Blogs
How they celebrate St Davids Day in the USA and Canada
By Roy Norry:
"I n Wales we wear the daffodil to mark St Davids Day and we hold services and events, but not many realise that in America and Canada, ex-pats have lined up events in many regions and there are some great ideas amongst them."
read more here;- St David's Day USA
On 12th February 2007, a report by the National Trust revealed that more than 70% of the coastline in Wales is under threat from coastal erosion and flooding. The report, Shifting Shores, stated that the massive likely impact of global warming on the shape of Wales is that our coastline will be transformed beyond recognition if climate change is not halted.
However broadcaster and environmental campaigner, David Bellamy believes that to state that global warming is caused by man, is poppycock and that climate change is historically proved to run in cycles.
Born this day 1371, in Usk.
Elizabeth Mortimer, who was the great-granddaughter of Edward III. She is best known for her marriage to her first husband Sir Henry Percy (Hotspur), when she was eight and he fifteen.
Hotspur, one-time ally of Owain Glyndwr was killed at the Battle of Shrewsbury in 1403 fighting Edward IV, who had Hotspur's body quartered and delivered to Elizabeth, who had him buried in York Minster. Jane Seymour, Queen consort of Henry VII, was a descendant of Elizabeth and Elizabeth is represented as 'Kate, Lady Percy,' in Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part 1 and as 'Widow Percy' in Henry IV, Part 2.
Born this day 1843, in Llanelli
John Graham Chambers, who was a sportsman and newspaper editor, who devised the Queensbury Rules in 1865, which is a code of generally accepted rules in the sport of boxing that were publicly endorsed by John Douglas, 9th Marquess of Queensbury.
Born this day 1978, in Cardiff
Gethin Jones , television presenter, best known as a presenter on Blue Peter and Daybreak.
Born on this day 1788 in Llanpumsaint, Carmarthenshire.
William Williams - who was the MP whose speech on 10th March 1846 expressing his concerns as the state of education in Wales unwittingly culminated in the "Treachery of the Blue Books" and a furious backlash on himself personally.
In 1804 as a youth of sixteen and having had only a basic education, Williams set out from Carmarthenshire to seek his fortune in London. He began working in a cotton warehouse and soon built up his own business. He was elected MP for Coventry in 1835 and after losing the seat in 1847, he became MP for Lambeth in 1850.
Although he spent the whole of his adult life in England, he never forgot Wales or his native language. He deeply resented the squalid social conditions most of his compatriots were obliged to suffer and believed that if given education, the position of the masses in Wales would improve. It was this conviction that led him to persuade the Government to set up an inquiry into the state of education in Wales. However, the storm of controversy that followed was something that neither he nor anybody else could foresee.
William Williams was a generous benefactor to the village of his birth, paying for the building of a school in 1862. Then in 1863, he chaired the meeting that was instrumental in establishing a campaign for a University of Wales. William Williams died on 26 April 1865, after falling from his horse in Hyde Park, London.
Born on this day 1848 in Nant y glo, near Ebbw Vale.
Beriah Gwynfe Evans - journalist, Congregationalist, dramatist, Liberal politician, Welsh Nationalist and a member of the Gorsedd.
Initially, a teacher, in 1891, Evans switched to a career in journalism with the South Wales Daily News in Cardiff, whilst also editing Welsh items in the South Wales Weekly News and the Cardiff Times. In 1892, he moved to Caernarfon to become managing editor of the Welsh National Press Co and in 1917 he became editor of the Congregationalist weekly Y Tyst.
Politically, Beriah Evans was an ally of David Lloyd George, an active member of Cymru Fydd and in his final years, joined the newly formed Plaid Cymru.
HOW OFTEN ARE YOU WELSH??
Lets show our HWYL on St. Davids Day at Mohegan Sun Arena in Wilkes-Barre, Friday, March 1 st where we will be celebrating Welsh Heritage Night sponsored by the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins Ice Hockey Team and The Welsh Cultural Endeavor of Northeastern Pennsylvania .
