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The Welsh response to the vandalisation of the iconic mural near Llanrhystud was the spark that inspired Mari Emlyn’s new bilingual book - Cofiwch Dryweryn: Wales Awakening  (Y Lolfa). 

Author Mari Emlyn says:

“We are indebted to the group of young people who went and rebuilt and then repainted the wall. Perhaps the vandals did us a favour, as a mass patriotic awakening has snowballed as a result of their heinous act. Even when some of these new murals have been defaced, the Welsh people have returned quietly, and with dignity, to repaint their tributes.” 

The original slogan was painted by author Professor Meic Stephens, who was a student at the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth at the time, as a protest against the decision to drown the Tryweryn Valley in order to provide water for the people of Liverpool. Despite all his literary work, Meic Stephens swore: ‘This is my most famous statement, my most eloquent poem, my most important political act’. 

The book places the mural phenomenon in the context of Capel Celyn’s history, with contributions by three whose roots are firmly in the Tryweryn Valley: Eurgain Prysor Jones, Gwyn Roberts and Elwyn Edwards. Their stories make up the early chapters of the book, as well as a chapter by Emyr Llywelyn who was imprisoned for a year for his part (with Owain Williams and John Albert Jones) in trying to stop the development of the dam in February 1963. There’s also a chapter by radio and television presenter, Huw Stephens, who is the son of the original mural painter. 

Following these contributions, elements of this year’s story are presented in the form of pictures and short written pieces by the public who have been appreciating other people’s efforts during the spring and summer – from Bridgend to Bwlch-y-Groes, from Llangrannog to Llanuwchllyn – and even Chicago! This book is only a taster of the hundreds of murals which continue to be created. 

Siôn Jobbins, Chaiman of Yes Cymru said:

“Destroying the Cofiwch Dryweryn mural was an attempt to destroy the memory and idenitity of Wales as a nation. This book shows that we will never let that happen again. It documents the brave and challenging words on walls across Wales that commemorate our history and demand a better future for our nation.” 

The author and actress Mari Emlyn originally comes from Cardiff, but has long since settled in Y Felinheli with her husband, and has raised three sons there. The Treweryn story has intensified her belief that Wales, if it is to be a proud and confident nation, needs to know its own history. 

Cofiwch Dryweryn: Wales Awakening  will be launched at 7pm in Studio 1, Galeri Caernarfon on Friday, 18 ^th  October.  

Cofiwch Dryweryn: Wales Awakening  by Mari Emlyn (£7.99, Y Lolfa) is available now.

VOICES FROM WALES – THIRTY TWO OF FIFTY-TWO, YELLOW FACED CANARY GIRLS

Pembrey Country Park is a coastland parkland that has Cefn Sidan beach as its main attraction.

During the Great War of 1914-18 the park was used as a base for a munition factory which gave women employment from all over West Wales. The Royal Ordnance Factory was developed on a large scale.

Many of the women who worked there were stained yellow by the toxic chemicals that they were handling. They became known as the ‘canary girls’.

In 2018 a community workshop provided by Lorraine King and Andy Edwards for Pembrey Primary School took place. It was a storytelling session which ended up in the children writing the lyrics and Lorraine adding melody and the guitar parts. By the end of the afternoon the children sang and recording their song.

“Is there is any p-p-person here with a j-j-ust impediment then let him s-speak now or forever hold his p-p-peace” said the stuttering Priest.

The Roman Catholic Holy Man, Ollie Water, didn’t normally have a stutter, but when he had been given the task of  marrying the daughter of one of the Heads of the Five Taffia Families to one of the those with links to the Provisional IRA- it was understandable.

The Priest looked around him at the congregation of St Illtyd’s Roman Catholic Church in Dowlais, Merthyr Tydfil and noticed on the right side of the church the number of men dressed in suits, sat in the pews with hands like Napoleon Bonaparte, tucked inside their outfits resting on their concealed weapons, and on the left others from the famous  O’Toole clan also used to holding their piece on a regular basis.

Who would have thought that the Barsini and O’Toole families would have one day forged such an unholy alliance?

