Dafydd Iwan slams protesters for using his song - The protest singer is a cult hero in Wales with his famous anthem Yma o Hyd sang by fans at Welsh football and rugby matches, but he's not happy at all that the anthem is being used for protests in Wales

Link: https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/dafydd-iwan-slams-protesters-using-33306171
Credit: Owen Hughes Business correspondent, Wales Online, 19:18, 26 Jan 2026
Archive: https://archive.ph/wip/5w0py



Dafydd Iwan's song is famously sung by Welsh football and rugby fans (Image: Lewis Mitchell/Huw Evans Agency)

Welsh folk musician Dafydd Iwan, singer of the famous Welsh anthem Yma o Hyd, has demanded organisers of an anti-asylum seeker protest in Wales stop using his song as part of their campaigning.

Mr Iwan's song is famously sung by Welsh football and rugby fans, but he is angry that it has recently also been used to promote a march opposing proposed asylum seeker accommodation in Wrexham.

A group known as Wrexham Unite is arranging the demonstration in the city centre at midday on Saturday with ongoing discussions with police to confirm the arrangements. A counter-demonstration is also being planned.

It comes after a proposal to use former care home Plas yn Rhos in the village of Rhosllanerchrugog for asylum seeker accommodation.

Wrexham council has also stated that Clear Springs has submitted an application for Oak Alyn Hall, Sydallt, Gwersyllt, to be utilised for asylum accommodation - though the property's owner has dismissed speculation that it is designated for asylum seekers.

In a post on X Mr Iwan told followers: "Whoever is organising the right wing protest next Saturday in Wrecsam, STOP USING MY SONG!!!! I do not want to be linked to your hate-driven campaign."

Yma o Hyd translates to We Are Still Here in English and was recorded by Mr Iwan and the folk band Ar Log in 1983. The song celebrates the survival of the Welsh language and culture over the centuries.

One follower said: "Well said Dafydd. Yma O Hyd and the right wingers go together like oil and water."

Another added: "You tell 'em Dafydd! There's no place for their hate in Cymru."

Although one person said: "Protecting Welsh speaking communities from English settlers/retirees was never 'far right' or 'hate-driven' in the eyes of Welsh nationalists but the same people label anyone opposing mass migration as racist or 'far right'. I think you're all f****** hypocrites."

Wrexham Unite replied: "Thank you for the music."

This isn't the first occasion Mr Iwan has addressed this matter, as the song has been previously appropriated at other anti-migrant demonstrations across Wales.

He previously said: "Yma o Hyd is a song of hope for everyone who calls Wales home. No one has my permission to use it to promote hatred."

Also, please don't do what I have done on https://kiwifarmsaaf4t2h7gc3dfc5ojh.../threads/made-in-wales-ai-productions.221087/ and make AI versions of his song including one in support of Kiwi Farms*

* Just kidding, and as the song is in the public domain it will be hard for him to prevent its usage.

 

[SmokelessFire]

Left wing "nationalists" when your country is being invaded by foreign superfluous military aged white men:
Left wing "nationalists" when your country is being invaded by foreign superfluous military aged brown men:

 

[Dante Alighieri]

Is there a musical equivalent of "death of the author"?

 

[Made In Wales]

Is there a musical equivalent of "death of the author"?

Ah, do you mean for the use of 'Rhosllanerchrugog'

(RHOSE-LAN-ERK-ROO-GOG)

Even if not, I support all the Wales Online Journos being jettisoned off this planet.

Also, no Dafydd memes please/diolch

 

[Frostnipped Todger]

I'm always amazed that these people who used to be ethno-nationalists can so easily be converted to the globohomo agenda.
I mean, I guess the Welsh didnt fight like the Irish, but do they have no love for their homeland?

 

[Made In Wales]

I'm always amazed that these people who used to be ethno-nationalists can so easily be converted to the globohomo agenda.
I mean, I guess the Welsh didnt fight like the Irish, but do they have no love for their homeland?

Not really.

Dafydd makes out that only he knows the true history of Wales and its people, as if he is some self-appointed 'pompous pontificate.'

