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Monday, March 01, 2004

Just another hero

So, in the end Aneurin Bevan held off a stiff challenge from Owain Glyndwr and was crowned the greatest ever Welsh person. There was just 117 votes in it. My choice of Tom Jones came in third. Interesting exercise, not sure what it is meant to prove.

Comments:
The vote itself isn't intended to prove anything much - it's a bit of fun, gets people interested. Then we get to talk about Wales and the Welsh to people who don't know much about it. My partner teaches, and in a highly representative and scientific poll conducted on the spur of the moment only one of her class of six sixth-formers knew had heard of Owain Glyndwr - and she thought he had something to do with the Magna Carter.

I was emailed last night by someone from New York about the site. He (or she) wrote:

"It was very interesting to come across your 100 Welsh heroes project. Many names, and I enjoyed some of the biographies.There are quite a few people I was aware of, and many I wasn\'t, but got to know.And I didn\'t know that Tommy Cooper, (a genius ) was Welsh."

Sadaqat Khan
Watertown,
New York


I'm getting comments from all over the place. And before this all started I didn't have an inkling that Bertrand Russell was Welsh - he seemed quintessentially English but perhaps I thought that because of Alan Bennett's sketch about a conv. between him and G E Moore.

Now I'm redeveloping the heroes site to push the educational aspect of it. I think it's working quite well. There'll be lots of interaction, invitations to comment, maybe even an online heroes trading-cards game...

David Jones 2 March 2004
 
I was being slightly ironic of course but I can see the value of the site. I have to admit I didnt know Bertrand Russell was Welsh either.
 
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