The little mining Town in the South Wales Valleys was used to an influx of foreigners, with the Irish arriving in their droves after the Irish Potato Famine of 1845- to undercut local labour and the Italian families arriving nearly a Century later, fleeing the persecution of Mussolini during the Second World War bringing with them cafes, coffee, ice cream and the Cosa Nostra.

In a way, in view of the size of the local population ,it was written in the stars that the two families would one day be linked and consolidate their business empires into legitimate means.

Whereas in the past,  the O’Toole family had specialised in the supply of Semtex and illegal guns, and the Barsini family had run the numbers rackets on illegal gambling and started the sale of their highly addictive drugs in the form of their patented invention of ‘Ice a cream’ from mobile ice cream vans that toured the Valleys area.

Now in 2019, they had legitimised their business enterprises selling ‘feesh n cheeps’ to the Town folk under the protection of the Bride’s Father - Don Giacomo Marrone Barsini, the Codfather of Sole.

In the 1970’s, it was rumoured that the American Giant Corporation Coca Cola was using a small amount of cocaine in their bottles of Coke, so too was it believed that the current Barsini chips contained some unknown ingredient in their secret recipe that was equally as highly addictive.

But what was it?

Who would have thought that simply cooking chips from Irish potatoes in ground nut oil would have such an impact on the population?

As most Welsh people couldn’t get enough of them.

Queues of people stretched around the block, as they waited for their chain of fish shops to open at 11.30am – with fights often taking places over positions and people asking others ahead ‘to get me a cob n chips’.

There was even a death on 14 th February in 1975, after a particularly long Funeral and a scuffle over the last fish supper – which was dubbed the St Valentine’s Day Mass-Haker.

In response to the Priest’s question- there was absolute silence, which seemed to last forever- until Don Barsini nodded to the pulpit.

As the Priest declared the married couple wed there wasn’t the usual cheer or people reaching for confetti boxes.

Bride Lucia Barsini turned to face her new husband for the traditional kiss.

But as she was six months pregnant , she had the turning circle of an oil tanker and ‘crudely’ knocked off the glasses and flat cap of  family member,  Tam O’Shanter in the movement.

“You Feccking eejit’ he muttered under his breath cursing the woman, like he was a cast member of Mrs Brown’s Boys, but stopped short of a slap with one frightened look on the Holy Man’s face.

The Peaky Blinder suddenly went pale, as he realised where he was and the company that he was in.

It was the same tense atmosphere like watching someone smoking next to a powder keg.  

Bridegroom Seamus O’Toole gave his adopted Countryman an evil look but soon relented when he felt the soft caress of his new Bride’s finger on his face.

He was forced to bite his tongue and turn the other cheek- after all he was in God’s House- and had to obey the sanctity of the sanctuary.

“All R-r-rise” stammered Ollie Water.

Nobody dared move until Don Giacomo Marrone Barsini-the Italian version of James Brown -the Codfather of Soul ordered musically: ‘Get up now , Get on up’.

Pews creaked as the heavyweight laden pasta brigade got to their feet and the Stout Irish made their way to the front door in anticipation of a pint of ‘Liffey Juice’ laced with a shot of Irish Whiskey.

The combination of the two was known as a McGuinness due to its explosive force and was guaranteed to turn your faeces blacker than an Al Jolson album cover.

Once ‘taken’ in volume , it also had a depressive side effect, of turning the drinker’s mood darker than a Liam Neeson movie.

Now if one thing the Irish know what to do, it’s to combine the misery of a shotgun wedding into a World Class wake and then later into a Wild West free for all.

Even a ‘Quiet Man’ like John Wayne got punchy after a good hitching.  

‘Dukes’ were raised after the least innocent comment by a reveller that had too much and invariably it would end up in fisticuffs and broken bar stools.

So why they decided to place their church with expensive stain glass coloured windows next door to a social club the Catholic God only knows.

I suspect it was for prophet.

As the two tribes yet to go to war, stood outside the Church, the Wedding photographer-

Snapper Roddy Doyle, provocatively asked the various henchmen which side of the family they were on.