~You wont want to miss this first ever-held AHL event ~
Welsh Heritage Night On Ice With The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins
Our rousing Penguins will host esteemed rivals the Hershey Bears at 7:05 PM. This will be a fundraiser for the benefit of future Welsh events where we Welsh will receive $4 for each ticket sold. The added benefit to you will be a free voucher for a hotdog, bag of chips, soda, and an official Penguins hat. This is a win-win for everyone, but you must call and order your tickets from Chris Sipsky at 570-970-3607 to get this deal, and mention the Welsh event. Tickets are selling fast so dont wait! Prices are $18 - $21 - $23.
Juggling the lambing season with the launch of her new novel, Tia Jones is a busy hill farmer and mother of four from Montgomeryshire.
Set in two rural communities on each side of the Irish Sea, The Moss Gatherers is Tia Joness long-awaited sequel to On Open Ground published by Gomer in 2008.
Shaped by marginal land between sea and mountain, history and folklore still persist in the lives of Richard, Bethan and Simon. Bethan seems a long way away from T Coch, the family farm where she grew up, and where her eldest brother, Richard, continues to toil. She has been swept across the sea to Ireland by her exciting marriage to Malcolm OConnor, the race-horse trainer who is as full of intrigue as he is of charm.
Unbeknown to Bethan, however, there is an insult to be avenged and when she is visited by Simon, a desperate series of events is set in motion and, as so often before in the real and imagined past, it is the Irish Sea itself which will have the final say. And all the while, the moss gatherers are at work
It was the authors grandmother who first alerted her to the importance of moss gathering as she had set up regular moss collections for the British Red Cross. As the novel explains, the Red Cross worked with the Department of Health during the Second World War to produce dressings that were made from moss and this eventually led to a substantial saving in the use of cotton wool.
Tia Jones lives and works with her husband on their organic hill farm in Montgomeryshire. She has written for television and radio, and regularly contributes to newspapers and popular magazines as a freelance writer.
The Moss Gatherers is available from
all good bookshops and online retailers.
For more information, please visit www.gomer.co.uk
Welsh writer and 2012 West Coast Eisteddfod Online Short Story Competition winner Thomas Morris
Thomas Morris is from Caerphilly, South Wales. He has previously published short fiction in The Irish Times, The Moth, and Icarus, and has won first prize in both The Undercurrents Short Story Competition and the West Coast Eisteddfod. In 2012, he received an Emerging Artist Bursary from the Arts Council of Ireland.
Currently enrolled in the Creative Writing MA at the University of East Anglia, Thomas is working on a collection of short stories set in Caerphilly, and a novel, Second Best: The Diaries of a Substitute Goalkeeper. He is also a fiction editor with The Stinging Fly, a magazine and small press based in Dublin.
'Terramuni', which features here, is an extract from his as-yet-unpublished novella, 'As If I'm Standing In The Garden':-
Is she done yet?
I turn to answer; her head framed by Gareths living room window. The curtains are closed so you cant see anything, but you can still hear the music.
Is who duh-duh-done what?
The entertainment, I mean. Is she finished? She looks at the cake Im still holding.
I the word dunno gets stuck in my teeth. The done caught me out just there, and now Ive got a block on Ds again. I take a quick, shallow breath and decide to bounce off the first word.
I-think so, I say.
Whad you mean you think so? she says straight back, like she was at the net, waiting to volley the word right back at me.
Someones . . . I take another sharp breath to avoid stuttering. Someones-taken-her-stethoscope.
Fucks sake, the girl says, getting off the wall and heading to the front door.
Then she looks at me one more time. I dunno whats the matter with you fuckin boys, but you have to keep stealing the fuckin stethoscope dun you?
Im sorry, I say.
And thats all I can think.
Also featuring 'Aston Villa Baby':-
The baby was born in a full Aston Villa football kit. That is to say it came out of the womb like that. In a full football kit. How did it get there?
The doctors were mystified. Nothing in the ultrascans indicated such an abnormality. And it didnt make much sense to the parents either. None of them even supported Aston Villa.
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Eto specializes in Welsh fiction by Welsh writers and persons of Welsh descent from around the globe. We will also be featuring poetry, literary reviews and interviews. Visual arts and photography features will also be considered.
