Mair Williams's blog

Camborne Trevithick Day is on Saturday April 25th 2020.  The 36th year of a one day festival celebrating the town’s mining and industrial heritage and named after its most famous son Richard Trevithick, pioneer of high pressure steam and builder of the first road and railway locomotives. Dancing, entertainment, bands, lots of steam engines including a full sized working replica of Trevithick’s Puffing Billy of 1801 and much much more.

There has been much in the news today, marking the 75th anniversary of D-Day. This was the Allied landings in Normandy on Tuesday, 6 June 1944 during World War II (1939 to 1945). The operation began the liberation of German-occupied France (and later western Europe) from Nazi control. However, four years before this operation, it was expected that the invasion force would have been coming in the opposite direction. At that time the German invasion of Britain had seemed inevitable. 

There was an interesting news item on BBC Northern Ireland recently. Under the headline "Finn's Law: Search dog Max saves lives; who protects his?" The article focused on a four year old Labrador called Max, a rescue dog who finds missing people across the north of Ireland. Max lives in Bangor, County Down, (Irish: Beannchar, Contae an Dúin) and is a highly trained air scenting search dog. Max recently located a vulnerable woman who had been missing for almost two days in freezing conditions.

Plaid Cymru - Party of Wales Shadow Minister for Economy and Finance Rhun ap Iorwerth is calling on Local Authorities throughout Wales to make it clear they reject any radioactive waste dumping in Wales.

The use of a University of Wales' residential conference centre for Pheasant shooting has been condemned by The League Against Cruel Sports (LACS) who over the last year have led a campaign to have it banned. Under mounting pressure the university has not renewed the shooting licence at Gregynog Hall. This comes after it was revealed under a Freedom of Information request, that 57,000 pheasants had been released for shooting since 2013 while 160 native wild animals, including foxes and corvids, had been killed by gamekeepers to preserve the land for shooting parties.

On the River Severn (Welsh: Afon Hafren), in the community of Newtown and Llanllwchaiarn (Y Drenewydd a Llanllwchaearn), is the town of Newtown (Y Drenewydd). The local Council has been striving to develop initiatives to look at new and more sustainable ways to manage the town's open spaces. In a pioneering scheme, 130 acres of land have been transferred in to community ownership in a 99 year lease to a community land trust ‘Open Newtown’.

On a hill within view of Swansea Castle (Castell Abertawe) in 1262 stood William Cragh, also referred to as Crach, a Welsh warrior and supporter of Rhys ap Maredudd awaiting his execution. Rhys ap Maredudd (c. 1250 – 2 June 1292) was a member of the Welsh royal house of Deheubarth, a kingdom of Medieval Wales. He led a rebellion against the English King Edward I between 1287–88. Edward, the foreign English invader, had waged a war against Wales between 1282 and 1283. William Cragh fought in the rebellion on the Welsh side.

St David is the Patron Saint of Wales and March 1st is St David's Day. The first of March is recognised as a National Day throughout Wales. It is also a day of celebration for Welsh communities throughout the world and the Welsh flag with Y Ddraig Goch (the Red Dragon) is proudly raised. The flag of Saint David (Baner Dewi Sant) normally a yellow cross on a black field, also plays a central role in the celebrations. The date is tradionally seen as the date that Saint David died in 589.

A proposed meeting in Swansea by the British government-run Radioactive Waste Management (RWM) organisation has been cancelled.  A news item on Transceltic last week on plans to use areas of Wales as a possible nuclear waste dump was widely shared. RWM are looking for possible sites to bury Britain's most dangerous radioactive waste.

“We’re as keen as ever to promote and foster Welsh links with Ireland; we have many similarities in terms of our traditions, culture and economies. Wales – Ireland links are more important than ever, which is also evident by Irish Government’s announcement that the Irish Consulate will re-open in Cardiff later this year.” These are the words of Dafydd Elis-Thomas, the Welsh Deputy Minister on a visit to Dublin.