‘Bride or Boom?’

Not surprisingly, the Italian Mob didn’t want to be photographed, whereas the Irish didn’t mind being photographed as long as the picture frames didn’t have a hard border.

Using his wide angled lens to get the heavily pregnant Bride, into the shot, he was concerned that she was so ugly it might crack his expensive camera lens.

It took him merely 15 minutes to get the Irish side of the family set and photographed, as they were so eager to get a pint but the Italian Mob would only agree to their shots if the camera was set on ‘Reader’s Wives’ mode.

In view of Lucia’s face like a bulldog’s arse chewing a wasp, it took nearly 30 minutes to find her best side and that included putting two brown bags over her head ‘for scale reasons’.

Boy was Roddy going to work hard to get this one looking beautiful.

Even in his darkroom.

Don Barsini insisted in having a photograph of him and the Bride for his mantelpiece- but in truth it was to keep his future grandchildren away from the open fire.

Seamus O’Toole, the Bridegroom clearly hadn’t been looking at her mantelpiece when poking her fire.  

But beauty is in the eye of the beholder and Guinness can have a magical effect on a man capable of transforming even the most ‘stoutest’ of individuals in the Rose of Tralee after a dozen or so pints of the dark stuff.

It can even make the Welsh Rugby Team look like World beaters.

As the guests filed into the reception, instead of the usual Bucks Fizz, there were pint glasses of Guinness with Lucia and Seamus 2019 written in the foam topping.

A nice touch for such a classy wedding.

The other table had a selection of red and white wine from the vineyards of Bardi- whose viticulture and grape varieties dated back to Roman Times, which Romulus & Remus had reputedly fought over as their Mother’s Wolf Tit had stopped lactating.

It was normally the Bride and Groom that entered the hall last but not when they had the Head of the Five Families of the Welsh Taffia ‘orchestrating’ the reception.

He was surrounded by several men with full violin cases but none of them looked very musical.

If anything, they looked like a more threatening version of the Ant Hill Mob from the Hanna Barbara cartoon the Wacky Races- shame the Groom didn’t have a Pitstop otherwise there wouldn’t have been the need for a Wedding.

The room previous full of chatter, fell eerily silent as the Don made his way to the top table with one of his entourage checking under the beautiful white laced Neapolitan covers with a mirror on a selfie stick in case of explosive devices.

As he removed his Fedora Hat, and his expensive jacket from his shoulders, at least two of the attendants collided like a version of the Keystone Cops in the rush to hang them up.

Everyone in the Hall stood up, as a mark of respect until Don Barsini motioned Pontiff-like with his hands.

There was a flash of 24 carat gold from his replica ‘Fisherman’s Ring’.

The Bride in complete contrast looked like Gollum coveting it next to him.

No sooner than he had given his signal than the Head Caterer, Lucretia Borgia, who had flown all the way from Italy for this occasion, signalled for her own ‘Mob’ to commence serving the food.

Not surprisingly, the Top Table was first followed by the closest relatives and ultimately those with the least influence in the pecking order located at the back of the hall.

Which in truth suited the Irish contingent as it was closer to the bar and easier to get to the toilets in a crowd.

Nerves and Guinness had already got the better of Best Man, Pete Boggs, who was building up to his big speech by clearing his bowels.

Most Irishmen are piss artists but Pete was different.

He was a crap artist and had manoeuvred his posterior just like an icing bag to leave a perfect Guinness shamrock of shite on the back of the toilet rim.

It was such a work of art, that it would have been a shame for any toilet brush to spoil it.

Whether it was genetics or just the time his Father had spent in H-Block at Maze Prison that had created this Irish Armitage-Shanks version of Banksy -no-one could be certain, but once the Catholic candle of remembrance had burned away the smell…it was a shite to behold.

Pete Boggs was such a perfectionist, he didn’t even need to was his hands after.

As he started to read out the cards and telegrams of good luck as the introduction to the speeches, no-one could tell otherwise that it wasn’t gravy.