Sponsoring websites:- Kindle Authors AmeriCymru
Contact the editors Phil Rowlands Ceri Shaw Gaabriel Becket ( or use the contact form on this page ) Now accepting submissions for our 2nd Issue ( September 2013 )
To enter the 2013 West Coast Eisteddfod Online Short Story Competition please go here :- West Coast Eisteddfod 2013 Online Short Story Competition
Born this day 1934, in Blackheath (daughter of Welsh parents)
Mary Quant fashion designer and icon, who has been immortalised as the originator of the mini skirt and whose work has come to epitomise the 60's fashion era.
Born this day 1882, in Llandinam
Gwendoline Davies, philanthropist and patron of the arts who, together with her sister Margaret created a vast collection of art, whisc they donated to what is now the National Museum of Wales.
Born this day 1914, in Swansea.
Mervyn Levy , who was an artist, art dealer, writer and critic, best known for his association and lifelong friendship with Dylan Thomas, both of whom were members of the group of bohemian friends known as the Kardomah Gang. Painting of Mervyn Levy is by fellow Kardomah Gang member, Alfred Janes.
In February 1959, the flag currently in use was officially recognised as the Welsh national flag. The flag incorporates the Red Dragon of Cadwaladr, King of Gwynedd from c.655 to 682, along with the Tudor colours of green and white.
A history of the Welsh Flag;
* It is thought that the Romans brought the dragon emblem to what is now Wales in the form of the Draco standards carried by Roman cavalry units. The Draco itself originated with the Sarmatians, a unit of whom were stationed in Britain from the 2nd to 4th centuries.
* The red dragon is popularly believed to have been the battle standard of king Arthur.
* The oldest known use of the dragon to represent Wales is from the Historia Brittonum,written around 830
* The red dragon is popularly believed to have been the battle standard of King Arthur.
* In 1400 Owain Glyndwr raised the dragon standard during his rebellion.
* It was used by Henry VII at the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485 and the red dragon was then included in the Tudor royal arms.
* In February 1959, the flag currently in use was officially recognised as the Welsh national flag at the urging of the Gorsedd of Bards.
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On 10th February 1557, Robert Recorde was imprisioned. He is best known for introducing the equals sign = and the plus sign + into mathematics.
Robert Recorde, was a physician and mathematician, born in Tenby. He is best known for introducing the equals sign = and the plus sign + into mathematics in his textbook "The Whetstone of Witte" published in 1557.
Recorde graduated from Oxford University in 1531 and in 1545 he moved to London where he practised medicine. In 1549, he was appointed controller of the Bristol mint, where he refused to give money to Sir William Herbert, who was governor to the young king Edward VI. In 1551 Recorde was appointed by the King to be general surveyor of the mines and monies in Ireland and in this capacity he was in charge of silver mines in Wexford and technical supervisor of the Dublin mint.
On his return in 1953, he attempted to regain his court position, by charging Herbert with misconduct, this was a misjudgement as Recorde, who was a supporter of the Reformation was unlikely to get a positive result against someone so close to the Catholic Queen Mary. Herbert countered Recorde's charges by successfully suing him for libel and Recorde was ordered to pay Herbert £1000 which he could not pay and was therefore sent to prison, where he died in 1558.
On 10th February 1722, Black Bart (Barti Ddu) the pirate was killed by grapeshot.
Barti Ddu, born John Roberts in Little Newcastle, near Fishguard in about 1682, was one of the most successful and the last great pirate of the Golden Age of piracy. He was responsible for the capture of over 400 ships and over 50 million pounds of loot during his career. He encouraged prayer, drank a lot of tea and forbade the drinking of alcohol and gambling. His preferred attire was rich crimson waistcoat and breeches, a hat with a red feather and a diamond cross hanging from his neck. His success was due to his organization, charisma and daring. He was also responsible for introducing the pirate code, which crew members had to swear on a Bible to uphold:
In 1719, while working as a third mate on the British slaver Princess, he was captured to be a forced hand by noted pirate Howell Davies and after Davies was killed he was elected captain by his fellow pirates. At the height of his power, he had a fleet of four ships and hundreds of pirates under his command. His legendary 30-month career then took him to the West Indies, New England, Newfoundland and Liberia, before coming to an end on February 10, 1722, when the warship HMS Swallow caught up with him off the coast of Cape Lopez (now Gabon) and he was killed by grapeshot. His crew threw his body overboard as he had requested.
