Ex-Archdruid calls for Hen Wlad fy Nhadau to be sung by Welsh Olympic winners

A former Archdruid has called for Hen Wlad fy Nhadau to be sung by Welsh Olympic winners.

Jim Parc Nest said he doesn’t understand why Team GB’s Central Committee doesn’t offer the opportunity for athletes from Wales to sing the Welsh anthem and to fly the Red Dragon when they win Olympic gold.

But T. James Jones, a Welsh poet and dramatist, who has twice won both the Chair and the Crown at the National Eisteddfod, says he fears that it won’t happen “until we have independence”.

Under the current system, when Welsh athletes win Olympic gold, God Save the Queen, which is also the national anthem for England, is played, and the Union Jack is flown at the medal ceremony.

The comments follow a call from the Archbishop of York Wales to sing God Save the Queen before international sports games.

In a column for the Telegraph, Stephen Cottrell suggested that when the different nations of the UK play each other in sporting contests that they “belt out our individual anthems” before they “sing our national anthem together”.

Swapping England for Britain and England for Britain is something that happens often according to Jim Parc Nest.

‘England’s flag’

He told Golwg360: “I’m very irritated about our athletes having to compete under England’s flag, because it’s England that mostly uses it as a flag.

“And of course, it’s England’s anthem that has to be sung each time.”

“I just can’t understand why the British central committee isn’t ready to offer, when our athletes compete from Wales and win, the Red Dragon can’t be waved at that time and that the anthem can also be sung.

“I’m afraid it’s a dictatorship, and it won’t happen until we’re independent.

“It’s hard to believe, the number of countries that are so much smaller than Wales in the Olympic Games, and they get to display their own banner and we can’t.”