Don Barsini was also artistic, he had spent nearly five minutes preparing the food on his plate into the shape of  Italy- resembling a little boot of pasta poking out into a Mediterranean sea of tomato sauce.

Surrounded by a tiny life raft made from a Garibaldi biscuit.

The room was a little on the small size for the number of guests and did in fact breach the maximum number of occupants by 30 people.

So it was no surprise when the Bride lifted her massive ‘bingo wing’ arm flab and bumped the Don’s precariously placed plate and dinner onto his lap.

It is a scientific fact that when you drop a piece of toast on the floor it always lands butter face down.

So too with Italian crockery.

The expensive designer suit was ruined by the Gino D’Campo sauce.  

If it had been anyone else rather than his Daughter, then chances are they would be ‘sleeping with da feeshes’- but the former Lucia Barsini now Lucia O’Toole could do no wrong in her Father’s eyes.

Lucretia Borgia snapped her fingers and immediately sent over her most attractive waitress to mop the lap of the Codfather.

As she transfixed him with those big Sophia Loren eyes all thoughts of murder left the Don, as he felt his trouser Vesuvius threatening to erupt – just like the last days of Pompeii.

At that instant, best man Pete Boggs tapped the side of his Guinness Pint Glass with a pencil topped by a tiny rubber version of Warwick Davies dressed as ‘der Leprechaun’.

“Can you all charge your glasses and be upstanding to thank the caterers for providing a meal fit for a Prince!” said Pete lifting his own glass of Guinness in the air.

He paused for dramatic effect and silence before motioning with his fingers to an imaginary dog.

“ Here Prince….!”

The crowd laughed and feeling buoyed by his little joke pushed it further.

“ And Don Barsini’s trousers would also like to thank the caterers for a lovely meal!” he continued.

The room previously full of noise and mirth suddenly went as silent as the Vatican when faced with allegations of Priestly paedophilia.

Even Bobby Sands Junior stopped eating.

There was a pregnant pause in which you could have cut the silence with a Sicilian knife.

But then a guffaw of laughter from Don Barsini burst the hitherto Trappist audience, and everyone joined in.

The almost non-cholent nod of the Head of the Taffia to his most trusted sidekick, Moi Derra, went pretty much unseen – as was to be the fate of Pete Boggs from tomorrow on, when the marital couple were to be on honeymoon.

The foundations for the concrete structure supporting the Spaghetti Junction flyover would now get an additional body to add to the existing five ‘missing persons’ making it the Birmingham Six.

As the speeches started in earnest, one of the O’Toole family, Sean Finn got up to offer his advice.

“In any marriage it is important to base it on Love & Trust” declared the Dubliner.

“I have been married to my Wife now for nigh on 20 years and I don’t love her and she don’t trust me…..but it won’t be long now ….isn’t that right  Sinead O’Connor? “ said Sean slapping her bald head like Benny Hill.

The long suffering Wife- not just from a poor marriage but stage two cancer- caught him with an uppercut that Connor McGregor would have proud of and Sean sailed across the bar like he was in the Copacabana.

This was the signal that Video-Disco Jockey, Chuckie O’Larr had been waiting for and shouted at the audience ‘Boys, Boys, Boys’ before adding (Summertime Love) as he linked into the film of Italian Beauty Sabrina diving into a swimming pool as the music started.

It had the desired effect of raising the testosterone but calming the crowd.

Normally, it is traditional for the Bridge & Groom to start the dancing off but not in the most dangerous family arrangement since a Montague met a Capulet.

But if there is bad blood in a family then it is always best to spill it and invariably there will be a woman behind it.

Opening the Wedding cards, Lucia Barsini read aloud proudly…

”There is a good wish message here from Shane McGowan, the Lead Singer of the Pogues!”  

“ Why didn’t you have this Fairytale in New York?”

“ I could have arranged for the NYPD choir to sing Galway Bay and had the bells ringing out for you!”

“Look there’s one from Bono too…’in the name of love never trust anything that bleeds but doesn’t die?....what does he mean?” asked Lucia suspiciously.

