LIVERPOOL councillors last night formally apologised for drowning a North Wales valley to provide drinking water for the city.

Welsh people were forced from their Capel Celyn homes 40 years ago in the controversial flooding of Tryweryn valley, near Bala.

Last night, in an attempt to quell decades of bitterness, city councillors apologised for the "gerrymandering" ways of their predecessors.

"It is not gesturing but a recognition of the mistakes of the past," said Liverpool council leader Mike Storey.

As the historic apology was given a unanimous cross-party vote, councillors applauded. But it was "too little too late", said Caernarfon Plaid AM Alun Ffred Jones.

By Larry Neild, Daily Post
Oct 20 2005


SOURCE (http://icnorthwales.icnetwork.co.uk/news/regionalnews/tm_objectid=16271256%26method=full%26siteid=50142-name_page.html)

I suppose it would be too much to expect that the apology be accepted graciously. Perhaps now though they'll stop piddling in the lake. :eek: :)

The Welsh hate scousers anyway don't they?

Some of the Welsh hate everyone who aint Welsh, Kev. One thing about 'em that p*sses me off, is the way they switch from speaking English to Welsh as soon as an Englishman opens his mouth. Now if they were speaking in their own tongue when you approached, OK, I have no probs with that. The Chinese, Greeks and Turks do so all the time but at least most of them have good manners.

Some years ago we went on holiday to Caernarvon...BIG mistake, we were back home Thursday morning. They must be some of the unfriendliest people in the UK. But as with everything, there must be the exception to the rule...somewhere in Wales. It's just finding him!

Never had a problem with the Welsh worked in Abersoch for eighteen months in the early seventies. As for them changing into Welsh when you walk in the pub that is rubbish. I always remember my first visit to Wales when I was seven and staying at Plas Llwyndy caravan site. The farm next door kept some pigs and they got out, the farmers daughter was about five and came in the caravan field to help chase the pigs back. I could not understand a word she uttered because the tradition there was to bring children up speaking only the welsh language till they went to school. A tradition that is still followed today, so when you hear welsh spoken it is probably because that is the first language for many welsh people.

By the way some of the English are just as insular as you describe tried living in Southport! People are just people the world over.

Incidentally I well remember the village of Capel Celyn we used to drive through it every year on our way to Abersoch. It was a lovely little hamlet in the shadow of Arenig Fawr and idyll of peace and I think it was a crime to drown the village. However Liverpool needed the water and we should be thankful that these people gave up their homes for us.

Well, there u go :ninja: I have listened to stories though of people working in wales, Angelsea especially and these things have happened to them.

Never had a problem with the Welsh worked in Abersoch for eighteen months in the early seventies. As for them changing into Welsh when you walk in the pub that is rubbish.

Just telling it as I found them Dave, sorry if you think it's 'rubbish' but they were burning down the homes of the English at the time! Homes that Welshmen had sold 'em. Perhaps by now they've turned over a new leaf, eh? :rolleyes:

Must admit I have seen anti-English slogans scrawled on walls in deepest North wales, but I've personally not had any problems with the Welsh.
I know North Wales very well and have been going there a few times a year every year since I was a teenager. (so that's many years !!)
I LOVE Wales. It really wouldn't bother me if they spoke Welsh in my presence.
There was a lot of anti-English feeling when the English were buying up all the property for holiday homes (same thing is happening in Spain and France now).
People from South Wales have told me that they regard themselves as very different from the North Wales people. Don't think there's much love lost between them from what I gather.

Wales is such a beautiful country, I agree, and I too spent a lot of time there on holiday as a child. We bought a Welsh border collie from a farm near Bala a few years ago, just after the BSE crisis. The farmer had three children, all of whom spoke Welsh as their first language. The pup was four months old when we got him, and we couldn't make out why he wouldn't respond to commands. That is until we realised he had only been spoken to in Welsh! He's ok now, he's a bi-lingual scouser, honest!! :) :)

Not sure if I agree with this latest trend of 'apologising' .. in some cases for things that happened decades and even centuries ago :confused:

Although I'm the first to recognise the wrongs done to one body of people by another, I find it bemusing for officials to be offering these 'sorry's'.

It doesn't ring true for me somehow. Why should we be saying sorry for something our ancestors did and has no connection with us ordinary folk in the present day?

That doesn't mean to say that we shouldn't be made aware of past wrong doings, but where do you draw the line?

I must agree, Lindy. (Now there's a 'first'. :lol:)