Welsh Nationalism: An Approach

Abstract

Combining both published and unpublished sources, in this work the nationalist movement in Wales is revisited. Welsh nationalism has showed a weak support in spite of having a culture and language of its own. We will try to understand its low impact through the analysis of certain aspects. First, we will establish the difference between Welsh nationalism and Welsh identity in order to prove that a sentiment of belonging to a certain place or culture does not always translate itself into a political one. We will continue with an analysis of the voting results of the General Elections and the Elections to the National Assembly for Wales. This data will show that in political terms nationalism fails to obtain more voters due to a duality of understanding Welsh identity. Later on, we will show Welsh economic situation and how the nationalist movement has created a discourse around it in the hope of reaching a certain kind of voter, one that feels neglected by the UK.Then we will explain the relationship between Wales and the rest of the UK and how it has pushed the rising of the nationalist movement. Finally, we will talk about language and culture, the key elements. Wales has been ensuring the continuity of them throughout the centuries. However, nowadays there are different ways of perceiving the Welsh language. Because of this the nationalist cause has not been able to reach all the people of this nation. We have seen that these aspects are resulting in a support focused on Welsh-speaking rural areas, isolated from the rest of the UK, where the feeling of abandon by Westminster is deeply rooted. Thus, creating an “ethnic” (cultural) nationalism that is unable to connect with all the regions of Wales due to a diversity of understanding what being Welsh means and how being part of the UK affects them. English.