“Ignore him…he just likes to be on the Edge!” slurred Seamus.

The Disc Jockey was being pestered by both sides of the hall to put on music that was more suitable to the other family.

 The Italian Mob wanted ‘Volare’ whilst the Irish Mob wanted Dana’s ‘All kinds of everything’ .

The argument continued with the Italian Mob suggesting sarcastically to put on ‘Zombie’ by the Cranberries and the Irish Lynch Mob suggesting that they ‘Shaddap ur face’ by Joe Dolci.

Chuckie O’Larr played a neutral song by Musical Youth song from 1982, which the Italian contingent then corrupted to ‘Hang Il Duce from the left hand side’.

As the drinks flowed then the tempers soon got even more frayed.

Especially at the bar.

“Barman gimme a JFK Cocktail !” demanded Nucky Tomasino, as he shoved his way from the back of the crowd straight to the front trying to intimidate the young student on minimum wage into serving him first.

“What’s a JFK cocktail?” asked the youngster.

“Loads of shots that make you feel like your head is exploding with a potato on the side of the glasses…!” said Nucky shamelessly.

“ Do you think that’s funny?”?” protested Freddy Fenian angrily at  Don Barsini’s henchman.

“You think its funny that our Catholic President was assassinated do you?” wailed red haired Banshee, Connie O’Mara.

“I do actually….take a shot…said his fellow Italian Mobster,  Hitman Tomaso Hearns offering a tray of WKD drinks around …..everyone else in this room did bar Lee Harvey Oswald did….!”  

“I heard the Mafia were responsible for his death!” said Freddy angrily.

“ The funny part is just like THESE shots it was on Don Barsini’s orders!” replied Tomaso completely stone-faced.

“Why would HE order it?” asked Freddy sceptically.

“Back in the day, the Boss had a big crush on Marilyn Monroe….she rejected him for JFK and he had the pair disposed of…..he came to Merthyr to hide away until the ‘heat’ went away….back in the day it was much easier to get away with murder….no DNA or science….all you had to do was get someone drunk….force feed them barbiturates….and leave an empty pill bottle at the scene and you could just snuff them out like a candle in the wind….!” Continued Tomaso.

“Now you have to be OJ Simpson to get away with it!”  

“Gimme a half a Bass and Half a Guinness….I think they call it a Black N Tan!” said Nucky provocatively.

“Now you have gone TOO far!” snarled Irishman Kerry Gold.

As the bridge of Nucky’s nose exploded in the impact, the Mobster found out why Kerry Gold was Eire’s number one butter.

He responded by flicking a stiletto switch-knife blade and stabbing it deep into the much taller man’s thigh- leaving him doing an impression of ‘River Dance’.

It was a bit below the Celt.

Irishman Barney Stone, who had done most of the talking up to that point, smashed an empty tall ice-a-cream dessert glass on the edge of the bar and stuck into Nucky’s face.

“ Sundae, Bloody, Sundae!” said Freddy Fenian rolling up his sleeves excitedly and punching anyone that had a ‘funny tinge’ or did not have ginger hair.

A Mexican Wave of violence engulfed the hall like a Four Tops Concert at Ebbw Vale Leisure Centre in the 1980’s, as they all went ‘Loco in Acapulco’.

Thankfully, The Don had ordered all guns to be banned on the day.

But he hadn’t figured on the Irish contingent having a consignment of ‘WMD’ to go with their consignment of WKD.

Iraq and Ireland sound very similar to a North African Dictator’s postal service.

Pointing a hand held Libyan made pocket rocket launcher (known as ‘Gaddafi Duck’)  at the bleeding remains of Nucky Thompson- Dubliner, Clontarf O’ Shannon , fired off a missile which blew off the side of the Gangster’s head and sent the remainder of him out through two sets of windows- that of the club and that of the Roman Catholic Church’s stained glass one- smashing lots of pews in the church as he went- with him finally coming to rest in the confession box.

It was a real Weapon of ‘Mass’ Destruction.

