Britainology 65: Wales feat. James Griffiths
For this month's first Britainology, we're learning about Wales--the history, the language, its relationship to the United Kingdom, the strange exploits of the one-man Welsh IRA--and in order to do so, we're joined by James Griffiths, the Hong Kong correspondent for the Toronto Globe and Mail, and also the author of "Speak Not: Empire, Identity, and the Politics of Language."
Check out James's book here! https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/speak-not-9781786999665/
Comments (29)
Didn‘t really need the drive-by at Gàidhlig, there.
Depressing genx pop culture reference incoming: John Cale of the velvet underground has talked about growing up with Welsh schoolteacher and English coalminer parents in South Wales (~1942-55), and a militantly anti-English maternal grandma. She also happened to be so abusive that she forbade the use of english in the home, knowing it would drive a wedge between him and his dad, who spoke no welsh. He and his dad spent 6 or 7 of his developmental years not being able to communicate verbally with each other, which sounds insane but credible
I agree with Milo's take on independence vs. unity, and it is a big problem here in Hawai'i where the sovereignty movement distracts from the solidarity required to solve the material conditions of people regardless of ethnic and cultural background.
Pwyll Pot and the Cymru Rouge has a powerful Milo Brendan O'Neill bit energy.
No Manic Street Preachers mentions? What gives?
It is interesting to hear about the development of the welsh language, here in the German north the language of „Plattdeutsch“ went through a similar progress of decline, with the difference that there aren’t any large scale government attempts to preserve it. At this point it is just spoken in small rural villages and among the old.
I grew up in the south. Schwäbisch is treated like a marketing gimmick by many(I give the VfB Oma on socials a pass here), in casual use mixed with Hochdeutsch by most but it does appear the federal government favours convenience and homogeneity over anything. Bit of a shame.
Really enjoy the deep dives into history and it's connection to/impact on the present and possible future implications. As fun as the nonsense is, this more serious discussion type of episode is much more meaningful to me and the episodes I remember. Even if the topic is not as niche, just going through How Did We Get Here is incredibly helpful in understanding our world and our options moving forward. Excellent episode, fantastic topic, and wonderful guest. Wish it went longer; it felt like 10 minutes when you gave the 1-hour reminder!!
Rwy’n croesawu annibyniaeth i Gymru, ond yn credu y dylem fynd ymhellach a gwahanu Dugiaeth Cernyw i’w gwladwriaeth newydd. I welcome Welsh independence, but believe we should go further and scede the Duchy of Cornwall to their new state. I use Google translate so let's hope I'm close
Really enjoyed this one, diolch!
Maori has had huge success with language intensive schools for babies and parents, language nests they're called. The model has been adopted by some Indigenous language groups in Australia as well. It's a fantastic decolonisation mechanism because as you teach the language, there's a whole lot of cultural knowledge that comes along with it too.
Who knew that people would appreciate finding out where they actually come from after years of Britain Yutani Building Better Baz
How hungover was Milo in this ep, he just flat out left a "Dafydd Courtney" gag on the table at the 28 minute mark
Come do a show in Wales you cowards
too dangerous
Before the podcast had finished I'd ordered James's book. And 'Don't like it, there's the Severn Estuary' made me laugh out loud :)
the bit about Thatcher semi-intentionally opening the door for Welsh language rights, sounds funny but the Canadian Conservative party uses the same playbook to do wedge politics in Quebec
Wonderful ep team!
Anybody have some recommendations on resources to learn about the inhabitants of the British Isles before Roman occupation? Lately I've been interested in the destructive effects of empire and it's made me curious about who these people were before empires started molding them into an empire themselves. It seems to be very difficult to find much information about them in the pre-Roman Era. Druids didn't record anything and apparently nobody left any mail.
The weather (no cheeky papyri laying around) and the severity of Rome's fall in Britain don't help.
What could be more Welsh than doing one episode to cover the whole thing
I had honestly wondered about that.
feat. Janice Griffith
Speaking as a welshie born and bred in Cardiff, this episode is the first time I'm bloody hearing about welsh nationalist bombings having ever happened?????? We really don't get taught shit huh
I think more Americans know about it cause it’s a major plot point in an episode of Archer
Really throwing me how much today's guest has a similar cadence and sense of humour to Hussein.
I don't speak a word of Welsh but S4C have this awesome brand of content 4 kidz called Hansh and it's so cool to see all this zoomer YouTube and TikTok content all in Welsh. Awesome episode, this
Refugee kids learning welsh is making me teary
As an Irish person I never though I'd be jealous of the welsh, hon the lads for bringing it back from the brink