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Gathering the Jewels features over 30,000 images of objects, books, letters, aerial photographs and other items from museums, archives and libraries throughout Wales.

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Home » Protest and Politics » Societies and pressure groups » Welsh Language Society

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  • Saunders Lewis broadcast his historic radio-lecture 'Tynged yr Iaith' (The Fate of the Language) 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 him 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. His lecture provoked an immediate response and is perhaps best-known for providing the inspiration for the establishment of Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg (the Welsh Language Society) in August 1962.
Saunders Lewis, 'Tynged yr Iaith' (1962) [front cover, image 1 of 17]
  • 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