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Episode details

World Service,22 Dec 2023,9 mins

'The bad boy of Welsh politics'

Witness History

Available for over a year

In the 1960s, the singer Dafydd Iwan started campaigning for the Welsh language to gain official status in Wales. For years, Dafydd received little support. In January 1969 he decided to up the pressure, defacing a police station sign written in English with paint. He ended up in prison, but soon young people across the country were picking up paint pots and taking up the cause. Today, the Welsh language is found in schools, on documents and on police station signs. Dafydd tells Anoushka Mutanda-Dougherty about his activism and singing. (Photo: Dafydd after his release from Cardiff prison. Credit: Central Press/Getty Images)

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