It initially shocked the poor Priest, Johnny Logan (named after a counterfeit condom that broke on re-use) but he soon recovered his composure and asked:

“ Can I help you my son?”-

As he did so he pushed his rosary crucifix through the wire grill to dislodge a charred body part.

There was no reply.

“What’s another ear?”. He said to himself.

Back in the hall, the mass brawl had smashed their way out into the street and grey smoke was billowing out of the place- like someone had just elected a new Pope.

Picking a crucifix off the wall, Bride Lucia Barsini slugged the closest of her new Gaelic relatives off his feet.

After all it was her Wedding and she shouldn’t be upstaged by the bridesmaids, who were busy kick- boxing the Priest.

She continued up the Hall waving the wooden weapon at all before her, like Professor Abraham Van Helsing in a Dracula movie, muttering ‘Don’t get cross… get even’ as she went.

A former Eurovision TV Presenter was rolling around the floor with Gangster’s Moll, Bacardi Breeza, who was clawing at his eyes with her manicured nails and pulling chunks out of his hair.

He was soon transformed from Terry Wogan to Tear-yah wig-off.

Who screamed at Don Barsini: “I was told that a Mafia Don couldn’t refuse a request on the day of his daughter’s wedding….any chance of granting a ceasefire?”

An anonymous phone-call was made to the Dowlais Police Station by one of the local residents, but they hung up as soon as they heard of the location of the riot.

They did however offer a crime number.

Don Barsini during the entire event sat at the top table completely unfazed, laughing at the now bald Wogan.

He had seen it all before.

He got up, placed his expensive designer coat over his shoulders and slowly walked out of the place.

As he tossed a bundle of crisp notes totalling a Thousand Pounds towards the bleeding Bar Steward John Smith Cooper as recompense, silver tipped cane in hand he sighed deeply.

Even he could agree with the Irish Family, that it was a ‘Grand Wedding’.

But this was just a taster.

An appetiser.

After all next year, his son was marrying available again ISIS Widow,  Sharmeena Begum. 

VOICES FROM WALES – THIRTY-ONE OF FIFTY-TWO, AUNTY MAGS - PART ONE

Margaret Lee is 89 years old, lives in Newcastle Emlyn but to her core is a Carmarthen girl, St Peter’s girl born in Priory Street.

Her recall of her young life growing up in Carmarthen and her knowledge of families is legendary and unsurpassable. She is one in a million, as they say.

In the video she sits with Andy, her first cousin’s son and browses through the Carmarthen Facebook page, giving a glimpse into the social history of the town and her family.

At the start of the First World War in 1914, society in Britain remained much as it had always been since the beginning of the twentieth century.  Britain was rigidly class ridden, between the aristocracy. The middle classes who formed the professional and blue collar workers, doctors, lawyers teachers and scientists etc.

Then there were the working classes – manual and factory workers, miners iron foundry workers, dock workers and those who maintained the roads and the railways.  Generally, these were the men who maintained the fabric of society.  Skilled and semi-skilled workers who earned a living in the heavy industries with their hands and their strength.

Working class women and girls were mainly wives and mothers. Young, single women were employed in a selection of menial low paid work, in service working in middle class homes, dressmaking or shop work. Once married they were expected to look after their husbands and large families. Birth control was not generally used. It was common for families of ten or more children to live in one very small terraced house.  

The practice of providing hot baths for husbands and sons who would be coated in coal dust at the end of their shift a few times a day affected the health of many women who also cooked and cleaned and provided for the poor quality of life lived by thousands of women and their families who lived in the South Wales valleys.

From the early part of the 20th century there was controversy over the provision on pithead baths which would enable the miners to bathe and wear clean clothes at the end of their shift.  This would alleviate some of the strain on the women at home who daily provided this facilty.

Some companies did not wish to install bathing facilities.  Sometimes the miners paid for them out of small weekly donations from their wages.  Gradually throughout the twenties and thirties pithead baths became almost universal.

Nationally the self confidence of the female population expressed itself through the fashions they wore. Gone were the elaborate dresses of the Edwardian era.  Clothes became more functional and practical as can be seen in this illustration of 1914.

