Yma o Hyd has become one of the many battle cries of Welsh defiance, Dafydd Iwan’s folk number penned during the troubled times of the 1970s and 80s and belted out on the picket lines during the miners’ strikes that followed. Translated, it means “Still Here” – in spite of everyone and everything, the pride and passion of a nation remains.
It is a sentiment that one feels on each and every visit to Cardiff, a sort of unsung refrain nonetheless in the ears on a stroll down St Mary Street or up into the Arcades. The city centre is compact and congested, particularly on the great Six Nations days; pour out of the taverns and into the Principality Stadium and you can be swept up in the swell of anticipation, carried along in the warbling warmth of a Welsh choir that will sing strongly again this weekend.
