Gethin ap Gruffydd

Gethin ap Gruffydd is a Welsh political and cultural activist.

Gruffydd was born Kieth Griffiths in Merthyr Tydfil to a father from a Gilfach mining family, and a mother whose family had been hardrock miners for generations. After moving to Bridgend aged seven, he attended Pencoed Secondary Modern school where he became a Welsh nationalist at fourteen. After leaving school he found work at a texile factory in Somerset, England, and whilst there contacted and became member of Plaid Cymru.

Anti-Sais Front/Patriotic Front 1964-1970

In 1964 Gruffydd relocated to Fishguard waiting six months in preparation for Plaid Cymru's summer conference. At Fishguard, Gruffydd's characteristic approach to political activities drew the notice of the police for the first time, after ripping down Union Jack flags and bunting at a local féte.( Clews p.95)

"I and a few others thought we must attempt something in South Wales to rally people towards nationalism, but obviously being English-speakers it couldn't be done through the Welsh language. [...] ...we formed an organization called the Anti-Sais Front, which wasn't anti-English as such, but anti-Anglicisation, and we took much of our inspiration for it from developments in the Flemish areas of Belgium, and from the French-Canadians of Quebec, where the militancy was just emerging strongly. We tried to make the Front patriotic but not in the Welsh language alone." --Gethin ap Gruffydd

At the Fishguard conference Gruffydd met the other main player of the Anti-Sais Front and long term ally, Cwmbran bus conductor Tony Lewis. By July 1966 they had publically dissociated themselves from the guerilla gestures of the Free Wales Army, seeking instead to create a political pressure group within Plaid Cymru. They formed the Patriotic Front, setting out to recruit from the Welsh majority English-speaking populace neglected by the likes of Plaid Cymru and Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg.

The Patriotic Front quickly gained support, with several branches set up in Aberare, the Rhondda and elsewhere. Main headquarters were at Cwmbran, where Gruffydd and Lewis opened a club, The Patriot's Rest, at Pontnewydd. PF uniform consisted of green sidecap, khaki shirt and black trousers. The intended place for the Patriotic Front, as explained by Gruffydd, was to become "...incorporated into Plaid Cymru to cater for the more militant, or positive elements within the party."

In July 1966, Plaid Cymru leader Gwynfor Evans was elected to Westminster as MP for Carmarthen. Following this first taste of maintream political success, the party was in no mood to accommodate the exhuberant strain of uniformed militancy emerging at its fringes. At Plaid Cymru's conference at Maesteg, the Patriotic Front sent as many members as possible, with the entire front row of the hall comprising a fully-uniformed PF contingent. (Clews, p.98/99) Despite a positive reaction from party leader Evans, others within Plaid Cymru took a negative view of the Patriotic Front and, following a dispute surrounding the use of funds generating by The Patriot's Rest, the PF was outlawed by Plaid at the latter's 1966 Dolgellau conference.

Noting that many potential recruits to the cause were put off by the Patriotic Front's uniformed militancy, Gruffydd and Lewis created a number of off-shoot nationalist organizations designed to appeal to particlar interests. The Llewelyn Society sought to remember Llewelyn ein llyw olaf (Llewelyn the Last), the last true Prince of Wales; the Young Patriots League was successful in recruiting numbers of schoolchildren and young teenagers; the Lost Lands Liberation League would agitate for the return to Welsh status of areas lost to England, across the counties of Cheshire, Gloucestershire, Hereforedshire, Monmouthshire and Shropshire. Cofiwn Glyndwr (aka Owain Glyndwr League) brought together various organizations, including the Free Wales Army, the Welsh Language Society and others, for a 1967 parade through the streets of Machynlleth. Anticipating a clampdown on their activities by Special Branch and British the authorities, the Patriots Aid Committee raised funds in support of the families of imprisoned actvists.

Trial and Imprisonment

There was some overlap in membership and activities between the Patriotic Front and the Free Wales Army, Gethin ap Gruffydd and Tony Lewis both one time members, the latter having designed the FWA uniform. In 1966, Gruffydd and several others decided to leave the Free Wales Army, disagreeing with the publicity-seeking antics of leader Dennis Coslett. Despite continuing to work with and later rejoining the Free Wales Army, in private correspondence with the FWA's Julian Cayo-Evans, Gruffydd expressed concern that some of the FWA's modus operandi could prove counter-productive.

In the lead-up to the Investiture of Prince Charles at Caernarfon Castle on July 1st 1969, Wales had seen a spate of bombings; the FWA were happy to falsely claim responsibility. Nine members of the Free Wales Army were arrested, including Tony Lewis and Gethin ap Gruffydd. Leaders Coslett and Cayo-Evans were charged with offences under the Public Order Act, including firearms and explosive charges, receiving sentences of fifteen months. Gethin ap Gruffydd was given a not guilty verdict on public order charges; he plead guilty to organising the Free Wales Army and received a nine month sentence.

Those tried gave various undertakings, includings never to become involved in paramilitary activity, to never handle weapons illegally, to never advocate the use of violence for political ends, etc. Of the nine arrested members of the Free Wales Army, only Gethin ap Gruffydd refused to give any such declaration. (Humphries 106)

Cofiwn 1970-1984

Together with Sian Ifans, Gruffydd became a principle figure behind the 'non-political nationalist organization' Cofiwn (Remember), which sought to cultivate Welsh nationalist fervour through intensified cultural-historical awareness.

'Operation Fire'. Fifty-six people were raided and arrested by police on Palm Sunday 1980; over half of the detainees were involved with Cofiwn. Outrage at the repressive action lead to the creation of the Welsh Campaign for Political and Civil Liberties, which drew support from numerous organizations including Plaid Cymru and the Labour Party, Gymdeithas yr Iaith, and the Welsh Socialist Republican Movement. Most of those rounded-up were released within a week, but four were prosecuted and imprisoned for nine months.

Cofiwn's last major action was their response to the Wales festival of Castles in 1983, which they countered with a program of actions, Sarhad '83 (Insult '83). Continued police interest saw to the group's dissolution in 1984.(Barberis 434)

Cilmeri

Gethin ap Gruffydd's Patriotic Front was instrumental in creating an annual commemorative event each December at Cilmeri, to mark the murder there in 1282 of Llewelyn the Last.(Clews 109/110) Since the 1960s, the role of organizing the Cilmeri weekend has passed through various hands, Gruffydd however has remained a persistent presence, delivering characteristic rousing speaches.

References

Bibliography

• Barberis, Peter (Editor) Encyclopaedia of British and Irish Political Organizations: Parties, Groups and Movements of the Twentieth Century, Pinter Publishers, 2000.
• Clews, Roy To Dream of Freedom. The Story of MAC and the Free Wales Army, Y Lolfa, 1980.
• Humphries, John Freedom Fighters. Wales's Forgotten 'War', 1963-1993, University of Wales Press, 2008.