The Welsh Love their Flag and their History

As the government sinks into the morass and there are more revelations of underhandedness and deception leading all the way up to the General Secretary of the Labour Party, and we hear the pleadings of ignorance of the rules and administrative forgetfulness, can we not wonder in amazement at the sheer effrontery and arrogance of the leaders of the "nation"? The "nation" is of course Britain which lays claim to being the nation of the Union, when in fact there are four nations which make up the Union, not one! These are England, Scotland, Wales and Cornwall (which was along with Wales subsumed into the British state centuries ago). Let us deal with historical facts, not historical manipulations and deceptions. Let us consider the history of the British Isles, as it actually was in its often sordid and turbulent reality, and not dwell on Britain and its conquests and campaigns, and educate our children in a history that is based on truth and not wishful thinking or outright dishonesty. There is only the actuality of events and not the interpretation of events, which varies according to one's beliefs or ideology. History should be taught, not according to interpretation, but according to actuality so that the truth may be known. The reason that there are so many disaffected Welsh men and women is that they were taught the wrong version of history and grew up believing it, and were not permitted to be aware of the true facts. Thus they grew up in the belief that they had a British identity and not a separate Welsh identity, and were discouraged from speaking their language or expressing their rich and vibrant culture. It is only now that many are becoming awakened - to the reality of who they are. Truth will out!

Prynhawn da (Good afternoon), Mr. Jones,

You might remember me as the American fellow with whom you debated a few months ago regarding "Britishness." I think the word in Cymraeg is "Brythonaidd." Anyway, at our local Cwrs Cymraeg (Welsh Language Course) the other night, some of my Cymry (Comrades) and I were talking about this Union Jack issue. Someone suggested incorporating Y Dddraig Goch (The Red Dragon) into the Union Jack. In response, I argued that if Cymru (Wales) is to be represented in the Union Jack, it would not be the dragon, but Saint David's Cross instead which would accompany Saint Andrew's Cross (Alban / Scotland) & Saint George's Cross (Lloegr / England).
The Red Dragon Flag of Wales is one of my favorite flags in the world. This is not only because of my fascination with Roman Britain and the Welsh language, but also just because it's just so darned beautiful visually. I guess I just think dragons look cool. Anyway, whenever our local Welsh-American orgainization is in a local festival or parade, we try to break out all the Welsh symbolism we can. So we use the dragon flag, St. Dave's Cross, leeks, daffodils, etc. It just so happens that the colors of St. Dave's Cross are similar to the colors of our local sports teams. At one festival, we even expanded our representation slightly beyond Wales and into the realm of Brythonic Celts by flying the Breton flag along with our Welsh ones. One man from Brittany was shocked & delighted by this.
Something just occured to me as I was writing this. Icons of Saint George often depict him slaying a dragon. I think he was a Greekophonic Roman soldier who was Christian before that became acceptable. I presume that the dragon in such a context is a symbol for Satan. Now that he is associated with England, however, I wondered if the dragon could be Wales -- like a symbol of Wales being conquered by England. If you Google images of St. George, you will see that sometimes the dragon is red (which makes me think of Wales), but sometimes it is green (which makes me think of Ireland -- which also has been dominated by England).

Just a few thoughts,
-- N. Rob Willis, Board Member, Saint David's Society of Pittsburgh, Inc.
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, U.S.A.

P.S.: I tried to reply to all, but my email provider seems not to be able to deal with more than 50 recipients in one transmission, so I only carbon copied to a small # of people on your list. I was hoping to kick ideas around with a lot of people at once, so if you feel like forwarding this to some or all of the parties who didn't receive this, feel free.