Llanelli asylum seeker hotel protest group apologise to Dafydd Iwan for using ‘Yma o Hyd’

The group have also asked him to reconsider his instruction to ‘Stop’ using Yma o Hyd as part of their protest.

“Our sincere apologies go to Dafydd Iwan for any offence we may have caused,” said a spokesman for the Furnace Action Committee.

“Yma o Hyd is something of a battle anthem at times of political and economic turmoil and the Flash Mob which gathered in Furnace on Friday evening to sing the song did not mean any offence.

“The reverse is true and they hold Dafydd Iwan in such high regard they felt he would be sympathetic to their cause.

“More than 100 people gathered at short notice on Friday evening to sing Yma of Hyd as a public display of support for the 100 staff at the Stradey Park Hotel, whose jobs are under threat if the Home Office’s plan goes ahead to house an estimated 300 asylum seekers at the hotel.

“The singers did not include any left or right wing groups and the group was made up of supporters of the Furnace Action Committee’s petition to stop the Home Office plan.

“The petition itself is deliberately meant to be inclusive and includes the wording – ‘We fully support Carmarthenshire Council’s preferred model of distributing asylum seekers throughout the wider community, a model which offers so much more for their health and wellbeing.’

“The idea to sing Yma o Hyd was an idea which gathered strength very quickly in the village on Friday night as local residents wanted to show solidarity with the staff of the Stradey Park Hotel, workers who now face a future as bleak as the one faced by the miners under Thatcher.

“The residents sang with such spirit, passion and gusto that their words carried across the evening air to the Stradey Park Hotel.

“We will be writing to Dafydd Iwan to apologise for any upset, but, in the meantime, we would like to reassure him that the singing was done with the best of intentions of supporting the staff at the hotel.”

On Twitter on Sunday, the Carmarthenshire-born singer and activist shared that he had found out that protesters against the housing of asylum seekers had been using Yma o Hyd.

In the tweet he wrote: “Mae wedi dod i’m sylw fod ‘Yma o Hyd’ yn cael ei defnyddio gan bobol sy’n gwrthwynebu rhoi cartref i geiswyr lloches. Os gwelwch yn dda, peidiwch!! It has been brought to my notice that ‘Yma o Hyd’ is used by groups opposing the housing of asylum seekers. This must stop!!”

Speaking to the WalesOnline website following the tweet on Sunday evening, Mr Iwan confirmed that it had been brought to his attention that the title of his song had been written on a placard during a recent protest opposing the plans in Llanelli.

Many on the social media platform have praised the singer for taking a stand in the matter with one Twitter user saying that there was a “profound misunderstanding” of the song’s meaning. Yma o Hyd has been a familiar anthem for some time but firmly moved into the mainstream in recent years with sport playing a big part in its popularity.

The song is about the survival of Welsh culture and language. In 1983 the song, which translates to ‘still here’ in Welsh, was written at a time of political and economic turmoil where the age of Thatcherism saw many coal pits closing, thousands of men and women losing their jobs, and times of great hardship for many.

On Monday Mr Iwan said: “I just want to make it clear that I do not support the right-wing attitude and racism against asylum seekers. The message behind the song is that we have to fight for our identity but that does not mean that we close our doors to everyone else.”

A petition to stop the Home Office using Llanelli’s Stradey Park Hotel to house asylum seekers has reached almost 5,000 signatures.

In the petition, The Furnace Action Group say: “The hotel is completely unsuitable for use as accommodation for asylum seekers. The plan also puts nearly 100 jobs in jeopardy.

“We fully support Carmarthenshire Council’s preferred model of distributing asylum seekers throughout the wider community, a model which offers so much more for their health and wellbeing.”

(Lead Image: Llywelyn2000, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons)