History of Plaid Cymru

History Of Plaid Cymru

Plaid Cymru; The Party of Wales (; often shortened to Plaid) originated after a 1925 National Eisteddfod meeting, held in Pwllheli, Gwynedd. Representatives from the Army of the Welsh Home Rulers (Byddin Ymreolwr Cymru) and The Welsh Movement (Y Mudiad Cymreig), both founded only the previous year, agreed to meet and discuss the need of a "Welsh party". Founded originally under the name Plaid Genedlaethol Cymru, the National Party of Wales, the party would attract members from the political left, the political right, and the political centre, both monarchists and republicans, whose principal aims include the promotion of the Welsh language and for the political independence of the Welsh nation.

According to historian Professor John Davies, it was Dr. D.J. Davies' ideas which were more influential in shaping long-term Plaid Cymru ideology and adopted by Plaid president Dr. Gwynfor Evans following the Second World War. D. J. Davies was an "equally significant figure" as Saunders Lewis in Welsh nationalism history, argues Professor John Davies. However, Davies wrote that it was Lewis' "brilliance and charismatic appeal" which was firmly associated with the party of the 1930s.

Initially successful as an educational pressure group, events surrounding Tân yn Llŷn (Fire in Llŷn) in the 1930s, adopting a pacifist political doctrine, and protests against the Flooding of Capel Celyn in the 1950s helped define Plaid Genedlaethol Cymru. These early events were followed by Evan's election to the United Kingdom Parliament in 1966, campaigning for The Welsh Language Act of 1967 and Evan's Hunger Strike for a dedicated Welsh-language television channel in 1981.

Plaid Cymru is the third largest political party in Wales, with 11 of 60 seats in the National Assembly for Wales. From 2007 to 2011, it was the junior partner in the One Wales coalition government, with Welsh Labour. Plaid holds one of the four Welsh seats in the European Parliament, three of the 40 Welsh seats in the UK Parliament, and has 205 of 1,264 principal local authority councillors. According to accounts filed with the Electoral Commission for the year of 2004, the party has an income and expenditure of about £500,000.