It has taken 82 years for Plaid Cymru to gain recognition and credibility. It is now a potent force in Welsh politics. Meanwhile, I publish the following to show what our Cornish cousins are up against.
From the Western Daily News.
08:00 - 28 November 2007
When is someone going to put the Cornish in their place? Lately, they have been moaning because there are no TV news bulletins or local programmes in the Cornish language (which sounds like someone speaking Urdu with a mouth full of nails).The reason is obvious: so few people are fluent in it that it would be cheaper for any TV company to ring them individually and read the news down the phone.
But in their latest campaign nearly 1,000 Cornish have now signed a petition to Gordon Brown asking for a Cornish bank holiday to celebrate "St Piran's Day".
You may not be aware that this falls on March 5. You may not even be aware that there ever was a St Piran, either.
But across the Tamar he is revered not merely as the patron saint of tin miners (he is said, miraculously and improbably, to have discovered the smelting process) but of all Cornwall, and his name is enshrined in places like Perranzabuloe and Perranarwortha as well a host of other ridiculously named locations.
Start inquiring into his antecedents, however, and he turns out to be as bogus as all the other third and fourth division Cornish "saints" whose holy status pertains only within the county where they lived. Even the self-styled St Piran Trust is somewhat diffident.
"No one can state for sure who St Piran was, we can only sift for clues in documents written many years after his time" says its website. "In the past many writers have stated with confidence the facts of his ancestry. The St Piran Trust will not do this as our reasoning is that you should look at the clues and decide for yourself. Surely this is the magic of St Piran."
Surely this is also the flimsiest of excuses for the Cornish to take yet another day off work. Since there's not a tin miner left in Cornwall perhaps St Piran could change roles and become the patron saint of malingerers and the work-shy. Like the dozens of other Cornish "saints", from St Agnes to St Winnolls and including St Clether, St Erme, St Gluvias, St Michael Penkivel and St Veep, Piran is believed to be one of the early "missionaries" who arrived from Wales or Ireland to try to convert the locals - nowadays they would be described as incomers and studiously ignored - though my own theory, however, is that he was a one-legged swineherd from Neath who was looking for a less smelly job with no lifting involved.
IMPOSTORS, all of 'em. But probably very good at applying fake stigmata and the marks of the scourge, while pleading poverty, rattling the begging bowl, and becoming highly adept at living on handouts, thus setting an example that is followed in Cornwall to this day.
Cornwall is the homeland of the Cornish people and is also considered one of the six "Celtic nations" by many residents and scholars. Some inhabitants question the present constitutional status of Cornwall and a self-government movement seeks greater autonomy for the county.
From Wikipaedia. Alan in Dyfed
"The Nineteenth century saw a great Springtime of Nations as the revolutions of 1848 saw new countries created the length and breadth of Europe. In our world today we are now seeing our own Spring Awakening with people and cultures that have long been dormant and subdued asserting their right to exist, their right to dream." Adam Price MP
Clearly you are at the very least threatend by an independent cornwall, scared of another celtic nation, born well before the boundries of england, reherlising that england is full of biggots like yourself denying people their right to chosen identety.wether St Piran or a hobo discovered how to sucessfully extract tin, the point is that it originated on this side of the tamar, in Cornwall, this being our first recogniseable major industry brought huge wealth the whole of Britain. i take it that you wrote your article after visiting cornwall (The tourist trade also creating huge wealth, never to be seen to be spent back down here)and clearly recieving a negative vibe from people of celtic origin, well mate, dont be jealous because we really do have other folk to identify with or a certain unicness about ourselves.
ReplyDeleteMerryn Ynys
Aged 16
You are addressing the Western Daily News, where this article came from, not me as I am in sympathy with you!
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