Tryweryn: A Nation Awakes by Owain Williams

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There was a moment in the 1960s when it seemed that the Welsh Nationalist struggle would become a violent one – there were a number of bombs placed but with the Investiture in 1969 the wave broke and the Welsh Nationalist movement has largely distanced itself from violent action since.

Owain, as someone involved in the bombings, expresses a frustration about that domination of non-violence – associating it with a lack of backbone to truly stand up for the Welsh Nation – talks of “true patriots” in contrast to the vast majority of the Nationalist movement.

To hear his own account of his involvement in direct, violent, Nationalist action and the consequential encounters with the British Security Services is of great value – yes there are some aspects that you might want to take with a pinch of salt. Owain is a great story teller and, to borrow a phrase from Maupin’s The Night Listener, great story tellers can resist the occasional bejewelled elephant. But equally many of the other accounts of these events will have been told with political agendas of varying shades which will have caused them to be free with the “truth” - so to hear Owain’s side of the story can only add to the balance of our understanding of this period.

The core drama of the tale is his time on the run in Ireland – on the run from essentially trumped up charges. I have a sense that Owain may be a little coy with us about what he was up to directly prior to that round of charges, but he is very clear that he was not doing the things that he was charged with.

Owain is pretty damming of the “mainstream” Welsh Nationalist, and as we compare the recent position of the SNP with Plaid it is difficult to really argue with him – somehow Welsh Nationalists end up falling over themselves, consistently turning key assets into achilles heals. But is the commitment to non-violence the source of these failings – SNP success is built entirely within the law? There is something deeper going on – Michael Sheen’s 2017 Raymond Williams Memorial Lecture did much to unpack this tendency to stumble.

We are enriched by men and women of passion like Owain – but we need to take care at times their voices are sirens calling up onto the rocks.