On 10th February 1056, Gruffydd ap Llywelyn defeated an English army at Glasbury and claimed sovereignty over the whole of Wales.
Gruffydd ap Llywelyn (c. 1007–1063 or 1064) was the son of Llywelyn ap Seisyll, King of Gwynedd and Deheubarth, who claimed descendency from Hywel Dda.
According to an early story, Gruffydd was watching a cook boiling pieces of beef in a cauldron. The cook was complaining that there was one piece of meat which kept coming to the top of the cauldron, however often it was thrust down and Gruffydd apparently took this, as applying to himself, and thus began his rise to power.
1023 On the death of Grufydd's father, Iago ab Idwal ap Meurig became ruler of Gwynedd.
1039 King Iago was killed and Gruffydd, who had already conquered Powys regained the rule of Gwynedd. Soon after gaining power, he totally defeated a Mercian army at Rhyd y Groes near Welshpool.
1041 Gruffydd defeated Hywel of Dyfed at the Battle of Pencader
1044 Hywel returned with a Danish fleet to try to reclaim his kingdom, but Gruffydd defeated and killed him.
1047 Gruffydd ap Rhyderch of Gwent expelled Gruffydd ap Llywelyn from Deheubarth.
1052 Gruffydd ap Llywelyn was active on the Welsh border, he attacked Herefordshire and defeated a mixed force of Normans and English near Leominster.
1055 Gruffydd ap Llywelyn killed Gruffydd ap Rhydderch and recaptured Deheubarth. He then allied himself with Aelgar of Mercia and they marched on Hereford, defeating the force of the Earl of Hereford, Ralph the Timid, sacking the city and destroying its castle. Gruffydd was also able to seize Morganwg and Gwent, along with extensive territories along the border with England.
1056 He won another victory ovner an English army near Glasbury
1062 Harold Godwinson obtained Edward the Confessor's approval for a surprise attack on Gruffydd's court at Rhuddlan, Grufydd was nearly captured but escaped out to sea.
1063 Harold's brother Tostig led an army into north Wales while Harold led a fleet to meet up with him. Gruffydd was forced to take refuge in Snowdonia, and according to the Ulster Chronicle he was killed by Cynan ap Iago, son of Iago ab Idwal whom Grufydd had killed in 1039. Gruffydd's head along with the figurehead of his ship was then sent to Harold.
Following Gruffydd's death, Harold married his widow Ealdgyth and his realm was divided back into the traditional kingdoms.
Pembroke Dock ( Doc Penfro) lies north of Pembroke on the River Cleddau. It was originally a small fishing village known as Paterchurch.
1814 - The construction of a Royal Naval Dockyard was to signal a great expansion for the town.
1816 (10th February), the first two ships were launched from the dockyard – HMS Valorous and HMS Ariadne. Over the span of 112 years, five Royal Yachts were to be built, along with 263 other Royal Navy vessels.
1844 - As the dockyard grew, work began to build defensible barracks, which were first occupied by the Royal Marines.
1849 - 1857 - Two Martello towers of dressed Portland stone were constructed at the dockyard.
1925 - The Royal Dockyards were made redundant, which greatly added to high unemployment through the Great Depression.
1931 - The Royal Air Force made a base at Pembroke Dock.
1940 - During the Second World War, Pembroke Dock was targeted by the Luftwaffe, who bombed a series of oil tanks sited at Pennar. The fire lasted for 18 days and was recorded as the largest UK conflagration since the Great Fire of London.
1943 - Pembroke Dock was used to house the Sunderland flying boats and became the largest flying boat base in the world. Following the war the town enjoyed a degree of prosperity;
1957 - It was announced that the RAF would be drastically reducing its presence and a few years later the final British Army regiment also left the town.
1979 - Irish Ferries opened a ferry terminal, connecting to Rosslare, Ireland.
Born on this day 1889 in Cardiff.
