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Sioned Wyn, on sabbatical from being a translator with Cardiff County Council, worked for the past year with the Madog Center for Welsh Studies at the University of Rio Grande. Sioned comes from Whitchurch, a small suburban village to the north of Cardiff.
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This young, enthusiastic, well-educated, talented lady presented interesting
facts of Welsh history. Beginning in the 19th Century, the Welsh flag was the St. David gold cross on a black background. Since 1959 the red dragon, on a green and white background, is the official Welsh flag. (Sioned added it is to be flown with the head towards Wales and the tail towards England.) In past centuries, bards and jesters kept more of an oral history than written tradition. These legends contained some elements of truth and semblance of truth. |
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Southeast Wales’ coal was considered to be superior by the Royal Navy. At one time, Cardiff was the largest exporter of coal in the World. This industry peaked in 1913. By 1984-85, the coal seams were about gone.
The 1999 referendum succeeded in Wales self government with 60 members of Parliament. They control their own health care.
The updated logo for Plaid Cymru (a political party in Wales) shows the yellow Welsh poppy.
(Editor’s Note: see article about Welsh poppy on page 12)
Sioned says “Rugby has become the Welsh national religion.” Charlotte Church, the former teenager with the exceptional voice heard and praised around the world, is married to a National rugby player and they are parents of two children.
| Remember the saying: |
| To be born Welsh |
| Is to be born privileged. |
| Not with a silver spoon in your mouth, |
| But music in your blood |
| And poetry in your soul. |
On an end-of-February day when the weather caused questionable driving conditions that kept some of our friends from joining us and illness kept a few others away, many WSCO members and friends gathered at the Worthington Hills Country Club to celebrate our patron saint.
Attendees were greeted by Pam and Evan Jones, membership chairs, who shared one end of the registration table with WSCO member Laura Jenkins Gorun selling her hand-carved wood lovespoons. (see article on page 10)
Nearby, WSCO vice-president (at that time) Beth Ransopher set up the WSCO tabletop display board and surrounded it with other Welsh-related informational items. At the other end of that table, the raffle items were on display.
Welsh cheese and crackers were available outside the seminar room and bottles of Ty Nant water graced each place setting in the dining room. Mary Ellen Morgan, event chair, created a great visual impact with those vivid blue bottles on the white tablecloths.
After an excellent lunch, raffle prizes were awarded and items from the Welsh Store, along with a beautiful lovespoon donated by Laura Jenkins Gorun, were claimed by the happy winners: David Jones, Pam & Evan Jones, Mary Ellen Morgan & Bob Donaldson, Ava-Lyn Shipe (great-granddaughter of board member Ken Evans) and Dianne Williams.
 Ava-Lyn was one of two children in attendance. |
The other was D. Logan Day. |
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Diolch yn fawr iawn to everyone who purchased raffle tickets and helped generate $167 for WSCO’s general fund. We closed our day of celebration with group singing led by Sioned Wyn with John Davids, CWSS accompanist, on the piano to help keep us in key.
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