Skirts were ankle length matched with jackets which reflected a more tailored style. Hats were still popular some were trimmed with feathers but a plainer, brimmed style was also popular.

The outbreak of war in 1914 meant that the demand for female labour to fill the millions of jobs left vacant by men joining the military forces finally forced the government to consider women for jobs traditionally filled by men.  This became a national necessity which affected professional and working class women. Posters illustrating the recruitment of female labour became a commonplace feature of life.                    

Such posters appealing to recruit women into the nursing professions into the Land Army encouraged thousands of women to leave a very stifled domestic influence and seek jobs in the professions, factories, agriculture and every job filled by a man, with the exception of mining and active military service.  They started find their independence!  

Slowly fashionable women’s clothes also mirrored the practical uniforms which women were forced to wear in jobs such as the munitions factories in which thousands of them were conscripted to work in providing explosives for the military efforts of WW1 along the Western front and other theatres of war.

The Women’s Land Army recruited 23,000 women to work agriculture, in order to provide the country with food and look after the land in the absence of male labour. 

Women were encouraged to join the land army in order to keep agriculture going.  The need to feed the military and the civilian population and to fill the jobs that millions of men had left in order to volunteer or later to be conscripted for the military was vital for the survival of the country.

Drawing at the top of this page by John Peacock from his book Fashion Since 1900: The Complete Sourcebook (Thames & Hudson 2007).

'Into the Woods' is the follow-up to SERA's acclaimed 'Rabbit Hole' single which was released in June to acclaimed reviews, and extensive radio support. 'Into The Woods' is a continuation on the theme of twisted fairytales, and will be released digitally via CEG Records / Pyst Distribution on the 4th of October.

'Into the Woods' is a response to the reoccurring plot-line in stories and films, where women are often chased into the woods by bad men, pursued by monsters or face great peril amongst the trees. Into the Woods instead becomes a place to grow, gain strength and face your fears. SERA's new songs will continue to follow in this theme of the mythic-surreal rooted in very real experiences. The track is taken from SERA's collection of songs for 2019 and from her new collaboration with producer Andi Bonsai.

SERA hails from Caernarfon in North Wales and is a busy bilingual (Welsh and English) performer and songwriter, part of the CEG Records family. Earlier this year SERA was selected as a part of BBC Horizons programme, in which the BBC back a dozen of the freshest acts in Wales and provide them with festival showcases and industry opportunites.

Read More about SERA on BBC Horizons/Gorwelion Here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/profiles/ncQVrLc42RKXRWlrspzP67/sera 

In addition to great support from Welsh media and festival such as BBC Radio Wales/ Radio Cymru, S4C and Focus Wales, support for SERA's music has come from Chris Hawkins BBC 6 Music, Claire Blading BBC Radio 2, Janice Long, Lisa Gwilym, Bethan Elfyn & Adam Walton BBC Radio Wales, BBC specialist shows, North American Festival of Wales, 'How the Light Gets in' Festival, Festival Number 6, Henley Festival and more and continues to grow....

For all social media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Youtube, Soundcloud) go to @serasongs

Live Dates/Dyddiadau Byw
Sept 15th - Fresh on the Net Showcase, Edinburgh
Sept 24th - Live Session - Ysgol Syr Hugh Owen (Arts Council Funded)
Sept 26 - BBC Music Day - Wynne Evans Show - BBC Radio Wales
Sept 27 - Freshers Week, Cardiff
Sept 28th - Clwb y Bont, Pontypridd
Oct 4th - New Single 'Into The Woods' Release Date  

'Into The Woods' i'w sengl newydd SERA yn dilyn 'Rabbit Hole' a nath gael clod arithrol gan y wasg a cymorth helaeth gan radio, yn cynnwys Chris Hawkins, BBC 6 Music. Bydd caneuon newydd SERA yn parhau i ddilyn yn y thema hon o'r swreal-chwedlonol sydd wedi'i gwreiddio mewn profiadau go iawn, a fydd yn cael ei rhyddhau yn ddigidol drwy CEG Records / Pyst ar y 4ydd o Hydref.

