Scores if not hundreds of Plaid members made their way north to help Yes Scotland in their fight for independence. Were you one of them? If so do you have a story we could publish on the Plaid History website (www.hanesplaidcymru.org)? We would welcome a note telling us where you went, any anecdote and a photo if possible. Please send to Dafydd Williams (daitenby@gmail.com).
Category: Activities
Gweithgareddau y Gymdeithas. Society Activites
DJ Williams
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
History of Plaid Cymru – John Davies
PLAID CYMRU ETHOLAETH CAERFFILI
Introduces the historian
JOHN DAVIES
“Plaid Cymru : The Last 50 Years”
Aneurin Sports Bar
Penyrheol
26 June 2014
7.30
Admission £10 (including food)
Tickets from Huw Jackson huwjackson@msn.com 02920 864979
(All proceeds to Plaid Cymru Caerffili Election Funds)
RADIO FREE WALES
Listen to Phillip Lloyd talking about about Plaid Cymru’s illegal broadcasts in the ‘50s & ‘60’s on John Hardy’s S4C programme , ‘Cadw Cwmni’ [sub titles] , Monday 20 th January , 9.30pm [sub. titles] . The interview will be also be broadcast on Saturday 25th January at 2.00 pm with on screen sub titles
The Fascist Party in Wales? Plaid Cymru, Welsh Nationalism and the Accusation of Fascism (University of Wales Press)
This English translation of “Y Blaid Ffasgaidd yng Nghymru”: Plaid Cymru a’r Cyhuddiad o Ffasgaeth (Gwasg Prifysgol Cymru) by Professor Richard Wyn Jones [Cardiff University] will be published 20th May 2014
Penarth meeting led to formation of Plaid Cymru
A special event was held to commemorate the 90th anniversary of the first meeting of The Welsh Movement, the group which led to the formation of Plaid Cymru. The historic, secret meeting was held in Bedwas Place in Penarth on January 7, 1924, and led by the lecturer and dramatist, Saunders Lewis, who lived in Penarth for many years. At this month’s event, guest speaker Professor Richard Wyn Jones spoke of the importance of the meetings held by the group and how they led to links with Nationalists in north Wales and the official formation of Plaid Cymru the following year. He explained how policies drawn up by the group became the policies of Plaid Cymru in its early years. As well as Saunders Lewis, the first historic meeting was attended by the historian, Ambrose Bebb, and the owners of the house in which it was held, the historian and Welsh scholar, G. J. Williams, and his wife, Elizabeth. This month’s event, organised by the Plaid Cymru History Society and the Penarth Branch of Plaid Cymru, was attended by about a hundred people, including a television crew. A packed room at the Windsor Arms heard Penarth Branch Chairman Adrian Roper welcome Prof Jones, party members and supporters and local residents interested in the history of politics in Penarth. The meeting was chaired by Assembly Member Alun Ffred Jones, a grandson of the Rev Ffred Jones, who joined the group shortly after the first meeting. A vote of thanks to the speakers was given by the Chairman of the Plaid History Society, Dafydd Williams. Among the audience at the commemorative event were the parliamentary and Assembly candidates for Cardiff South and Penarth, Ben Foday and Dr Dafydd Trystan Davies, who was elected as the party’s national Chairman last year.
First Newsletter of History Society
The first issue of the History Society’s Newsletter has been published.
You can read it here >> Newsletter
Women in Plaid Exhibition
In the 2013 Annual Conference an exhibition of Women in ‘Plaid Cymru – The Early Years’ prepared by Yvonne Balakrishnan was displayed by the History Society. 
Amongst the women shown in the exhibition are –
Cassie Davies, Tegwen Clee, Eileen Beasley, Nesta Roberts
Priscie Roberts, Mai Roberts, Efelyn Williams, Kate Roberts
Dr Ceinwen H. Thomas, Cathrin Huws, Caerdydd, Jennie Gruffydd
Nans Jones, Nora Celyn Jones, Llinos Roberts, Lerpwl
Here are some of the portraits –
Penarth’s Secret Role in Welsh History
Penarth’s secret role in Welsh history.
Tuesday, 7th January 2014, Windsor Arms, Windsor Rd. Penarth, 7.30pm.
Lecture by Prof. Richard Wyn Jones and a buffet to follow to remember the occasion, 90 years ago, of the first meeting of the ’ Welsh Movement’ which led to the foundation of Plaid Cymru.
