Mair Williams's blog

The FIFA mens World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams. The 2022 World Cup begins on 20th November in Qatar.  There are 32 nations that have qualified to play and the only Celtic team amongst them is Cymru/Wales. The tournament will conclude with the the final on December 18th. 

Snowdonia National Park Authority has voted to use the Welsh names Yr Wyddfa and Eryri rather than the English equivalent of Snowdon and Snowdonia. Yr Wyddfa is the highest mountain in Wales, and stands at 3,560 feet (1,085 metres) above sea level. Eryri is the mountainous region in northwestern Wales and a national park of 823 square miles (2,130 km2) in area in which Yr Wyddfa stands.

In 1965 a memorial chapel was built as a memorial to the drowned Welsh speaking village of Capel Celyn. Capel is Welsh for chapel, while celyn is Welsh for holly. The memorial chapel is now reopening after having conservation work undertaken. The work was carried out by Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water and began in July 2020. Capel Celyn was located to the north west of Bala in Gwynedd, in the Afon Tryweryn valley in the north of Wales.

The Soviet famine of 1932–33 killed millions of people in the major grain-producing areas of the Soviet Union. Ukraine, Northern Caucasus, the Volga Region, Kazakhstan, the South Urals, and West Siberia were included in the areas heavily impacted by the famine. In the Ukraine it is known as the Holodomor and it has been estimated that over 3 million died, with some suggesting the deaths could stand at over 7 milion. In Kazakhstan it is thought over 600,000 (15% of all Kazakhs) died.

Hundreds gathered at Llyn Celyn in Gwynedd, Wales on Saturday to protest against high house prices and second home ownership in Wales. It comes as local young people are being priced out of the property market and second home ownership reaches record highs in a number of parts of the country. This second and holiday home ownership in some areas is also undermining Welsh language communities. It was revealed this week that almost half of all homes sold in Dwyfor Meirionnydd during 2020/21 were to be used as a second home.

Saint Morwenna is a late 5th century early 6th century Celtic saint whose feast day is 8th July. She was born in Wales (Cymru) and is the brother of St. Nectan (c. 468 AD - c. 510 AD). Morwenna is the eponymous patron saint of Morwenstow (Cornish: Logmorwenna) in the north of Cornwall (Cornish: Kernow).  Morwenna is said to have been the daughter of Brychan Brycheiniog, a legendary 5th-century King of Brycheiniog which was an independent kingdom in the South of Wales in the Early Middle Ages.

The Welsh Government withdrew eligibility for Economic Resilience Fund support from shooting businesses for being “related to blood sports” last month. The Welsh Government’s £500 million Economic Resilience Fund was established to support businesses in dealing with the coronavirus outbreak. The decision to refuse to support shooting related businesses has predicably come under fire from British Association for Shooting and Conservation. They state that the Welsh Government has a “complete lack of understanding” of the importance of shooting to the Welsh economy.

Labour retained control of the Welsh parliament with the Party matching a previous election record by capturing 30 of the 60 seats in Senedd Cymru (Welsh Parliament). This is in stark contrast to the disastrous performance of Labour in England and continued decline in Scotland. Many have pointed out that the nations within Britain have developed very different voting patterns. This reflects genuine differences between them and the need for different economic and political  development.

Further to the article in Transceltic (28th April 2021) "Pressure for Snowdon to be known only by Welsh name Yr Wyddfa". Support is now growing for using only the Welsh names Yr Wyddfa instead of Wyddfa/Snowdon and Eryri instead of Eryri/Snowdonia.

Yr Wyddfa (Snowdon) is the highest mountain in Wales at 3,560ft (1,085m). The mountain is located in Parc Cenedlaethol Eryri (Snowdonia National Park).  A Gwynedd county councillor has put forward a motion that Snowdonia National Park authorities are asked to only refer to the mountain by its Welsh name  Yr Wyddfa rather than Snowdon, with Snowdonia only to be called Eryri.