Mae SERA yn hanu o Gaernarfon yng Ngogledd Cymru ac mae'n berfformiwr a chyfansoddwr caneuon prysur dwyieithog (Cymraeg a Saesneg) ac yn rhan o deulu CEG Records. Yn gynharach yn 2019 nath SERA cael ei dewis i fod yn rhan o umgyrch BBC Gorwelion/Horizons 12, lle mae'r BBC yn cefnogi 12 artist mwya ffres Cymru a rhoi cyfle iddynt chware lwyfannau newydd. Ma'r trac yn cael ei gymerid o gasgliad o ganeuon gan SERA am 2019 ac o gyd-weithio a'r cynhyrchydd Andi Bonsai.

Darllen mwy ynglyn a SERA a BBC Gorwelion/Horizons fan hyn:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/profiles/ncQVrLc42RKXRWlrspzP67/sera

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The most comprehensive study of Wales’ maritime history ever commissioned, taking over a decade to research and produce – sees publication this week. Entitled  Wales  and the Sea: 10,000 years of Welsh Maritime History , the volume delves into every aspect of Wales’ connection with the sea, from earliest history to the present day: from archaeology to paintings and poetry, from naval history to seaside holidays. 

The volume was commissioned by the Royal Commission on Ancient & Historical Monuments of Wales working in partnership with the National Library of Wales, CADW, Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum of Wales, and is written by some of Wales’s foremost historians and archaeologists.  Wales and the Sea  contains archive photographs drawn largely from the vast collections of the National Monuments Record of Wales, the National Library of Wales and the National  Museum of Wales, but also from libraries across the world. 

Archaeological finds from Wales – including Bronze-Age boats, Roman ships and their cargoes, the medieval Newport ship and the seventeenth-century royal yacht  Mary  – all testify to the long history of Wales as a seafaring nation.  Wales and the Sea  brings to life the age of ocean-going liners, the cable-laying ships that connected Wales to the rest of the world, the pleasure steamers, racing yachts and the seaside piers as well as the busy docks that supplied Welsh slate, coal, iron and steel to the world. 

Heroes and villains from the book include the buccaneer Henry Morgan, the smuggler William Owen and the infamous Bartholomew Roberts, known as Black Bart, who is reputed to have captured 400 ships in a two-year period before eventually being shot by the Royal Navy in 1722. There are also figures such as the red-cloaked Jemima Niclas, who, armed with a pitchfork, famously helped to see off the last French invasion during the Battle of Fishguard on 24 February 1797. 

Beautifully illustrated with over 300 images, the 348-page large-format book also looks at the impact of the sea on the artistic imagination through naval paintings, seascapes, poetry, song and popular seaside souvenirs. It aims to raise the profile of the Wales’ maritime heritage in the public consciousness and celebrates the hard work of those who safeguard  this legacy for the nation, through recording, site protection and museum curation. 

In his foreword, Dafydd Elis-Thomas, Welsh Assembly Minister for Culture, Tourism and Sport, congratulates the contributors to  Wales and the Sea  for “reminding us that Wales has a proud maritime history” and that the Welsh seas cover a greater area than our land area (marine area 32,000km² / land area 20,375 km²). 

“ Wales and the Sea  is an incredibly comprehensive and accessible history of every aspect of Wales’ connection with the sea, from the creation of land mass to the present day,” says Nicola Roberts, Public Engagement Officer at the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales. 

Wales and the Sea  is rooted in scholarship but written to be enjoyed, and is packed with stories and pictures that remind us of the vital role that the sea has played in Wales’s distinctive history. 

Wales  and the Sea  will be launched at the National Waterfront Gallery in Swansea, at 2:30pm on Thursday 24 ^th  October 2019. For further details, please contact Nicola Roberts:  Nicola.roberts@rcahmw.gov.uk  

Wales  and the Sea  (£24.99, Y Lolfa) is available now (also available in Welsh-language version:  Cymru a’r Môr: 10,000 o flynyddoedd o Hanes y Môr )