Wales is a nation released. Regardless of what happens against Iran on Friday morning and England next Tuesday evening, Rob Page’s team have imbued their country with a renewed sense of investment in their own culture.
There is a deeper feeling of attachment from Wrexham down to Pembroke – in both the football team and national identity. They go hand in hand and at no point is that clearer than the sight of thousands singing Yma o Hyd, the almost 40-year-old anthem which translates to We’re Still Here.
“The language has been suppressed for centuries, it has been undermined,” Sian Lewis, chief executive of the youth organisation Urdd Gobaith Cymru, tells Mirror Football on the phone from Qatar. “But the football team has helped to normalise it, amplify the appeal of it and put it on the international map.”
Urdd have worked to promote the use of Welsh among the nation's youth. The success of Gareth Bale, Aaron Ramsey and company have made it all so much easier “It's a tremendous marketing campaign that no government could manage,” Lewis says of the team’s success.
Noel Mooney, the FA of Wales’ chief executive, describes it as “a newfound confidence in the country.” At their base in the Vale of Glamorgan there have been weekly deliveries of everything from poetry and songs to paintings and sculptures since sealing qualification for Qatar in June.
“People seem to see us as a museum or art gallery,” Mooney says. “At the moment the creative juices of Cymru are flowing.”
This goes some way to explaining why there will be attempts for the team to be officially known as Cymru. That is still some way off becoming reality, mostly because of red tape, but it is another statement of intent and a promise that this is not a short-term initiative.
“The language has been very important,” Mooney says. “There’s been a resurgence and some of that is linked to football and the adoption of the language in everything we do. Yma o Hyd has touched a lot of people in how it is sung before matches. I wasn’t aware of the history of the song but the timing of it…”
Dafydd Iwan, the song’s composer, was reduced to tears when the crowd at Cardiff City Stadium joined in before March’s play-off semi-final win over Austria. From there its popularity has spiralled and new meaning has been attached.
Iwan, 79, was jailed four times for his pro-language activism, fighting the cause when few seemed interested and the well-worn perception was that you had to speak English to progress in Wales. With that history in mind, viewers did not need to be affiliated to Wales to feel touched by him joining players on the pitch after June’s final win against Ukraine.
“Dafydd has been a great campaigner for decades,” Lewis explains. “The song is about saying we're here despite being suppressed. Having young people identify with a song from a 79 year old man is huge.”
None of it has been forced. Mooney says recent months have felt a bit like being at home in the West of Ireland before they debuted at the 1988 European Championship, with similarities in populations becoming more confident in their own skin.
“Parents and teachers have been sending letters to thank us for making the language cooler for Welsh audiences so that’s really great,” he adds. “I’d no idea that the song would take off like it did. To hear the whole stadium singing in Welsh is special.”
According to Urdd, around the time Yma o Hyd was written about 6% of young people could speak the language. The latest figures say more than a quarter are fluent and all indications are that percentage will increase.
“We’re entering a new era, a new dawn,” Lewis adds. “We've been suppressed for so long, battled for our identity.”
Still here? This is more akin to an arrival.
