Penarth meeting led to formation of Plaid Cymru

Cyfarfod Penarth 7 Ionawr 2014
Chairman of Penarth Branch Adrian Roper, Alun Ffred Jones AM, Professor Richard Wyn Jones, Dafydd Williams

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.

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.    ArddangosfaMenywod072b   Arddangosfa Menywod      

 

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

Saunders Lewis Ambrose Bebb

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.

Hanes Plaid Cymru