Tickets £10.00. Post your cheque to Alan Jobbins, 47 Wingfield Rd. Eglwys Newydd, Caerdydd CF14 1NJ
An event to commemorate the 90th anniversary of the first meeting of Y Mudiad Cymreig/The Welsh Movement, which led to the formation of Plaid Cymru the following year, is being held in Penarth in January.
The historic meeting was held at 11, Bedwas Place in Penarth on the evening of January 7th, 1924, and the commemorative event is being held at the Windsor Arms on Tuesday, January 7 (7.30pm).
It is being organised jointly by the Plaid Cymru History Society and the Penarth Branch of Plaid Cymru.
The guest speaker will be Professor Richard Wyn Jones, the eminent historian, political commentator, author and broadcaster.
At the 1924 meeting, a small group of nationalists, led by the lecturer and playwright Saunders Lewis, began drawing up a set of aims and policies intended to rescue Wales from political and cultural oblivion.
As well as Mr Lewis, that first meeting was attended by the historian, Ambrose Bebb, and the owners of the house, the historian and Welsh scholar G. J. Williams and his wife, Elizabeth.
They were joined at a later meeting, on February 5, 1924, by D.J. Williams and Ben Bowen Thomas and at their March meeting by the Treorchy minister, the Rev Ffred Jones, the grandfather of folk singer and former Plaid President Dafydd Iwan and of Assembly Member Alun Ffred Jones, who will be chairing the anniversary meeting.
The group met in secret throughout 1924 and, at about the same time, another group of nationalists were meeting in Gwynedd.
Early in 1925, the leader of the northern group, H.R.Jones, contacted Saunders Lewis to invite him to help with the creation of a new political party. The two groups stayed in close contact and, on August 5, 1925, Mr Lewis and the Rev Ffred Jones travelled to Pwllheli to join H.R. Jones and three others – Rev Lewis Valentine, scientist Moses Griffiths and carpenter D.E. Williams – at a meeting which established Plaid Genedlaethol Cymru as the National Party of Wales.
Some of the policies which were forged in Penarth by the Welsh Movement have been long abandoned, but the vision of a party with, in D.J. Williams’ words, “the specific aim of delivering to Wales, in the fullness of time, self-government and its own parliament, along with all the privileges of a free nation” became a reality.
The rebirth of Wales as a self-governing nation can be traced back, in no small part, to those secret discussions at Bedwas Place in 1924.
It is hoped that guests at the commemorative event will include descendants of the Welsh Movement’s principal members and representatives from the Pwllheli branch of Plaid Cymru.
Tickets (£10 a head to include buffet) are available from Rowland Davies, of the Penarth Branch, at ardbear@btinternet.com or on (029) 20702603 or 07769 195025, or from AlanJobbins, of the Plaid Cymru History Society, a asjobbins@btinternet.com or on (029) 20623275 or 07790 868686.
Myth Busting in Conference
Why have a number of Unionist politicians sought to smear Plaid Cymru with the gibe of being fascist, without so much as a shred of evidence? And how have they got away with it for so long?
This was the theme of a well-attended fringe meeting at this year’s annual conference in Aberystwyth addressed by the political historian Professor Richard Wyn Jones. During the year, Professor Jones published the first ever detailed analysis of these accusations, which have surfaced from time to time over the last seven decades. The meeting, chaired by Professor Daniel Williams, was jointly sponsored by Cangen Aberystwyth and the Plaid Cymru History Society.
The book, at present available in Welsh only, is a ‘must’ for all nationalists. It forensically and conclusively debunks a lie systematically put about for decades by less scrupulous anti-Welsh politicians.
‘Y Blaid Ffasgaidd yng Nghymru’: Plaid Cymru a’r Cyhuddiad o Ffasgaeth (2013). Richard Wyn Jones. University of Wales Press.
Talk about Free Wales Radio
ETHOLAETH CAERFFILI — CAERFFILI CONSTITUENCY
CYMDEITHAS HANES PLAID CYMRU HISTORY SOCIETY
Illustrated talk by Philip Lloyd
Radio Free Wales
Radio Ceiliog
The story of illegal broadcasting – the fight for Plaid Cymru’s right to have party political broadcasts.
Clwb Rygbi Caerffili – Caerffili Rugby Club
Thursday, September 26th at 7:30
Mynediad am Ddim – Free Admission
Croeso cynnes i bawb – A warm welcome to you all