YMA O HYD
Photo by Lewis Mitchell [lewismitchellphoto.photoshelter.com]
Sam Southall
"Tonight was one of the all-time great nights for Welsh football."
It feels like we've been saying that almost every international break since that summer in France. And rightfully so. We've had so many great nights together.
Thursday night was undeniably one of them. Was it the greatest? Only time will tell, but it's certainly up there. The buzz leading up to the game was incredible, and the high after leaving the stadium hasn't yet worn off for me and no doubt countless others.
The dialogues and discussions coming out of the game have been innumerable, everybody has an opinion on Welsh football and we've all gotten in on the conversation with each other. Megan Feringa wrote the definitive piece on Bale's escapades, while Barney Ronay bottled his essence for The Guardian’s readers. Chris Wood captured the off-field choruses of the crowd for the BBC in an article that couldn't have been written about any other nation. Meanwhile, Elis James has covered just about everything else and preached it to everyone and anyone who would listen.
There's been articles and podcasts and poems, all dedicated to this one moment in Welsh football history. This one moment in Welsh history.
If you feel like you're living through a significant historical time in Wales right now, you're not the only one. There's something in the air.
There's so many moments from Thursday which feel symptomatic of this. From another rousing rendition of the anthem to Bale's two world class goals and the following celebrations. However, there's something especially special about the 5 minutes preceding Zombie Nation and the anthems. You already know what I'm talking about.
Dafydd Iwan has been a part of Cymry Cymraeg life for some six decades now. He's been singing Yma O Hyd for 40 years. But, as Elis James and others have said, he's spent a fair chunk of that time preaching to the converted - Eisteddfodau, S4C, y Fro Gymraeg, ac yn y blaen, ac yn y blaen. Thursday was different. Dafydd Iwan has gone mainstream. 32 thousand people sang Yma O Hyd that night. I'm convinced even the Austrians were singing along by the end.
Iwan came of age when it seemed Cymraeg would die out and with it so much of the culture central to our nation. But when Iwan, with his fist raised and a tear streaming down his face, sang "Byddwn yma hyd ddiwedd amser a bydd yr iaith..." I think he knew that wasn't the case anymore. For Dafydd Iwan didn't finish that line, the Red Wall did.
Over 30 thousand strong sang in Cymraeg about the continuation of our language and culture in a way that no other group of people has before. Video from the performance has been watched over a million times across YouTube and Twitter alone since Thursday. No doubt hundreds of thousands more saw parts of the song on Sgorio or Sky. Iwan's never had an audience so big.
That performance of Yma O Hyd will go down in history, not just as a sign of changing attitudes, but as proof of the depth, breadth and vitality of modern Welsh culture. A culture for which this nation owes a profound debt of gratitude to the Football Association of Wales and the Red Wall.
At a time when sport, and football especially, has become so integral to cultural and political life and so wrapped up in the depths of sports-washing and endgame capitalism, the FAW did something different. Whether it meant to or not, the Together Stronger slogan tapped into Welsh culture in an incredibly profound way. It's a play on the Gorau Chwarae Cyd Chwarae motto which was emblazoned on the crest for so long, but it also recalls a deep connection to the long history of socialist politics of our nation. The politics of which are clear as day in Yma O Hyd - a song about still being together despite everybody and everything else, despite old Maggie and her crew.
When we qualify for the World Cup, whether that’s this year or another 50 years into the future, we'll know that we only accomplished it because we did it together. Players, coaches, fans, musicians, artists, authors, podcasters, famous and working class, all linked to a thriving Welsh culture.
For so long Yma O Hyd was a rallying song striving for a future, any future, for Cymraeg. Now, it marks a defining feature of our football team and of our nation itself - er gwatha' pawb a phopeth, ry'n ni yma o hyd.