Who's Welsh? (From Barry And District News)

Who's Welsh?

J EVANS raised an interesting point last week (Letters, March 7, "Just Bigots") - who is Welsh?

The idea that anyone can prove they are Welsh - and nothing else - imposes an amazing mental commitment on anyone of intellect and maturity. The only half-sensible answer ever given is RS Thomas's ominous "A Welshman is someone who speaks Welsh."

The Welsh language has great nostalgia value but nostalgia is no proof of nationality. Modern Wales is too culturally chaotic for nationality to be defined solely by membership of a tiny minority which claims ownership of the nation because it speaks a near-forgotten tongue which is unknown to the population at large.

A silent language is a dumb language and cannot be used as a tool to change a nationality which has been established for a thousand years. Place of birth and ancestry are also irrelevant in a country where hardly anyone can even name all eight great-grandparents, let alone certify their ethnicity or language.

Not even a properly elected devolved government with a massive majority has the authority to change the nationality of its citizens.

However, the question is really irrelevant. If an independent Welsh state is established somewhere within the area controlled by the Assembly, its residents will be told who is and who isn't Welsh by the new government. The only certainty is that Welsh speakers will be its masters. The rest of us will not.

C E Lambert Brookside Barry