Plaid leader Price praises writers as ‘inspirational’
PLAID Cymru leader Adam Price has praised two writers from Pembrokeshire for being central to his party’s purpose today.
In a lecture delivered last night at the Gwyl Bro Preseli cultural festival in Crymych, he singled out DJ Williams and Waldo Williams – both of who died in the 1970s – as figures who had inspired him to become a Welsh nationalist.
DJ Williams, a schoolteacher and novelist who lived for many years in Fishguard, was a founding member of Plaid Cymru who was one of three men jailed for setting fire to an RAF bombing school established despite protests in the Welsh language heartland of the Llyn peninsula.
Mr Price said: “DJ was quintessentially a man of his own square mile. Yet at the same time he had an unselfconscious confidence in his Welshness. Although he was more attuned than most to the sharp contrasts between the different parts of Wales, DJ saw the differences as enriching a wider unity.”
The Plaid leader quoted a passage written by DJ Williams which states: “[It] would be easy for me to succumb to the temptations to pontificate about the differences between south and north, difference in dialect, in temperament and character, as well as in the kind of humour and personal response which springs from those.
“But at bottom there is in Wales one nation, though it is of mixed blood like every other nation, with all the elements in its destiny and history, since the time before history, woven together into one colourful indissoluble pattern.”
Waldo Williams, one of Wales’ greatest 20th century poets, wrote a series of patriotic poems after the War Office proposed under the Labour Government in 1946 to take over 105 farms in the Preseli hills as a gun range.
“The plan was defeated after a massive campaign. Had it not been, said Mr Price, it would have been devastating for the local community and a “cruel blow” to the Welsh language.
Concluding his lecture, Mr Price said: “Why am I, as Plaid Cymru’s newly-elected leader, finding time to explore the stories of these two people?
“The answer is simple, but all the more important for that. It is because of the inspiration I find in their beliefs and, above all in their actions and the exemplary lives they led.
“My generation in Plaid Cymru has the opportunity, and the great responsibility, to lead our country to the national future that awaits us. That future will be one where we deploy our talents to build a selfconfident nation that can fulfil its potential and stand equally alongside the other countries of the British Isles.
“It must aspire, too, to find its vocation amongst the other nations of the European Union.
“That will become all the more pressing, in the event that the UK Government is allowed to turn its back on Europe.
“As we embark on the great task of forming a Plaid Cymru Government following the 2021 Assembly election, we will draw strength and energy by holding close the moral values that were lived and articulated by DJ Williams and Waldo Williams.
“They remain central to Plaid Cymru’s purpose today.”