I didn't study Welsh History at school (my History was everything from William The Conqueror to Pandit Nehru) but I did read about it at home: Geoffrey and Maud of Monmouth, King Llewellyn The Great, Macsen and the Mabinogon etc. I knew of long before it became 'cool', 'hip' and 'trendy'.

He is one of those 'I will tell you, but you can never tell me' types and the only things he has a genuine love for is money and attention like most Welsh Liberals and 'Nationalists'.

He's even hated by 'Rhyddid' members who are proper Welsh Nationalists i.e. 'Wales/Cymru First' and whom hate the EU as much as they do Westminster - they want Wales out of the UK and to stay out of the EU as a self contained independent nation.

 

[Falcos_Commisar]

Not really.

Dafydd makes out that only he knows the true history of Wales and its people, as if he is some self-appointed 'pompous pontificate.'

I didn't study Welsh History at school (my History was everything from William The Conqueror to Pandit Nehru) but I did read about it at home: Geoffrey and Maud of Monmouth, King Llewellyn The Great, Macsen and the Mabinogon etc. I knew of long before it became 'cool', 'hip' and 'trendy'.

He is one of those 'I will tell you, but you can never tell me' types and the only things he has a genuine love for is money and attention like most Welsh Liberals and 'Nationalists'.

He's even hated by 'Rhyddid' members who are proper Welsh Nationalists i.e. 'Wales/Cymru First' and whom hate the EU as much as they do Westminster - they want Wales out of the UK and to stay out of the EU as a self contained independent nation.

Sadly the Welsh language is probably going to be almost totally extinct in another generation

 

[Made In Wales]

Sadly the Welsh language is probably going to be almost totally extinct in another generation

The Welsh Government/Senedd are trying to mandate that Welsh be spoken, and plaid are pushing hard for it to have 'equal status' with English (i.e. they'll soon push for Welsh everywhere and English to be banned, because 'Welsh Not Reasons').

Therefore, you are probably right, once the Migrants here turn against Plaid (and they will soon) they'll reverse Uno the Government and demand Welsh be gone because 'it's too difficult to understand.'

 

[Snekposter]

demand Welsh be gone because 'it's too difficult to understand.'

I too want Welsh gone but at least that's because its the language of the Great Old Ones.

 

[Dante Alighieri]

I too want Welsh gone but at least that's because its the language of the Great Old Ones.

Well yeah have you seen Cardiff?

 

[Made In Wales]

Well yeah have you seen Cardiff?

Don't go there if you're a Tranny, because Ooga Booga's do rape there.

 

[Average Russian Spy]

Welsh Nationalist who made song celebrating the survival of the Welsh culture gets mad at other Welsh Nationalists for using his song to celebrate the survival of the Welsh culture. Boomers are so poisoned with propaganda that they toss their entire beliefs to the ground for niggerinos. It's like that meme of an Irishman being freed from the shackles of British rule, only to then immediately demand for more blacks.

 

[Made In Wales]

Welsh Nationalist who made song celebrating the survival of the Welsh culture gets mad at other Welsh Nationalists for using his song to celebrate the survival of the Welsh culture. Boomers are so poisoned with propaganda that they toss their entire beliefs to the ground for niggerinos. It's like that meme of an Irishman being freed from the shackles of British rule, only to then immediately demand for more blacks.

There's a line on the Manic Street Preachers song 'The Masses Against The Classes' which says:

'A slave begins by demanding justice and ends up wanting to wear the crown.'

Dafydd portrays himself as the slave, the servile and the victim of 'cruel people' like Dic Sion Dafydd who is basically every Welsh person who goes to England (or London in particular) and loses his/her culture and returns to Wales not even willing to speak Welsh having learned the 'stuffy and pompous' ways of the people the other side of Offa's Dyke.

However, he wants to wear the crown and to be the 'kingmaker' on where and when 'his' song gets played and how it is used. Now it is he who has become stuffy and pompous and though he can voice his opposition to its use he cannot stop it.

Can Queen, for example, stop me from playing Bohemian Rhapsody? No, they can't and I doubt they'd be interested in doing so.

My guess is that Dafydd thinks that his 'new friends' like him and back him - when he gets to be 'old hat' he'll be cast aside just like 'Cool Cymru' was after a few years.