![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wenvoe.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/goons.jpg?resize=502%2C375\")
celebrations take traditional forms, such as eisteddfodau or arts festivals. Perhaps one of the most unusual though, took place in 1956, when the Goons <\/strong>celebrated St. David’s Day by lighting cigarettes with leeks.<\/p>\nSt David\u2019s Day has many other significant and interesting events attached to it in recent Welsh history. On St David’s Day in 1827 the appropriately named St David’s College, Lampeter, now the University of Wales Trinity St David<\/strong>, was opened. Today it has campuses in Lampeter, Carmarthen and Swansea as well as another campus in London and learning centres in Cardiff and Birmingham.<\/p>\n On 1 March 1927 a crippling explosion at Marine Colliery, Ebbw Vale<\/strong>, killed no fewer than 51 miners. There had been worse mining disasters in Wales but this one, coming so soon after the tragedy of World War One, was a particularly poignant and painful event.<\/p>\n On a lighter note, on 1 March 1965 Tom Jones hit the number one spot for the first time with his single \u2018It’s Not Unusual.<\/strong>\u2019 Songs like \u2018Green, Green Grass of Home\u2019 and \u2018Delilah\u2019 are generally loved in Wales and beyond. No rugby international would be complete without at least one rendering of Delilah. It all began on St David\u2019s Day.<\/p>\n St David’s Day in 1979 saw the rejection of devolution <\/strong>(by the huge margin of 4-1) in a referendum <\/strong>held right across the country. The idea of devolution disappeared from the Welsh political agenda for over ten years; only in September 1997 was a second referendum held, this time resulting in a narrow victory for the supporters of devolution.<\/p>\n St David’s Day 1986 saw the death of one of Wales’ great sporting heroes. Tommy Farr, the \u2018Tonypandy Terror,\u2019 <\/strong>who died at the age of 73. Born in Clydach Vale on 12th March 1913, Tommy became British and Empire Champion in 1937 and in August of that same year was matched against the great American world champion, Joe Louis, in a bout at Yankee Stadium, New York. Louis had carried all before him, knocking out all nine previous opponents. Nobody gave the Welshman much of a chance. In a brutal and close contest Tommy Farr lost on points and earned the respect of Louis and the American boxing fans. Indeed, when the decision was announced many of the crowd booed to show their disapproval. Tommy’s later life did not run smoothly and, having retired in 1940, he was forced to return to the ring to try to recapture some of his lost fortune. He tried singing and even ran a pub in Brighton for a while, but his moment of triumph (even though it was, in reality, a defeat) had come years before in his contest with Joe Louis.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" WHAT ELSE HAPPENED ON ST DAVID’S DAY? March1st is arguably the most widely known and important day in Welsh history and culture. Across the country we mark the death of St David, patron saint of Wales, who died on 1st March in 589 AD. Most celebrations take traditional forms, such as eisteddfodau or arts festivals. Perhaps one of the most […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[334,127],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6cWjO-1rs","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4241,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=4241","url_meta":{"origin":5546,"position":0},"title":"ST DAVID – WALES AND BEYOND","author":"Alan Williams","date":"27th February 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"ST DAVID - WALES AND BEYOND St David was born in Pembrokeshire around 500 AD to Sant, a prince of Cardigan, and St Non, the daughter of a chieftain. Little is known about his life. He was brought up near Aberaeron and is said to have been baptised by St\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Wenvoe History Group"","block_context":{"text":"Wenvoe History Group","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=40"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":14028,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=14028","url_meta":{"origin":5546,"position":1},"title":"Daffodils At The Ready And Not Just For St David\u2019s Day","author":"Alan Williams","date":"13th March 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"DAFFODILS AT THE READY AND NOT JUST FOR ST DAVID\u2019S DAY St David\u2019s Day has long been associated with daffodils and they have become a symbol of Wales, not least because they bloom around the 1st of March each year. The humble \u2018daff\u2019 has always been special to us here\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Readers Articles of Interest"","block_context":{"text":"Readers Articles of Interest","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=228"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":14057,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=14057","url_meta":{"origin":5546,"position":2},"title":"Saint David – the Patron Saint of Wales","author":"Alan Williams","date":"14th March 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Dewi Sant - Nawddsant Cymru Saint David - the Patron Saint of Wales \u00a0 Dewi was the Bishop of Mynyw in South West Wales - what today is called St David\u2019s - in the 6th Century. The date of his birth is not clear but it is generally accepted that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Readers Articles of Interest"","block_context":{"text":"Readers Articles of Interest","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=228"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5716,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=5716","url_meta":{"origin":5546,"position":3},"title":"St David’s Day Walk","author":"Alan Williams","date":"1st April 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 Welsh cakes were distributed before the March walk to celebrate St David's Day and to provide an extra boost of energy to combat the extremely windy conditions. The Living with Cancer Strollers were advised to avoid trees around the park due to the wind, so the walkers stayed on\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Living With Cancer Strollers"","block_context":{"text":"Living With Cancer Strollers","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=307"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wenvoe.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/walkers.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":7407,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=7407","url_meta":{"origin":5546,"position":4},"title":"One of the Longest Walks","author":"Alan Williams","date":"2nd April 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"One of the Longest Walks March's walkers welcomed a new member, Sylvia, who was lucky enough to join us for one of the longest walks the group have been challenged with. However, plied with St David's Day Welsh cakes, everyone stayed dry and finished the walk in style. So after\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Living With Cancer Strollers"","block_context":{"text":"Living With Cancer Strollers","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=307"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wenvoe.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Picture5.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wenvoe.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Picture5.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wenvoe.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Picture5.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":6530,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=6530","url_meta":{"origin":5546,"position":5},"title":"Llanthony","author":"Alan Williams","date":"28th August 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Llanthony We parked at Llanthony Priory, in the care of Cadw and freely open to the public. The hamlet of Llanthony nestles in the heart of the beautiful Vale of Ewyas. This is the easternmost valley of the Black mountains, described by Gerald of Wales in 1188 as \u2018encircled on\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Footsteps"","block_context":{"text":"Footsteps","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=38"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wenvoe.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/Picture7.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5546"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5546"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5546\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5658,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5546\/revisions\/5658"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5546"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wenvoe.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/dylan.jpg?resize=466%2C275\")
Dylan Thomas, <\/strong>in many respects the traditional national poet of English-speaking Wales, was honoured on 1 March 1982. On that day a memorial was unveiled and dedicated at Poets’ Corner in Westminster Abbey<\/strong>.<\/p>\n
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