Howard Spring - author and journalist. His most successful novel was "Fame is the Spur", which has been adapted into both a film and a television series.
Spring's father died when he was still at school and from the age of twelve he was forced to find work to help his family make ends meet. He worked as a butcher's errand boy and an accountant's office-boy, before becoming a messenger boy at the South Wales Daily News, where he taught himself shorthand and went to night school to enable him to become a reporter. He found work as a reporter for the Yorkshire Observer and the Manchester Guardian, where he reported on the First World War, whilst also working for the Intelligence Department in France. In 1930 Spring joined the Evening Standard, replacing J.B. Priestley as the newspaper's book reviewer and it was at this time that he started writing his series of best-selling novels.
Born on this day 1905 in Alltwen, near Pontardawe.
Rachel Thomas - film and television actress, best remembered for her role as a miner's wife in the film "Proud Valley".
In 1968 she starred in the television version of How Green Was My Valley and in 1971 appeared in the film version of Under Milk Wood, with Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. She was also a mainstay of Pobl y Cwm, the BBC Wales television soap opera.
30 miners were killed In a mining accident at Morfa Colliery, Port Talbot on 10th February 1870.
It is Saturday evening and Wales have apparently saved their reputation on the 6 nations rugby competition which I managed to miss by not switching the television on! The news channels are reporting large amounts of snow across America, something I should have warned my sister about when she decided to fly from the USA to Wales near to my birthday.. But she has a couple of days to let everything sort itself out. It is cool but wet here in Llanelli, but there are chances for more snow across parts of the United Kingdom in the next couple of days.
There is a lot of snow in the States... There will be large areas of Great Britain covered with white stuff over the next few days.. but how much ??? I really do not know !!
It is not that I have not been listening to the succession of weather reports. It is not that I have somehow not listened to radio reports. If I read newspapers, which I do not as they are a good example of that oxymoron (paper I will accept - but clearly devoid of anything that could be defined as news.!!) then it would not be because I had failed to assess the content of the text.. It is the loss of the common inch that confuses me. All the snow apparently is has gone European and now not only falls in flakes that never duplicate, but also now falls in amounts that can only be understood by those in the Eurozone.
It is bad enough that they want to take over the pound and drive us into the common currency - a task in which I feel that they will fail. But afterdecimalisationand the loss of good old LSD (pounds shilling and pence not Lysergic acid diethylamide) the half crown and the florin, we have managed for the most part to resist many of the incursions into pints, pounds and ounces.
But snow??? Surely it is acceptable for snow to fall in Britain in inches!! If it is thick it certainly should be in feet!! Listening to CNN on my satellite television I do not hear that snow is falling in yards !!! but in Metres!!
My favourite weatherman here tells me that there may be 10 centimetres of snow ... How much is that ?? More or less than a banana?? It means nothing and does not inspire me to put my wellies on or get a snow plough out.
Snow is cold. I have noted the geographical penchant to vary Celsius and Fahrenheit, seemingly a national trait here in the UK to refer to cold by Celsius "it is 2 degrees today" but look at the hot weather only in Fahrenheit "It is going to be in the low seventies today"... I understand this!!. We have a climate that does not "do" extremes. Therefore it is quite acceptable that we would prefer the "hot" weather sound hotter, and the cold weather less extreme....
But snow falls by a certain volume and lies at a certain height when still. Damn it !! If it is British Snow it should damn well fall in British quantities. And that means in Inches not in centimetres.
I do not know what a centimetre is in real money. I know I have looked up the conversion rate many times but it is not something that will stick in my brain. 16 degrees Celsius is about 60 degrees Fahrenheit. I can remember this. But there are no conversion from the centi-lies to inches that are exact without using those other foul calculations - the decimal point!! No good telling me that there are 2.54 centimetres to an inch.. How can that help? I know children for the last thirty years have used calculators where we used slide rule, and now probably have an "app" for it on their phone but for a simple soul, I would like to know that there will be up to 3 inches of snow ( take wellies ) 6 inches of snow (will need a shovel to get the car out) or a foot of snow ( stay in and have a cup of tea and watch television).
So, I know it is unlike me to have a rant, but surely it cannot be too much for British television and the news media in general to revert to a sensible measure.... sorry - I suppose I have just answered my question !!
