Ah this old language, how it gets its hooks into you! Isn’t it just wonderful that we had a chapel full of people last night, everyone of whom speaks fluent English, all enjoying a complicated mixture of song, banter, recital, competition and gossip in an ancient language which has survived against all the odds right next door to the home of the world’s international language.
We see a lot of written Welsh in our everyday lives, but in a dull secondary capacity alongside the English. Here the language was alive, with all its special resonances. Those of us who struggle to understand were offered some English to make sure we didn’t lose the plot completely, but there was no real attempt at bi-lingualism, and the evening was all the better for it.
The Welsh language is like a beautiful mountain that I know I will never conquer but which I love to see there on the horizon – O bydded i’r hen iaith barhau.
Here are a few photographs taken by Andy Brice with Will Theophilus’ camera. Although I knew most of the main participants there were one or two I didn’t, so would prefer someone else to list the credits.
Dick Turner
