Gorsedd of the Bards to honour football heroes
KEY members of Wales’ successful Euro 2016 campaign will be honoured by the Gorsedd of the Bards at the Anglesey National Eisteddfod later this year.
The inclusion of assistant manager Osian Roberts and Football Association of Wales head of communications Ian Gwyn Hughes follows controversy and protest at last year’s festival.
There was outcry in August when the Gorsedd failed to honour the Wales football team at the annual cultural festival.
The body – a separate entity to the National Eisteddfod itself – honours people from across Wales for their achievements and commitment to Wales, the Welsh language and their local communities.
The process of nominations for the Gorsedd closed last year months before Wales’ heroics in June.
But the debate was later inflamed by Archdruid Geraint Lloyd Owen who appeared to reject the idea of making a late exception for the national football team.
He was quoted by the BBC as saying: “If they can’t speak Welsh I don’t see how we can welcome them in because Welsh is the biggest, strongest weapon we have as a nation and without it we have nothing”.
Efforts to promote the Welsh language on the world stage during Euro 2016 will, however, be celebrated at the 2017 Eisteddfod held in Anglesey.
Osian Roberts was a key member of Chris Coleman’s coaching team last summer and memorably became the first person to speak Welsh at the finals of a European Football Championships when he took questions during press conferences broadcast around the world. FAW head of communications Ian Gwyn Hughes, from Cardiff, will be honoured for his endeavours to make the Welsh language a central feature of the association’s work – helping to give Wales and its language an international platform during the tournament in France. Other new members inducted into the Gorsedd during this year’s National Eisteddfod include rugby star George North. North was brought up in Anglesey, and was educated in Ysgol Bodedern, a stone’s throw from this year’s Eisteddfod Maes.
All new members enter the Gorsedd on the same level, irrespective of whether they are honoured into blue or green robes.
Those who have succeeded in the fields of law, science, sports, journalism, media, local or national activities become Honorary Druids and wear blue robes.
The Gorsedd honours those with green robes for their contribution to the arts.
Those who have succeeded in the Gorsedd examination or are eligible because of their degree in literature, music, drama or art, also receive the green robes, as will the winner of the Osborne Roberts Memorial Prize every year and the winners of the Urdd Crown and Chair.
Only the winners of the main competitions at the National Eisteddfod are honoured with White robes.
The Anglesey National Eisteddfod is held in Bodedern between August 4 and 12.