St David’s Day dinner

Friday 7 March 2025

The 2025 St David’s Day dinner attracted 32 members and friends, and was held, as has become usual, at Mortonhall Golf Club. Our President, David Hughes, welcomed members, and we raised a glass in memory of Eirwen Stillie, a long-standing EWS member, who had died very recently, before Margaret Brandie said Grace.

After an excellent dinner, those present gave a round of applause to Rhya and the Mortonhall team before the President introduced our guest speakers, Idwal and Bethanne Williams. Their connections went back to David’s time at Ysgol Syr Huw Owen in Caernarfon where Idwal arrived as a new rugby-playing maths teacher!

Idwal is also the brother of our member Hywel, and he spoke of their father’s appointment as Chief Electrical Engineer at the power station at Hawick, and of the family having been “marooned” there by a reorganisation in 1949! The illustrated life stories that followed were of rugby, university politics and a few years spent in Nigeria following his electrical engineering degree.

Unusually, many of Bethanne and Idwal’s memories could be brought together in one photograph – of their cottage fireplace, one of only two made of Dinorwig slate to a very unusual design. The items on or around the fireplace were many and varied:

• A chair brought back as a peace offering by Bethan’s great-grandfather after a bibulous time away with his brass band
• A wooden singing bird from Nigeria
• Horn sculptures
• Sculptures from Thailand
• “Gaudy Welsh” pottery

The stories these evoked were interspersed with tales of encounters with Siân Phillips and Peter O’Toole, dancing in Poland and a trip to Goa, and concluded with a video clip of a North Wales “House Hunt” programme in which they had both appeared, reminding us that our guests had previously treated us to a talk and demonstration of traditional Welsh Dance back in February 2017!

The applause that greeted their talk was followed by a Vote of Thanks by Cledwyn Thomas, freshly flown-in from Italy, who shared with our guests stories of Nigeria and misadventures with a Triumph Herald.

Our President then thanked a number of people for their contribution to EWS life, especially our Secretary, before Huw Thomas led us in singing. The fare included “Ar lan y môr”, “Calon lân” and the Llanelli-inevitable “Sosban Fach”, before we concluded with “Hen Wlad fy Nhadau” and headed off after having spent a splendid evening together.