A controversy and a flood of passion

THE 1965 flooding of the Welsh-speaking village of Capel Celyn to create a reservoir to serve Liverpool is a landmark event in contemporary history which continues to reverberate today across Britain.

Yesterday's announcement that the UK government will lose powers to intervene on water policy in Wales has special resonance more than half a century after the village disappeared from sight.

The campaign against the flooding did not cement mass support in Wales for the nation to run its own affairs, as demonstrated by the rejection of devolution in the 1979 referendum.

But the sense that something precious was being lost that could not be replaced spread alarm deep through Wales. Dismay at the flooding of the Treweryn Valley may well have helped Plaid Cymru win its first MP in 1966.

Saunders Lewis had delivered his "Fate of the Language" radio address in 1962, in which he warned of the threat to Welsh, and Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg was formed that August.

There were many reasons why people who loved the language would look to the future with unease. Social changes throughout Britain were accelerating, the mass ownership of television brought English-language entertainment into Welsh-speaking households every evening, and economic factors drew young people away from heartland communities.

There were also causes to fear that branches of government did not understand what was at stake and that Welsh voices were not heard by those in power. The proposal to flood the valley appeared to justify all of these anxieties.

Those who worried that a way of life would vanish could point to the spectacle of a school and places of worship about to be immersed by a torrent of water. People who felt the British establishment did not comprehend Welsh concerns could cite the overwhelming oppo- sition of Welsh MPs as proof that the flooding was fundamentally undemocratic.

It was an apotheosis of the argument the status quo was untenable and that a new approach to championing and defending the language was needed. The bureaucrats and politicians behind the flooding provided campaigners with the ultimate case study for why they believed change had to come to Wales.

This coincided with the development of protest movements and civil rights campaigns throughout the world. Just as students and young people in Wales threw themselves into efforts to preserve the language, their international counterparts battled to secure freedom of expression, self-determination and equality.

This chapter of history will fascinate future generations because Wales' campaigners were not revolutionaries seeking to abandon the past, but people determined to protect and revive Wales' linguistic heritage by transforming the present. For many, these passions continue to burn strong and bright.