So here are a few shots of snow at Furnace Quarry, nr Llanelli. I can tell you there were three inches of snow.. I measured it with my thumb, which I learned at school was three inches from tip to base...
The 9th February is the feast day of Saint Teilo (born c.500)
Reputed to be a cousin, friend and disciple of Saint David, he was bishop of Llandaff, where his tomb is and also founded a church at Llandeilo Fawr, as well as Penally Abbey, near Tenby, his probable place of birth.
St. Teilo was a great- grandson of King Ceredig of Ceredigion and from a young age, he studied under St. Paulinus of Wales at Wincdi Lantquendi (Whitland), it was here he met and befriended Dewi (St David) and along with fellow students Aeddan and Ysfael, they travelled to Mynyw (St. Davids) where Dewi founded his famous abbey. They were at first however harassed by an Irish pirate named Bwya, but they killed his cattle, burnt his fortress to the ground and ousted him.
Teilo, Dewi and Padarn are said to have travelled to Rome, where they were consecrated as bishops by the Pope. Teilo then succeeded St Dyfrig as Bishop of Glywysing & Gwent and is thought to have the Bishop's Seat to Llandeilo Fawr.
Then in 549 the great yellow plague swept through Wales, so Teilo took his surviving community through Devon and Cornwall to Brittany, where they were greeted by in Dol and from there they moved on to region of Cornouaille, which they saved from the ravages of a winged dragon and stayed for seven years before returning to Llandeilo Fawr. After the death of St. David, Teilo became known as one of the most holy men in Wales and he was joined at Llandeilo by many disciples: Teilo died at the Abbey of Llandeilo Fawr and it is thought Saint Euddogwy brought some of his relics to Llandaff cathedral some 200 years later.
On this day 1964 BBC Cymru Wales was launched, to provide a service specific for Wales
Other significant facts relating to BBC Cymru Wales;
13 February 1923 - The first broadcast in Wales, from the radio station 5WA,
The BBC's Bangor base played host to the BBC Variety Department during the Second World War, although this fact was never officially announced.
15 August 1952 - The first television signals in Wales came from the newly constructed Wenvoe transmitter.
1966 - BBC Cymru Wales opened it's new headquarters at Broadcasting House in Cardiff.
1970 - The first colour broadcast in Wales.
Born on this day 1847 in Carmarthen.
Hugh Price Hughes - One of the greatest preachers and social reformers of the second half of the nineteenth century.
Hughes was educated at University College London and the Wesleyan Theological College at Richmond. In 1885, he founded the Methodist Times and in 1896, he was elected first president of the National Free Church Council.
Hughes was a strong supporter of Gladstone's Irish Home Rule Bills but threatened to withdraw Nonconformist support from the Liberal Party over the Irish nationalist's leader Charles Stewart Parnell's affair with Katherine O'Shea. This led Gladstone to state that he could not remain as the Liberal's leader if Parnell continued to lead the Nationalists, thus precipitating the Parnell Split.
Born on this day 1903 in Llanelli.
Gipsy Daniels - Light heavyweight boxing champion of Britain who notably knocked out World Champion Max Schmeling in the first round of a 1928 encounter.
Daniels was a much travelled boxer, whothe American boxing manager Jimmy Johnston, decided to market as a gypsey with a brightly coloured bandana and curtain rings for ear-rings. Photographers and the press were then invited to meet Billy ‘Gipsy’ Daniels, King of the Gipsies, who had come from Wales to become the heavyweight World champion.
On 9th February 1963, the paramilitary Welsh nationalist organisation Mudiad Amddiffyn Cymru planted a bomb at the construction site of the Tryweryn Reservoir.
The organisation was founded in response to the flooding of the Afon Tryweryn valley and the village of Capel Celyn to provide water for Liverpool. The reservoir for the then Liverpool Corporation was passed by Parliament, even though not a single Welsh MP voted in favour.
The organisation remained active during the 1960's and on 30 June 1969, the evening before the investiture of Prince Charles at Caernarfon, two of its members Alwyn Jones and George Taylor, were killed when a bomb exploded prematurely.
