Tribute to first Plaid MP finally unveiled
AN ambitious plan to erect a statue of Gwynfor Evans at the site of his by-election triumph 50 years ago which made him Plaid Cymru’s first MP had to be abandoned, partly because it was too costly.
Instead, a bas-relief based on an iconic photograph of the former Plaid president waving to a crowd of his supporters was unveiled in Carmarthen’s Guildhall Square last week.
Plaid’s first parliamentary victory in July 1966 came more than 40 years after the party was launched by the writer Saunders Lewis and others.
It was a further 33 years before the National Assembly was set up and another eight before Plaid entered government as junior partner in the One Wales coalition with Labour.
Former BBC journalist-turnedCarmarthenshire county councillor Alun Lenny sat on the working group which decided how best to commemorate the achievements of Gwynfor Evans, who represented Carmarthen at Westminster from 1966 until 1970, and from 1974 until 1979, and died aged 92 in 2005.
He said: “We started discussing it around three years ago. There were a number of options, but the startingpoint was a statue. When we started looking into the feasibility of what could be done a number of issues arose.
“It would cost about £100,000 to get a bronze statue, which is a great deal of money. There may also have been problems getting planning permission: there are already quite a lot of statues and memorials in Carmarthen, so getting an appropriate spot wasn’t easy. We decided the best option was a bas-relief plaque in Guildhall Square.
“It’s based on a photograph of Gwynfor waving to the crowd after his general election victory in October 1974, taken by my old friend and former colleague Ken Davies, who sadly died earlier this year.”
There are hopes that when S4C moves its headquarters to Carmarthen in two years’ time a maquette, or mini-statue, of Gwynfor Evans will be displayed in the broadcaster’s reception area. Many believe it was the Plaid president’s threat to starve himself to death when Margaret Thatcher reneged on a pledge to fund a Welsh-language TV channel that forced a change of heart from her government.