Archdruid reiterates need for peace in Eisteddfod address

There will be an opportunity to remember and reflect on the victims of wars past and present during this year’s National Eisteddfod, the Archdruid said.

Mererid Hopwood noted the sound of war has been heard throughout the centuries. There was war when Iolo Morganwg opened the Gorsedd in Pontypridd in 1814 and the end of the Second World War was announced during the National Eisteddfod in Rhosllannerchrugog.

He suggested that Eisteddfodwyr should read the report of the Peace Academy and see what difference “Wales as a Nation of Peace could make to the world” and announced an intention to create a monument to the principles of Iolo Morganwg.

She was speaking at the first meeting of Gorsedd Cymru at the Wrexham National Eisteddfod. The ceremony was held in the Pavilion due to the weather forecast threatening showers.

Warm welcome

Addressing the audience she said Eisteddfodwyr can focus on Wrecsam’s warm welcome and on the extraordinary diversity of the Eisteddfod programme.

“But as I was preparing for this meeting, the one image that insisted on imprinting itself on my mind was that of Robin McBryde carrying the Gorsedd sword – a sword which, in the impracticability of its weight and in the sheath that always covers its blade, is a symbol of peace.

“That’s the pressing word today, and our question ‘Is there Peace?’ (Is there peace?) that does not ask us to answer with ‘yes’ or ‘no’, but rather with a plea, as we respond each time with what is, I know, a sincere, heartfelt yearning: ‘Peace!’ (Peace!)

“We have pleaded for peace in times of war throughout the decades. They were warring times when Iolo Morganwg opened the Gorsedd meeting in Pontypridd back in 1814; just as they were warring times in 1945 when the Eisteddfod was held in nearby Rhosllanerchrugog.

“There will be many opportunities this week to remember and to reflect on the victims of war, yesterday’s and today’s, and that’s important… as long as we avoid the danger of letting this drag us down, leading us to believe that the problem is too great and that we’re too insignificant to address it – because that’s just not true.

“No more than the myth that has been pushed through the ages – in Western cultures at least – that we’re a belligerent species by nature and from the very beginning. Read the works of people like Douglas Fry and his colleagues to just begin to see that living together in peaceful societies is not possible but is who we really are.

“The challenge is to turn the remembering into hoping – that positive, constructive energy that enables us to imagine the better thing and to find a way of reaching it. The challenge is to change the narrative – tell the other story, the one that suits us, the many ordinary people of this world, and not those mighty few who benefit from the profits of warmongering; the story that says ‘enough is enough’.”

Suggestions

The Archdruid went on to make two suggestions.

“Read Academi Heddwch Cymru’s report, the one that introduces the notion of Wales as a Nation of Peace. Importantly, please offer suggestions, improvements, be part of the co-imagining – what difference could ‘Wales as a Nation of Peace’ make to this aching, old world?

“And secondly, we need your help. There has been talk of erecting a statue of Iolo, the great imagination behind this Gorsedd and so many other aspects we hold so precious. But after careful consideration, we have decided that now is not the time to erect yet another statue to yet another imperfect man.

“The idea now is to commission a striking work of public art commemorating Iolo’s principles instead, and despite the shortage of money in our current climate, we believe this important. A work that will encourage all who see it to ask, not only in Eisteddfod week, not only when faced with images of the horrors or war, to ask what living in peace really means: peace not as a means to end a war, but peace so that there is no cause for war in the first place.”

During the ceremony a number of new members were inaugurated to the Orsedd.

Most of them were graduates and winners at the Urdd Eisteddfod but three others are very familiar faces to visitors to the Festival – Keris Jones from Llangollen and Dylan Jones and Dic Jones from Wyddgrug, all three of whom have been regular stewards at the Eisteddfod for many years.