Sing your Nationalism

On Tuesday 29/08/2017 this letter appeared in the 'Western Fail.' I ran to the word processor to write a reply. They didn't publish mine but you saw what happened last night after the fans finished singing 'Hen Wlad fy Nhadau'? Tom Woodburn scored.

Don’t link language and nationalism

"The debate on BBC’s Newsnight programme about the Welsh language has understandably led to much anger. However there have been other features in the English media which also need looking at.In June The Guardian published an article on the problems at Llangennech School. This article received the usual response from language campaigners, it also provoked a reply in that newspaper by Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett, a hysterical piece in which the author exaggerated the size and use of the Welsh Not and gave the impression that people who had any reservations about bilingual and Welsh-language education for English-speaking children were the dupes of English imperialism.There was also the appearance of Heledd Gwyndaf of Cymdeithas Yr Iaith Cymraeg on BBC’s Breakfast Time which used words like “colonisation” and “oppressor”.Linking the language to nationalism in the way that Ms Cosslett and Ms Gwyndaf have done will do neither it nor Welsh nationalism any good. If Welsh is seen as the language of nationalism, then the English-speaking unionist people of Wales will not show it any goodwill. And if Plaid Cymru is regarded as the party for Welsh speakers then its support among English speakers will decline and it will become even more of a regional political organisation in this country than it is at the moment." Gwyn Meredith Brynmawr

AND NOW ME

Mr Gwyn Meredith's letter in the Western Mail of Tuesday August 29th 2017 'Don't link language and nationalism' is doing just that.

Living in Brynmawr he will know what devastation the Industrial Revolution did to the area. Providing short term jobs and a living but at what cost? At the cost of the Welsh Language. Mr Meredith obviously sees Welsh as the language of nationalism because why would he reference 'Llangennech School' and its usual response from language campaigners in such a dismissive way.  To use the word 'hysterical' in describing a highly respected female Welsh journalist's piece in the Guardian is a low blow. One thing I am sure after reading his letter is that Mr Meredith is one of the English speaking unionist people of Wales and I'm sorry but I don't feel like showing him any goodwill in this letter. Come International Day Mr Meredith, will you be singing  'Hen Wlad fy Nhadau' in Welsh or yearning for the bygone years of the Industrial Revolution when the immigrants brought in to Wales with them, their English Language?  
The Shark Fisherman of Wales. Grangetown