Are we talking about the same Eisteddfod?

I've been thinking of writing a post about what I did at this year's National Eisteddfod in Mold, but haven't got round to it yet, in the meantime, there's a particularly nasty article in the highly respected South Wales Echo by Dan O'Neill titled Let’s tell these dotty druids to byrger off!.

This columnist likes to think of himself as controversial, and his article about the festivals visit to the capital next year annoyed a lot of people, and understandably so. If it was an article 'taking the mick'* out the Eisteddfod it would be fine, I find some of it a bit strange myself, but it was basically an attack on people who speak Welsh - he really goes for it and it's a shame that the echo allowed such hatred towards a language be expressed in it's pages. It starts off fairly mild:

Let’s face it, apart from a few people in Pontcanna does anybody really want it here?

He's a bit behind the times here, most young Welsh speakers live in other parts of Cardiff like Canton, Riverside, Grangetown and Splott while the older ones live in Llandaf and other northen 'burbs. The TV studios moved from Pontcanna decades ago.

in Wales there are indeed two nations: the Welsh who don’t speak the lingo (us); and the far fewer Welsh who do and decree that anyone who doesn’t is not only not Welsh but a second-class citizen as well.

This is the typical garbage that Labour have been spouting for years, and it does nothing for bring Wales together. There may be one or two idiots with such a view, but that's certainly not the attitude of Welsh speakers I know.

He takes offence (quite rightly) at a comment made 6 years ago by one person that compared the threat to the Welsh language to the destruction of Swansea during WWII, but has no qualms at using the word 'fascists' to describe Welsh speakers. hhhmm!


*Hope he doesn't find that too offensive, seeing as he's so proud of his Irish ancestry!

Edit.
The editor responds on his blog.

It's not the 'poking fun' at the Eisteddfod that's annoyed people Richard, it's his claims about ALL Welsh speakers.