Welcome
Gathering the Jewels features over 30,000 images of objects, books, letters, aerial photographs and other items from museums, archives and libraries throughout Wales.
Search the map
New to Gathering the Jewels is G.I.S. A geographical search facility that will enable searching by location and place name.
Articles
Home » Articles » Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg's first protest, 1963Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg's first protest, 1963
A group of 55 photographs taken by Geoff Charles in February 1963, on the day of the first protest by Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg (The Welsh Language Society) on Trefechan bridge, Aberystwyth.
Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg's first protest, 1963
A group of 55 photographs taken by Geoff Charles in February 1963, on the day of the first protest by Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg (The Welsh Language Society) on Trefechan bridge, Aberystwyth.
Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg (the Welsh Language Society) was formed in August 1962. The society was established as a direct response to Saunders Lewis's historic radio-lecture 'Tynged yr Iaith' (The Fate of the Language) which was broadcast on 13 February 1962. Lewis, a renowned poet and playwright, was a prominent Welsh nationalist who had served as the president of Plaid Genedlaethol Cymru (the Welsh Nationalist Party) between 1926 and 1939. Following the Second World War, Lewis had maintained a relatively low public profile in Wales but the publication of the 1961 census statistics which had revealed that only 26 per cent of the Welsh population could speak Welsh, inspired his to break his silence. In his radio-lecture, 'Tynged yr Iaith', he drew attention to the crisis facing the Welsh language and advocated the adoption of unconstitutional methods and direct-action campaigns on behalf of the language.
Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg was established in August 1962 at a meeting held during the Plaid Cymru Summer School in Pontarddulais. The society held its first official protest on 2 February 1963 in Aberystwyth. Some 40 members and supporters sat in the middle of the road on Trefechan bridge, stopping the traffic for half an hour. This theme contains 55 photographs taken by Geoff Charles on the day of the protest.
