Citizen Kane is Citizen Hain

Citizen Hain                                                        Citizen Kane


Are they related?

Roger Lewis, Jasper Rees, and Welsh Twrcu!

Cover of Richard Burton

I want to thank Roger Lewis (who in my invincible ignorance had not heard of) for his review of Jasper Lewis’s  (who I have heard of) “Bred of Heaven”. Incidentally I do not read the Daily “We love Mussles”Mail, if I can help it, and had not read Uncl Roger’s review of  Iaspr’s book, only the assorted blogposts associated with it. However I have got Jasper’s book and it is a very good read. Is this the theory of unintended consequences? A guy not only writes a scathing review  of a work but demonises a whole language, so that people go out and get the book?

There are those who defend Lewis’s attack under the guise of the freedom of speech.

You could not call Roger Lewis a racist, because he is Welsh, and identifies with the nation (I think).

You could call him a “Cymraegthrope”?  Surely language is a part of Being rather like skin color?

Surely a Welsh speaker who grew up speaking the language from infancy (rather like Richard Burton) to be told that something that is part of their being is like something that is strangled and dying, is inappropriate as Willy Rushton (dead) describing German as sounding like “someone being sick on a 747” or  P J O’Rourke’s comment about French being a “wimpy language”. these 2 are (were) humorists, whilst Lewis is something more serious.

when Welsh joins the Dodo in extinction only history can tell (along with English), certainly not Roger Lewis, jasper Rees, or even me.

You cannot hide this type of bigotry under the freedom of speech like the case where it is ok for the KKK to burn a cross on a African American’s lawn! just aint right.

I Am quite surprised to find that many of my customers know about Wales and even the “beautiful language” a far cry from a “turkey being strangled”. One of my older customers who asked where I was from, and said “Cardiff” told me that the Welsh language was a precious thing “and must be saved” brought tears to this monolingual Welshman. If we can save rare animals so we can save languages.

My daughter is learning Welsh, and when we were last in Wales when to Urdd camp at Llangrannog. What Welsh needs is LLangrannog’s all over Wales. Just as much in Monmouth as in Cardigan.

That is the challenge.

Related articles

• The Independent Newspaper - Defending The Indefensible (ansionnachfionn.com)

National Pilgrimage to St David's 2012

Image by bookish in north park via Flickr

In the Middle Ages people rarely travelled outside the confines of their own communities , the exceptions were for war, trade and pilgrimage. In Britain there were a numbers of places that were popular for pilgrimages. Canterbury (the tomb of St Thomas A Becket), Walsingham (a shrine dedicated to Our Lady and her home in Nazareth, and finally St David’s in Wales. And its St David’s shrine that I am interested in. in the 12th Century Pope Callistus proclaimed that “2 pilgrimages to St David’s equal one to Rome, and 3 equaled one to Jerusalem’. This made St David’s one of the most popular places of pilgrimage  and the least known. possibly because of the damage from the Reformation and the removal of the bishop’s residence to Camarthen, and the continuous protestantisation of Wales and its culture.

However that sad situation was reversed with the arrival of the Oxford Movement and the  Catholic revival in the Church in Wales, and folk started to go on pilgrimage again. In Wales Anglicans go to Walsingham and Penrhys to honour Our Lady, whilst Roman Catholics add Our Lady of the Taper (sic) in Cardigan. Yet I have not heard of a formal pilgrimage to St David’s one of the most important places of pilgrimage in Europe in the Middle Ages.

What I would like to do next year is to see a walking pilgrimage to St David’s next year very similar to those ones that go to Santiago De Compostella and Walsingham. I cannot see why this could not happen. It would be a great experience for all involved.

All we need is for it to happen.

If anyone would like to participate please contact me at michael.cridland@live.com or 00 620 339 1507. (mobile)

St Mary (Caerau) lives AKA Fr Victor Jones Heritage Center?

