Father’s memorable route from steelworker to Welsh teacher

Wayne Howard, father of Love Island’s Connagh Howard, decided he wanted to learn Welsh to support Connagh and his sister Eleanor when they started at a Welsh medium school.

That was 32 years ago, and since then Wayne has starred with Connagh on S4C’s Cymru, Dad a Fi – a documentary series which saw both travel around Wales’ islands – and is about to publish his autobiography in Welsh, Hunagofiant Dyn Positif (A Positive Man’s Autobiography).

Wayne’s life started in Cardiff’s docklands, where he lived with his family in a small house on Herbert Street. When he was eight years old, the family moved to Rumney in East Cardiff.

Nobody spoke Welsh in Wayne’s family, and the language wasn’t on his radar until Connagh was born.

Wayne explains: “When Connagh was born, I remember my wife and I started to discuss which school Connagh should go to in order to get a good education.

“One of my friends suggested he should go to a Welsh school – he would then be bilingual and get a good education. We knew my wife or I would have to learn Welsh to support him in school, so I decided to learn.

“I went to lessons once a week on City Road, before my teacher suggested I follow an intensive ‘WLPAN’ course.

“So, I followed the WLPAN – and it was a big shock as I hadn’t expected everything would be in Welsh but that’s how it was. And that’s the best way to learn any language.

“After that, I followed intensive courses in Llantwit Major and Aberystwyth University, as well as an improvers’ course in written Welsh.”

While following the courses, Wayne was still working full time at the Tremorfa steelworks in Cardiff. But, in 2002, came the devastating news that 800 of the workers would lose their jobs, including Wayne.

Wayne said, “I was angry and frustrated when they announced we were losing our jobs. But today, I can see that it was an important turning point in my life.

“They were offering ‘Steel Partnership Training’ – an opportunity to retrain for a new job.

“And I asked myself ‘what are your strengths?’ ‘what do you like to do?’ and the answer was ‘languages’. So, I decided to retrain as a second language Welsh teacher at the age of 51.

“I worked as a second language Welsh teacher at Mary Immaculate High School in Ely, Cardiff, and also taught Welsh for Adults for four years.”

Since learning Welsh, Wayne has starred in a travel series on S4C with his son Connagh, and is about to publish his autobiography in Welsh.

He added, “So many doors have opened for me since I learned Welsh. I’ve been able to visit a number of different places and meet interesting people during the filming of the television series Cymru, Dad a Fi with my son, Connagh.

“I’m also about to publish my autobiography in Welsh – none of this would have happened without the Welsh language.

“My children motivated me to learn the language and I’ve never looked back.”