Fransis, and folk-singer Dafydd Iwan, the society began a serious campaign. In the face of much hostility from passivist locals and prosecution from the authorities, Cymdeithas pressed for the right to use Welsh on all government documents, from Post Office forms to television licenses, from driving licenses to tax forms. In particular, the society engaged in surreptitious night time activities, removing English-only sign posts and directional instructions from the highways or daubing them with green paint. All over Wales, in early morning, motorists were faced with the green paint and daubed slogan that mysteriously had appeared overnight. It became frustrating and expensive for local authorities and the Ministry of Transport to keep replacing road signs.
Eventually, in 1963, faced with an ever-growing campaign, increased police and court costs, destruction of government property, and the vociferous demands for action by an increasingly angry and frustrated national movement, the central government decided to establish a committee to look at the legal status of Welsh. Its report, issued two years later, recommended that the language be given "equal validity" with English, a diluted version of which was placed into the Welsh Language Act of 1967.
There came about a new feeling in the land. The young people of Wales were answering the call of Saunders Lewis; the older generation began to reconsider their passiveness. Dafydd Iwan and many of his contemporaries inaugurated a whole new movement in popular Welsh music, translating English and American pops into Welsh, or writing stirring new lyrics and music or protest. The popularity of mournful, funereal hymns sung by male voice choirs found a competitor, the loud, heavy rhythms and rebellious music of new bands. Groups such as Ar Log and Plethyn rediscovered ancient Welsh folk music and brought it up to date. The National Eisteddfod entered into the spirit, each year erecting a Roc Pavilion, where such groups could attract the younger audiences. Wales began to finally shake off the shrouds cast by the Methodist Revival of over a century before.
Since the 1960's, in the author's birthplace Flint and in other towns in Clwyd, attempts to reintroduce the Welsh language in the schools have been warmly welcomed by many of the townsfolk, and a whole new generation of children who can speak, read and write Welsh may help ensure the future of the language (and ultimately, of Plaid Cymru) in such heavily anglicized areas. Other areas, such as the Cardiff region and the Valleys have already experienced some growth in the numbers of those able to speak Welsh.
Factors for this increase include the rise of a Welsh bureaucracy; further expansion of the Welsh-oriented mass media; the continued activities of Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg, with its appeal to the young generation; and the effects of the Welsh Language Act of 1967. Perhaps most important is the subtle change in attitude towards the language brought about by the advantages that can be gained by its speakers in both social and economic fields. Of crucial importance in winning the hearts and minds of the non-Welsh speakers who have young children has been Mudiad Ysgolion Meithrin (the Welsh Nursery School Movement) founded in 1971.
In the anglicized areas of Wales, we may yet again read such sentiments as that given by Sir Walter Scott, in a letter to his son, dated December, 1820:
You hear the Welsh spoken much about you, and if you can pick it up without interfering with more important labours, it will be worth while
In the late 1990's, as we shall see, one of the more important labors of many of the Welsh people has been to continue the fight to preserve their language, and with it, much of the culture upon which it depends. To preserve this language, the ancient, magnificent tongue of the British people for so many, many centuries, will be indeed, a labor of love to make up for so much past pain.
Supplement 1
Welsh Language Guide
The language of Wales, more properly called Cymraeg in preference to Welsh (A Germanic word denoting "foreigner"), belongs to a branch of Celtic, an Indo-European language. The Welsh themselves are descendants of the Galatians, to whom Paul wrote his famous letter. Their language is a distant cousin to Irish and Scots Gaelic and a close brother to Breton. Welsh is still used by about half a million people within Wales and possibly another few hundred thousand in England and other areas overseas.
In most heavily populated areas of Wales, such as the Southeast (containing the large urban centers of Cardiff, Newport and Swansea), the normal language of everyday life is English, but there are other areas, notably in the Western and Northern regions, (Gwynedd and Dyfed particularly) where the Welsh language remains strong and highly visible. The Welsh word for their country is Cymru (Kumree), the land of the Comrades; the people are known as Cymry (Kumree) and the language as