Mair Williams's blog

News From Kernow Branch Celtic League

It is indeed sad to see on other Facebook sites including that of BBC Radio Cornwall, comments such as 'You are English, get over it' 'You should be grateful to the English' and so on often made in the most aggressive of tones.

The fact of the matter is that the Cornish people have now been recognised, are no better nor worse than anyone else including the English but are not English.

The official Government announcement is here:

August 2015 has seen a number of commemorations and the unveiling of a plaque to mark the 850th anniversary of the Battle of Crogen that took place in the Ceiriog Valley (Welsh: Dyffryn Ceiriogin) in north-east Wales. The Welsh in 1165 faced a determined Henry II of England who brought his full resources in order to conquer Wales once and for all.

NEWS FROM THE CELTIC LEAGUE

Militarism is very much to the fore these days throughout the UK and the Isle of Man. There’s a veritable ‘orgy of events’ taking place to commemorate the two world wars. Not content with remembering the very real sacrifices made by those particularly in WW 2 new memorial gardens have been opened in the UK to National Servicemen who for the most part were involved from 1945 onwards in the questionable repression of National liberation struggles.

NEWS FROM THE CELTIC LEAGUE

Poet Benjamin Zephaniah has called for a wider expression of multiculturalism with the cultures of the Celtic countries being avaiable as part of the wide-stream English education system.

He made his statement at the National Eisteddfod of Wales which he visited earlier this month.

He said:

"Hindi, Chinese and French are taught [in schools], so why not Welsh? And why not Cornish? They're part of our culture,"

His comments were widely reported in Wales and Cornwall (see links):

NEWS FROM THE CELTIC LEAGUE

There will be Easter Rising commemorations in North Wales. Following the rising in 1916 many of those detained by the British Army were imprisoned at Frongoch Prisoner of War Camp in Gwynedd.

Amongst those imprisoned in the Camp was IRA leader Michael Collins who want on to lead the pro-treaty military forces during the Civil War.

See attached link with quotes from local politicians in Wales:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-politics-33994718

NEWS FROM THE CELTIC LEAGUE

Four women have appeared in Court in North Wales charged with painting ‘anti-drone graffiti’ at Llanbedr airfield in June.

The women were part of a group which has painted slogans and displayed protest banners at the airfield following a deal between Defence Contractor QinetiQ with Llanbedr Airfield Estates to develop their UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) at the airfield.

They are alleged to have painted daubed slogans such as “death drones” on the runway at the Airfield.

Ynys Enlli (English: Bardsey Island) is an island that lies two miles off the tip of Penrhyn Llŷn (Llŷn Peninsula) in north west Wales. The Llŷn Peninsula stretches into the Irish Sea and the island of Ynys Enlli is just 0.6 miles (1.0 km) wide, 1.0 mile (1.6 km) long. However, this remote island is steeped in history and a place of great natural beauty and importance which has been declared a National Nature Reserve.

A petition was submitted urging the Welsh Government to ban the armed forces from going into classrooms, claiming the visitors were targeting children in deprived areas. Although the cross-party Welsh Assembly’s Petitions Committee thought that the case had not been made for an outright prohibition of the armed forces from schools it was thought that visits by armed forces personnel should be treated with “more caution” than visits by other employees.

Lake Vyrnwy Nature Reserve and Estate (Welsh: Llyn Efyrnwy/Llyn Llanwddyn) is an area of land in Montgomeryshire (Welsh: Sir Drefaldwyn), Powys, in Mid Wales. It surrounds the Victorian reservoir of Lake Vyrnwy. The nature reserve and the area around it are jointly managed by the charity Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), and Severn Trent Water.

A fossilised skeleton of a theropod dinosaur has been discovered on a beach near Penarth in the Vale of Glamorgan and has been donated to Amgueddfa Cymru (National Museum Wales). The discovery was made by Nick and Rob Hanigan from Llantwit Major who were fossil hunting along the Lavernock beach in the Vale of Glamorgan, South Wales after storms in spring 2014. The dinosaur was a distant cousin of Tyrannosaurus Rex and lived at the early part of the Jurassic Period 201 million years ago.