General Election 1969
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Some people may remember the 1969 general election for its red scare, including the "Reds under the Bed" rantings of Kevin Boland and a not insignificant number of his Fianna Fáil colleagues. The Labour Party and their Moscow masters. Seems funny now, but it may well have kept some of the troop in line.
General Election 1969
Local Elections 1967
Church Road, Ballybrack, Co. Dublin
While searching for something else, I came across these five colour slides taken of Moore Street in June 1969.
The first two are taken from Radio Éireann on the third floor of the GPO, while the other three are clearly at closer quarters at ground level.
The quality is not great but given that it's forty years ago they might be of interest. This probably applies in particular to the first one which includes the 1916 buildings
The year was 1969. A memorable year. It was the year of my first visit to Wales and to the National Eisteddfod. The Prince of Wales had just been invested in the magnificent ruin of Caernarfon Castle. Welsh Wales was at its most obedient. Or so it seemed. There had been a few nutters from the Free Wales Army to be rounded up so the investiture would not be disrupted. Two guys from Mudiad Amddiffyn Cymru obligingly blew themselve up. And then there were Dafydd Iwan's satirical songs Carlo and Creoso Chwedeg Nain to be borne in silence by the Welsh establishment.
Unlike the investiture of Charles's predecessor, in 1911, also in Caernarfon Castle, this one was a little more controversial. This was particularly so since the burning of yr ysgol fomio in 1936 by Saunders Lewis and two of his colleagues, and the publication of his rallying cry for the Welsh language Tynged yr Iaith in 1962. On this occasion, the authorities had reason to be nervous of protests of one sort or another. This is probably why the monarchy made that little extra effort to portray its connections to Welsh culture and the Welsh people as something more than a label of convenience.
The Prince had spent some ten weeks learning the language and familiarising himself with the culture of Welsh Wales. The best available scholars had distilled Welsh history, culture and language in to such readable briefs that they were subsequently published as books in their own right.
But the big gesture, much vaunted at the time, was the Prince's Gracious Reply to the Loyal Address of the People of Wales which he delivered first in Welsh and then in English. His Welsh was rapturously described by the BBC Welsh commentator as bendigedig which, in the circumstances, could be translated as divine.
In my enthusiasm, for the language and not the Prince, I had bought the (vinyl 33rpm) record of the investiture and have just now digitised the Prince's contribution (below).
