Rhys Iorwerth, the bardic football fan

One of the reasons I started writing this blog was that I wanted to open the window to Welsh language culture to an English language audience. Much of the best football coverage in Wales takes place in the Welsh language, and this divide has always been a matter of sadness and frustration for me. As somebody from a purely English language south-Walian background who now lives his life 90% in Welsh, I was acutely aware of the need to bridge, or at least narrow the lingual fault-line.

There can be no doubt that Welsh language media pays greater attention to the country’s domestic game. S4C covers the Welsh Premier League with the United Kingdom’s best football programme, Sgorio. Radio Cymru’s Ar y Marc radio programme on Saturday mornings provides a detailed level of football discussion which is usually available only on niche podcasts.  And even current affairs publications like Golwg and Y Cymro pay more attention to the Welsh game than anything produced by the traditional English-language media. (The WPL is better served in English online by the TNS mouthpiece, welshpremier.com and several other blogs and forums).

I know that there are many people in Wales with an interest in Welsh language culture who do not speak Welsh. I was one of them. And the frustration is deepened when the topic of Welsh-language discussion is of particular interest to non-Welsh speakers. When the person speaking is one of the Welsh language’s most stimulating minds, the two-language state becomes a logistical pain in the arse. Conversely, it could be argued that our rich and unique culture would not exist without this language friction.

It’s with this introduction that I offer the following video clip. It comes from S4C’s arts programme, ‘Pethe’ which is broadcast on Wednesday evenings. The item  features our Prifardd,  the winner of the bardic chair at the 2011 National Eisteddfod. It’s not easy to describe the significance of that competition in Wales, but it’s a national lifelong accolade which transcends a mere poetry prize. If you’re the Prifardd, you’re the man. The Bardic Chair is offered for poetry using the cynghanedd form, which is a strict, historical form of poetry used for centuries in Wales.

The winner of this formidable contest was Rhys Iorwerth, a young man from Caernarfon who moved to Cardiff and even though I’ve never met him, he might surprise you by appearing to be a normal, unpretentious bloke. He’s pretty well known amongst the travelling Wales support and in this clip he describes the nostalgia he feels for the old Ninian Park, and eulogises about the Canton Hotel, his favourite Cardiff pub . But Rhys’s poems speak for many modern football fans who see their history disappear as they move to a more profitable, but soul-less arena, and their local boozer turned into a Harvester.

The translations of the poems are Rhys’s own. You can hear the music of the poetry in the original Welsh-language audio track, but Rhys’s words hit the mark even in translation.