Mudiad Amddiffyn Cymru

, ; ) was a paramilitary Welsh nationalist organisation, which was responsible for a number of bombing incidents between 1963 and 1969. The group's activities primarily targeted infrastructure transporting water to the English cities of Birmingham and Liverpool, in addition to the investiture of Charles III as Prince of Wales.

History

Tryweryn

The first iteration of MAC was established in 1962 at Owain Williams' café in Pwllheli, Gwynedd. After two years of working as a cattle rancher in Canada, Williams returned to his family farm near Nefyn on the Llŷn Peninsula in 1959. On his return, he had become radicalised by Plaid Cymru's failure to prevent the flooding of Tryweryn, which was being planned by Liverpool Corporation with the intention of constructing a reservoir supplying water to the city. Williams' father helped him to purchase a mortgage on the Espresso Bar and Grill in Pwllheli, which quickly became a meeting spot for Welsh nationalists. It was from the café that Williams would first recruit Robert Williams, from Criccieth, and Edwin Pritchard, from Nefyn. On 15 October 1962, the three young men raided the Cae'r Nant granite quarry in Llithfaen to steal explosives from the site. However, the trio discovered upon their return to the café that they had only succeeded in acquiring hundreds of detonators, which they promptly hid across the local area.

Following the raid on the quarry, Williams determined that his two accomplices were not suitable for his plans and would crack under police interrogation. Together, the three planned to attack the Tryweryn construction site with explosives. Williams and John Albert Jones had initially planned an ambitious strike at ten locations across the site; however, Emyr Llywelyn preferred a more symbolic protest, akin to the Tân yn Llŷn (Fire in Llŷn) at Penyberth in 1936. It was decided that they would attempt to destroy the transformer powering the site on the 9 February 1963. Upon agreeing on their plans, the three men swore the oath of Mudiad Amddiffyn Cymru, which read:<blockquote>I promise to keep the activities of the movement and the names of the members secret; I promise neither to kill nor to injure any man who as part of his duty attempts to prevent me and I will do everything in my power to ensure that no one is injured or killed as a result of any act on my part. I promise not to undertake any positive act without consulting the other members of the movement. With the gelignite and timer in his possession, Pritchard travelled north to supply the three saboteurs with the assembled explosive device and provided a demonstration with a small blast on a beach near Pwllheli. The saboteurs pressed on with their plan regardless, even despite Owain Williams' wife, Irene, being rushed to hospital in Bangor with pregnancy complications shortly beforehand. The trio met at their planned rendezvous point in Pwllheli, from where Emyr Llywelyn drove them in a rented red Vauxhall Victor towards the target. Most of the roads in the area surrounding the dam construction site were closed due to snow and ice, with only the A494 between Bala and Dolgellau remaining open. Shortly after passing Dolgellau, a rear tyre popped, causing the car to skid across the road. Fearing being spotted, the saboteurs pushed the car off-road so they could replace the tyre; however, they discovered that they had no jack, requiring two of them to lift the car with their hands. As they approached the transformer, the saboteurs were forced to drop to the ground and crawl through the snow for hundreds of yards, leaving a trail behind them. Attempting to stem the bleeding from his leg wound, Emyr used his handkerchief embroidered with the initial 'E' to apply pressure, but he later dropped it near the scene during the group's escape.

With Emyr Llywelyn unable to drive, Williams took the responsibility. The icy conditions proved too severe for Williams, who skidded the car into a snowdrift on the road approaching Cerrigydrudion while attempting to pass a van that had done the same. The young van driver, Hugh Roberts from Cwmtirmynach, was suspicious of the 'Englishmen' and replied, "No, it's closed; I'm stuck, too, you see." After pushing both the van and the Vauxhall out of the snow, the trio hastily drove off back in the direction of Bala, as Williams had boxed himself into a corner with his English persona. Intent on maintaining the masquerade as he departed, Williams shouted from the window of the car, "Blast these Welsh roads; I'll be glad to get back over the border, old boy!" However, with a wealth of evidence left at the scene and a witnessed rental car, the police swiftly identified and arrested Emyr Llywelyn Jones at his flat in Aberystwyth on the evening of 18 February, just over a week after the bombing. Arresting officer Sergeant Glanmor Hughes stated that the evidence discovered amounted to what one "might expect to be in the possession of a person intent, or guilty, of having caused an explosion". On 21 February, Emyr Llywelyn appeared before the court in Bala to answer the charges against him and was represented by W. R. P. George, a nephew of former Prime Minister David Lloyd George. The courtroom was reported to be full, with many attendees present to show support for Jones, including a bus carrying sixty students from Aberystwyth. George argued that the bombing was not “a criminal act in the common sense of the word”, a submission permitted by the chair of the bench and reported at the time to have caused concern among police. During a BBC Wales programme, Plaid Cymru president Gwynfor Evans stated that those responsible for the attack had his “full respect, sympathy and moral support”. Emyr Llywelyn’s trial continued in Bala throughout March, during which a range of forensic evidence and witness statements was presented to the court. Among the witnesses called to give evidence was Hugh Roberts, who had witnessed the trio in the snowdrift on the night of the attack. Roberts received threats after providing evidence in the trial and later recalled to the BBC in 2023, “I wish I hadn't had seen them, but I didn't have a choice. I was here at the wrong time.” On 29 March 1963, Emyr Llywelyn was summoned for sentencing at Carmarthen assizes, where he was convicted and sentenced to one year's imprisonment for his involvement in the bombing of the transformer.

thumb|279x279px|[[Trawsfynydd nuclear power station under construction, photographed in 1961]]

On 31 March 1963, shortly after Emyr Llywelyn's sentencing, Owain Williams and John Albert Jones attempted to destroy an electricity pylon near the village of Gellilydan in protest. The pylon was located just two miles from the Trawsfynydd nuclear power station construction site, and connected Maentwrog power station to Blaenau Ffestiniog, from where it connected to the Tryweryn construction site. This resulted in the pylon failing to collapse as intended and simultaneously alerted the surrounding area of the attack. The saboteurs were forced to quickly escape the scene before they could be caught.

