Posing the question ‘Am I Welsh enough?’ raises difficult emotions that take some explaining. However, spurred on by recent events, and working with Menter Iaith Sir Y Fflint and Urdd Gobaith Cymru to organise Y Ffîn festival in Mold, I am going to do my best to attempt to form an articulate answer.

theAbsurd’s columnist Rhys Trimble agonised over the language issue (as any true Welsh poet should) in his first piece for theAbsurd - Schizo. Here Rhys explains why, as a Welsh speaker, he chooses to write predominantly in the English language. What immediately struck me about this piece was the fact that Rhys felt the need to explain himself at all. But we all do it. Many Welsh artists seek to justify, to explain, to provide an understanding to people as to why, exactly, we write in the language that we do.

I am going to do exactly the same thing myself. I want to explain that I was born in North Wales and lived here for the first three to four years of my life before my family moved across the border to England. So, barring an eight month stint at a Welsh school when I was seven, I have had no interaction with Welsh culture except to view it from an ‘outsider’s’ perspective. Why is it important to me that you know this? I honestly don’t know. Perhaps it is because Wales is the country of my birth, she is where I feel most at home, she inspires so much of what I write – which in itself is a very Welsh tradition. BUT I am not classed as Welsh by Welsh speakers, the politically correct terminology for me is ‘Anglo-Welsh’ (at least we’re no longer called scum though eh?).

I have rather a negative view of English culture and I certainly feel no association with it. For me this conjures up dreadful images of the St George’s Cross and nationalism; imperialist flag-waving; a country whose cultural vacuum has been filled with petty rule making, shopping and drinking. (Yes, I know there are those of you who might be fuming at this point, and will probably write to list the many great English artists and traditions – please note that I am not attempting to discount the huge array of art that has English roots, I am merely saying that today’s ‘popular English culture’ is Posh & Becks not the Super Furry Animals.)

Again I want to justify myself here and tell you that I am learning Welsh – slowly. I do know that if I moved to a small market town in France, Spain or any other country I would have to learn the language – and quickly – through sheer necessity. So here is another dilemma that we are all faced with. If I was leaning French, in France, then everybody around me would be speaking French. I would not be able to go to the local butchers, greengrocers or post office without thinking, in advance, about the conversations that I would have and the language needed in order to be understood; and if this were the case in Flintshire I would be a fluent Welsh speaker by now, there is no doubt about it.
If this is true then banning English everywhere in Wales would certainly increase the usage of the Welsh language. Would this work? It certainly seems an overly draconian measure that would be impossible to enforce, but what is the alternative?

Which brings me back to Y Ffîn festival and our work with Menter Iaith et al. The people that we have dealt with, Gwawr Cordiner, Ffion Clwyd-Edwards, Hannah Phylip and Darren Morris are totally committed to promoting Welsh language and Welsh culture. This is a tough task in areas such as Flintshire where only approximately 30% of people speak Welsh, and only a tiny proportion of these are ‘first language’ Welsh. When so many people in a county are disinterested in the national culture it creates barriers; lines are drawn; language is used to pigeonhole people – all parties use the terms ‘them’ and ‘us’ to make distinctions. There are Welsh, there are the Anglo-Welsh, and then there are the people who were born here but feel a deeper association with English culture and have no interest in learning about Welsh language or culture and know only that which was ‘forced’ upon them in school, are these people also Anglo-Welsh, the same catagory as me?

For any culture or language to remain relevant, to live, it has to evolve, accept change and embrace newcomers – to do any less leads to certain cultural death, or a descent into fundamentalism that only serves to create deep divisions within communities.

Does accepting Anglo-Welsh art signal a dilution of Welsh culture?
Honestly? I don’t know.

What I do know is that what we have tried to create with Y Ffîn festival is a true and honest reflection of the contemporary poets and musicians who live and work in North Wales. All of the performers speak Welsh to some extent, or are learning; some create their art in English, others in Welsh; some were born here, others were not. What all of these artists have in common is that they are part of North Wales’s artistic community and want to be part of this event.

We are not preaching to anybody about what language they should speak, that only seeks to alienate and divide people, but we are working to get Welsh language and culture out to the wider community. I have seen Ed Holden perform a Welsh language hip-hop set to 250 ‘Anglo-Welsh’ schoolchildren in Flintshire and he blew their minds. He wasn’t telling them to speak Welsh – he just did his own thing, but a lot of those kids are now following his work and engaging with the Welsh language in a way that they will never do in Welsh lessons. Hopefully Y Ffîn will create a similar buzz about North Wales’s rich and diverse culture. Regardless of the preferred language we are one community, and that is the message that we want Y Ffîn festival to communicate to our audience - wherever they come from.