirror’ – always to look forward.
His loss is not solely to the political and public world of course. It is a huge loss to his family – to Mair his wife, his sons Rolant, Meilyr and Cai, their mother and Dafydd’s friend, Elen, and his grand-children, Mali, Osian, Llew and Bleddyn, who have lost a loving taid.
Following Dafydd’s death, Mair has received literally hundreds of letters of sympathy. I’d like to read a section from one of them;
‘I was so terribly sorry to hear the very sad news about your husband and particularly wanted to write and send you my deepest possible sympathy….
To all things, your husband brought an independence of mind and a generosity of spirit, not to mention a wit, that I always found immensely impressive. Our public life will be so very much the poorer without his thoughtful and stimulating presence.
There can be few people who have contributed so much to the lives of their nation, in so many fields, for so long. I hope it will be of at least some small comfort to you, in your loss, to know the enormous respect in which your husband was held by so many people from all walks of life.’
A deeply affecting tribute, from King Charles, whose friendship with Dafydd extended over fifty-five years.
Dafydd was my closest friend, sometimes a wise adviser, an inteliigent and playful companion, and a fine man to share a glass of wine with. A brave and bold politician, a lover of Welsh culture and language, and a patriot. Wales, his family, and all of us, are poorer for his loss.
However, reflecting on a full and well lived life, we give thanks and celebrate Dafydd El – our nation builder.
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 dig a trench along Offa’s Dyke and tow Wales out into the Atlantic Ocean!
Emrys Roberts was born in 1931 and raised in Leamington Spa. His father came from Blaenau Ffestiniog and there was Welsh in the family but the language of the home was English. He learnt Welsh thoroughly after the family moved to Cardiff in 1941. At the age of ten, he began attending Cathays High School, joining a Welsh-medium class with the legendary Elvet Thomas as Welsh teacher.
Emrys became a dedicated nationalist in his teens, and was always someone who thought for himself. He showed early signs of that unique combination of humour and radicalism: although deciding he did not really believe in God, he continued to attend chapel and accepted the post of Sunday School secretary – on condition they understood he was not a believer!
He did time in Cardiff gaol for refusing to enlist in the armed forces on the grounds of nationalism. Following dismissal from the civil service because of his prison sentence, he went to University College, Cardiff and was elected as President of the Students Union for 1954/55.
In 1957 he took up a post with the staff of Plaid Cymru, first of all with the specific role of defending Cwm Tryweryn. He played a leading role in organising the illegal radio programmes broadcast on the BBC’s television channels after the evening closedown, and he stood as a Westminster parliamentary candidate in a number of constituencies in South Wales.
In 1960, he became Plaid Cymru’s General Secretary: I had no idea as I listened to his address in Exeter University that I would follow in his footsteps a decade or so later. But his period of office during a turbulent period prior to the Carmarthen by-election proved to be problematic, with tensions between different groups within the national movement. Emrys was obliged to give up his post in 1964 following a dispute that made a front page lead.
Despite this, he had made a lasting impression on Plaid Cymru’s membership, especially in the valleys of South Wales. After a period as organiser of an international eisteddfod in the Teeside area, he and Margaret returned to Wales, where he later worked as public relations officer for the Welsh Hospitals Board. No-one would have blamed him for keeping his head down after years of uncertainty. But Emrys was a man of deep convictions, and when the call came in 1972 to stand as Plaid candidate in the Merthyr by-election he accepted the challenge.
It was a crucial time for the party. After the historic victory in Carmarthen and two near misses, in Rhondda West and Caerffili, by 1970 Plaid Cymru had no representative in the House of Commons. Labour hastened to call the by-election as fast as possible, and I recall Neil Kinnock predicting that they would bury Plaid Cymru. But it didn’t happen: nationalists rolled up from all parts of Wales to work through wind and rain for Emrys. Posters appeared throughout the constituency and Labour’s majority was trimmed to 3,710.
From that point on, Plaid Cymru improved it’s standing throughout the south. Emrys went on to win a Merthyr Council seat in the Troedyrhiw area, and in 1976 came and astonishing victory in the Borough – Plaid Cymru took 21 of the 33 council seats, with Emrys as leader of the first ever Council to be officially run by Plaid Cymru. You can read about this and much more in his autobiography on the Plaid Cymru History Society website www.hanesplaidcymru.org (search for A Bee or Two in my Bonnet, under Publications).
*Emrys Pugh Roberts was born on 30 November 1931. He died on 9 January 2025.
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The best orator he had ever heard. That was Vaughan Roderick’s opinion about Emrys Roberts. He was born in Leamington Spa, but at the age of 10 the family moved to Cardiff. Through Minny Street Chapel, Cathays school and his aunt Bet, Emrys learned Welsh. In Cathays, he was one of a group of boys who became fluent in Welsh, including Bobi Jones and Tedi Millward.
A conscientious objector, he refused to do military service after the second world war, and he was sentenced to a term in Cardiff prison. While he was there, Mahmood Mattan was hanged. Emrys Roberts saw the racism against Mahmood, and saw his fellow prisoners, those of Somali descent having to dig the grave, and covering it with quicklime.
Emrys had an international mindset. He was a leader in the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, and had enormous an respect for Castro and Cuba. His great aspiration was to see Wales sitting next to Cuba at the United Nations.
He stood for Plaid Cymru in several prominent by-elections, and he led Merthyr council at the end of the 1970s. He was also responsible for the unlawful broadcasts that happened when the BBC banned political broadcasts by Plaid.
Although he held leading roles within Plaid Cymru, it’s fair to say that he did not see eye to eye with the leadership of the party on all occasions. He was a socialist by instinct, and he worked hard to push the party in that direction. Everything that Emrys did was rooted in what was best for Wales and the peoples of the world. He was a kind man, and I experienced that kindness over the years.
It’s a privilege to pay tribute to Emrys here in the Senedd. He was part of a small group that insisted that Wales was a nation, and this Senedd is the fruit of their labours. Thank you very much.