Some years ago my uncle purchased a redundant church from the Church in Wales (the former Parish church of Leckwith, Cardiff, St James) , he converted it into a house (quite common I understand)

In fact he converted it into 2 homes quite successfully. My thought about the former St Mary’s church, Caerau to save it for posterity, since Restoration by either Cardiff council, the Church in Wales or even in Dr Oliver Davis’s proposals (whatever they might be now).

I think the only chance to restore St Mary’s is for a private individual to purchase it, convert the bell tower into a private residence, and the nave back to its original state rather like St Teilo’s Church at the Museum of Welsh Life

This would take a bit of an effort, but I think it is feasible, and will save a rare church within the Cardiff area.


My uncle in fact had shown an interest in St Mary’s before he opted for Leckwith. Can this be done? A lot of ground work will be needed. However it is quite possible that a church with someone living in it might help with the anti social activity that haunts the area.

I would dedicate it the memory of Fr Victor Jones the giant inspiration in saving St Mary’s, and a great community leader of  Caerau.



Any contributions would be welcome.

CCFC, Swans. Welsh or Wenglish Teams

Image via Wikipedia

My family have been Cardiff City fans forever, and I am quite sure that 2 of my uncles  were probably present when they won the cup in 1927, and recently my cousin named his son with the the initials as CCFC. However my own parents who used to take me as a kid in the 1970s stopped going at the end of that decade. Why? Well my dad’s view that 2 things killed football in his eyes “money and violence”, and he transferred his allegiance to Snooker, Rugby, and Cricket. For him it ceased to be sport anymore. I wish the Swans good luck and still remember them as being the top team in Wales when City was dropping like that Whale in “Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy” to the 4th division (if memory serves me right). I think that true Cardiff fans would wish Swansea luck whilst only the fanatics (like all fanatics) would curse them. Its real time for those goof balls to grow up, its only a game. Personally speaking I think its time (and I am no frothy mouth nationalist) to make something of the FAW  and create our own premier league and cut out this crappy big money that destroying the sport both here and in the US. (or maybe I should say “Wales and the US” since its where I am at the present).



and talking of the state of sport in the US my favourite commemorator MSNBC’s Dylan Ratigan did a piece on it on his show some time ago on how it has become big just another way of making big money for big business and is why many hard core fans do not go to watch the sport because they cannot afford the tickets, its sad but true. Its time that sport went back into the hands of fans and players and out of the hands of big money and so called celebrity players. Just like the LA Dodgers who are owned by the people who go to watch them and not by some foreign tycoon.

The Welsh National party should take lessons from the SNP

It would be better (in my opinion) to go into the wilderness and meditate begin the business of rebuilding the party by growing your membership through ALL OF Wales. By making your presence as strong i the chip shop in Chepstow as well as the one in Bangor. Going into coalition is akin to marrying a Black Widow Spider it has already happened to Liberals who are paying the price for their black marriage. The WNP needs to learn from the SNP who are the only majority government in the UK. They have had no history of coalitions.

The wistful meanderings of an irrelevent bore

Looking at the state of my former country I sometimes despair. This last election most people could not even be bothered to vote, just like a US mid term election. So how Labour could claim they have a mandate to rule should baffle me, yet it does not, they still had the largest share of the votes. what I think should happen is instead of a coalition which consists of people who only work together because the have to and have no popular mandate, this should provide a great opportunity to have a proper system of checks and balances. i think it is right and proper for Labour to form the Executive, (they did win the largest share of the votes even though it was low) whilst the opposition parties provide proper scrutiny over governance as well as legislation. To be supportive when the Welsh Labour Government is right and to be corrective when they are wrong. it also means that the opposition parties have to work together and bury their differences on unimportant issues. to borrow a analogy from my former theological days there has to be a certain amount of ecumenism in Welsh politics.This could be a chance for Wales to be a trail blazer in a new type of cooperative politics that could lead the world. Or it could just be the same old crap. Yet who am I? Mr Darren Hill of referendum campaign fame called be a “irrelenvent bore” perhaps I am, but I am someone and there are quite a few someones in Wales who feel the same, its time for those someones to stand up!