On being Welsh today

[Gob]

By Selma Chalabi BBC Wales

As Wales steps in to a new era of making laws for itself, reporter Selma Chalabi goes in search of Welsh identity for the BBC Radio Wales programme, Eye on Wales.

As someone with English, Arabic and Scottish blood, but having lived in Wales for most of my adult life, I've always been fascinated by how people identify themselves.

When the opportunity arose to explore Welsh national identity for BBC Radio Wales, I was keen to test the waters.

In this new era of devolution, how Welsh do people feel themselves to be? And what, after all, does it mean to be Welsh?

In an attempt to avoid the obvious interviews, I decided to narrow the field down and focus in on one community - a narrow window, but nevertheless a view of Welshness.

The community I settled on is that of Senghenydd, a village that lies at the far end of the Aber Valley in Caerphilly county.

In the 2009 annual population survey, almost 80% of people living within the Caerphilly local authority boundary identified themselves as Welsh, compared to 44% of people in Flintshire, and 48% of people in Monmouthshire.

Yet, like many of the surrounding towns and villages of the valleys, Senghenydd was originally made up of people migrating to the region to work.

It is thus a community that is used to absorbing outsiders and uniting them under the dragon.

As I talked to people in the area, it became clear that language was seen as a key symbol of national identity. However, most people felt that speaking Welsh was not essential to being Welsh.

A family may be one unit until it comes to the playing field.

Dave Brunton is originally from Hereford. After marrying his wife Lesley, he moved to the south Wales valley town of Bedwas, and now works as a youth worker in nearby Senghenydd.

"When I first moved, I used to think that the people here were nosy. It wasn't that. It's a strong community and they just wanted to help".

He has now got used to what he calls the "Welsh way," and feels a stranger back in his home town.

Yet when it comes to sport, he still shouts for England, and favours the round ball over the oval.

His daughter Laurie, who was born and brought up in Wales, sides with her father.

"I was a daddy's girl, so I supported England. As I got older, if England played Wales, I'd wear a Welsh shirt for half a match, and an English shirt for the other half. It was a bit of a joke, but it does reflect how I feel."

His son Wayne, who grew up playing rugby in the local clubs, could never contemplate supporting England.

"I've always been 100% Welsh and am very proud to be Welsh. Where you're born, where you're bred - that's where you're from. I can't class myself as English. I just can't do it."

Yet when it comes to football, Wayne is happy to support Liverpool.

Yet, when I talked to a group of 19-20-year-olds, one of them stated that she felt less Welsh because she couldn't speak Welsh.

It's a view that emerged in research conducted by Cardiff University's psychology department between 2006 and 2008.

Prof Tony Manstead, who was part of the research team, said: "Among Welsh speakers, their attitude to the Welsh language and how important it is to speak Welsh depended on their perception of the relationship with England.
'Divide us'

"The more unfair they saw the relationship with England, the more important they thought it was to speak Welsh.

"If they thought the relationship was unfair, but improving, they were less keen to see the Welsh language as being the way to define yourself as Welsh.

"For the non-Welsh speakers, we found that at least some of them saw themselves as less Welsh precisely because they couldn't speak Welsh, and that was a bit of an eye-opener… they had this sense they were missing some vital aspect of what it means to be Welsh."

Former Plaid Cymru MP Adam Price believes the language issues "cuts both ways".

"It creates a deeper sense of national identity and gives us a tangible source of distinctiveness," said Mr Price. "On the other hand, it does divide us between two communities.

"It's as if being Welsh is some sort of sliding scale. That is a problem for us here in Wales, and one that we haven't fully worked through yet."

Putting aside language, the Welsh character was a strong contender for representing national identity.

I asked people to give me words that encapsulated Welshness, and passion, warmth, open-heartedness, welcoming were repeatedly used.

John Roberts represents Senghenydd on Caerphilly county council and is originally from a small Welsh-speaking quarrying community in north Wales.

"The biggest difference for me initially was the shock - and it was a shock - the whack of being in a community that was less Welsh speaking.

"I had a choice to involve myself within that community or maybe to take a step back and involve myself in the Welsh medium community in the area.

"I immersed myself in the community that was more immediate to me, the community that I was really living in."

When asked where he belongs, he struggles to answer.

"Up there, that's where I'm from. No matter where I am now, up there is in me. It's in my heart and head. This place is now the same, but I'll never totally belong."

Yet when it comes to his identity, there is an overall Welsh category that he feels he belongs to.

"I was born in a place with nature all around, with people primarily speaking the mother tongue.

"I'm now living in another part of Wales with nature, with landscape, with people - and that's it - I'm Welsh."

On the flip side, words such as hemmed-in, self-doubt, insecurity, and cynical surfaced.

It's an interesting combination that I don't think would ever appear on a list of words used to describe Englishness, except perhaps cynical.

Certainly, for a community such as Senghenydd, its industrial past remains a key part of its identity.

As it approaches the 100th anniversary of the mining disaster that took 440 lives of its working men and boys, that sense of national identity and pride is strong.

It's an identity that is intimately tied to the industrial era of Great Britain.

For some, that sense of Britishness is still there alongside the Welshness. But there's also a growing sense of being Welsh and European .

As new generations grow up without the industry to bind them, what will being Welsh mean to them in 20 years' time?