Yma O Hyd: Cymru’s History On And Off The Pitch
Posted by Evan Powell on November 7th 2022
The FAW have released their song for the World Cup with a video full of references to Cymru’s history.
When Dafydd Iwan recorded and released Yma O Hyd back in 1983, do you think he ever saw it reaching its current heights? The track entails the survival of the Welsh language against all the odds and is now synonymous with the success of Cymru’s national teams.
Thanks to Pêl Droed, a new generation of fans are now finding out about the history of their country thanks to Iwan’s words and this has been reflected in the video that was released this morning.
YMA O HYD - DAFYDD IWAN x AR LOG x THE RED WALL (OFFICIAL CYMRU WORLD CUP 2022 SONG)
Between shots of the Red Wall singing and Iwan in and around the Cardiff City Stadium, a medieval manuscript of Macsen Wledig/Magnus Maximus shows with the opening lines “Dwyt ti’m cofio Macsen, Does neb yn ei nabod o…” Macsen Wledig was the leader of the Roman Empire between 383 and 388 who has many links to the early history of Cymru.
There is black and white shots of the protests against the drowning of Capel Celyn in 1957. The village was levelled and flooded to form a reservoir for Liverpool in 1965 but for years prior, many attempts were made to preserve the village. 35 out of 36 Welsh MP’s voted against it (the other did not vote) and to this day, it remains one of the biggest injustices in Welsh history.
The survival of Yr Iaith Gymraeg is what Yma O Hyd is all about. In the present day, the language is thriving. More and more are speaking Cymraeg, the FAW themselves have a progressive outlook with the staff now learning and we’re seeing the use of Cymraeg normalised and encouraged. It wasn’t so long ago where protest and riots were needed to have it recognized and Cymdeithas Y Iaith were at the forefront of this during the 20th century. The Welsh Language Act of 1967 and 1993 came into effect because of the group’s work and to this day, they are active and promoting the use of our national language.
Of course, our footballing history is full of near misses. Scotland 1977, Romania 1993 and Russia 2003 are shown mixed with the celebrations of Ukraine last June. The contrast will hit home to any Cymru fan who was there for the lows, making the recent highs all so better.
To this day, Cymru’s mining history is everywhere. The strikes of the 70s and 80s and the subsequent closures of our mines are a major part of our past. Many of those miners would be on the terraces on Saturday’s during this time, there’s footage of this shown in the video with lodge banners and mining footage aplenty.
“Good morning, and it is a very good morning in Wales.” This was said by Ron Davies, Secretary of State for Cymru in 1997 after the country voted yes for our devolved powers. It is spliced in with footage of our modern history including the unveiling of the Betty Campbell statue in Cardiff in 2021 and Michael Sheen’s “Yma O Hyd, you sons of Speed” speech.
Cymru has a history that we should be proud of. As a nation, we’ve fought to preserve our identity. On the global stage, we are relatively unknown but the FAW are showing it off ready for a whole new audience. We’re a small nation by population, but we’ve got the heart of a billion people and Robert Page’s squad will demonstrate that in Qatar!