Following the arrest of Owain’s two earlier associates, statements were obtained that implicated him and directed police to his café in Pwllheli. This ultimately led to the arrest and conviction of both Owain Williams and John Albert Jones for their role in the bombings. Williams was the first to be arrested on 7 April 1963 and later claimed that police sought to coerce a confession by confronting him with his crying children, relating to the quarry raid, the transformer bombing, and the Gellilydan bombing. A police search of Williams’ flat uncovered a copy of the movement’s oath, newspaper clippings relating to the Tryweryn bombing and Emyr Llywelyn’s trial, and a homemade Free Wales Army (FWA) poster. John Albert Jones was arrested by police at his sister’s home in Penrhyndeudraeth the following morning. A subsequent search uncovered similar items of evidence, including Korean War boots that were reported to match footprints found at the scene of the transformer bombing. Robert Williams and Edwin Pritchard were later fined £25 and £40 respectively for their involvement in the theft of detonators, thereby avoiding custodial sentences. Proceedings against John Albert Jones and Owain Williams continued before the Blaenau Ffestiniog magistrates for several months, after which their case was committed to the Meirionnydd assizes in June, following the court's examination of 32 witnesses and 54 exhibits. On 14 June, both men pleaded guilty to the charges before them in Dolgellau. Judge Elwes sentenced Jones to three years’ probation, while Williams was granted bail and summoned for sentencing on 1 July, owing to his young daughter requiring brain surgery in Liverpool. Judge Elwes expressed sympathy for Williams and had initially intended to impose a non-custodial sentence; however, media coverage of this decision provoked criticism, with outlets attacking the judge for perceived leniency toward the saboteurs. Following the public criticism, Williams was subsequently sentenced to one year’s imprisonment, the same sentence previously handed down to Emyr Llywelyn Jones.

thumb|276x276px|[[Emyr Llywelyn|Emyr Llywelyn Jones photographed near the time of his release from prison, 21 November 1963]]

Following his release from prison in December 1963, Emyr Llywelyn Jones publicly renounced violence and dismissed claims that young people in Wales were joining the ranks of the Free Wales Army. Jones later became the chairman of Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg (Welsh Language Society), during whose tenure the movement passed a motion committing itself to non-violent direct action in support of the Welsh language. Owain Williams, who was still serving his prison sentence at the time, later stated that he felt betrayed by Jones' decision, commenting that "he should have kept them [his thoughts] private." Recounting the situation to Wyn Thomas in 2004, Williams suggested that Emyr Llywelyn's Nonconformist upbringing was responsible for his pacifism, and stated that it was at odds with his and John Albert Jones' working-class backgrounds. Williams also implied that Emyr Llywelyn's family were involved, alleging that he had been "groomed from the cradle to be a martyr" by his father, T. Llew Jones; a claim which Emyr Llywelyn strongly rejected. While imprisoned, Williams was held between a convicted rapist and a murderer, and while he generally received letters of support, he claimed that one letter read: "I wish your baby was dead. She would be better off than having a lunatic like you for a father", anonymously signed by a "Liverpool doctor". He was released from prison in April 1964.

Investiture

thumb|307x307px|[[John Barnard Jenkins assumed leadership of the organisation in the years following the imprisonment of its original leaders]]

The leadership of the organisation was later taken over by John Barnard Jenkins, a non-commissioned officer in the British Army's Royal Army Dental Corps. Jenkins had been recruited by the group in 1965, when he was 32 years old. In 1968 a tax office in Cardiff was blown up, followed the same year by the Welsh Office building in the same city, then another water pipe at Helsby, Cheshire. In April 1969 a tax office in Chester was the next target. On 30 June 1969, the evening before the investiture, two members of MAC, Alwyn Jones and George Taylor, were killed when a bomb they had been placing near government offices exploded prematurely. On the day of the investiture, two other bombs were planted in Caernarfon, one in the local police constable's garden which exploded as the 21 gun salute was fired. Another was planted in an iron forge near the castle. It failed to go off when intended. It then lay undiscovered for several days before seriously injuring a 10-year-old boy who discovered the device. The final bomb was placed on Llandudno Pier and was designed to stop the Royal Yacht Britannia from docking - this too failed to explode. In November 1969 John Jenkins was arrested, and in April 1970 was convicted of eight offences involving explosives and sentenced to ten years' imprisonment. In an interview shown on the BBC2 4 July 2009, John Jenkins repeated his intention that the bombs were never planted or timed to hurt people but just to disrupt the ceremony. Although there were further bombings, there is no evidence that MAC were involved.

Mudiad Amddiffyn Cymru

History

Tryweryn

Investiture

See also

References

Works cited

Further reading