87-405: Orig Williams (20 March 1931 – 12 November 2009) was a Welsh professional wrestler and wrestling promoter. Williams spent his wrestling career in the persona of a villainous heel under the pseudonym "El Bandito" , and after retiring as a fighter he became a promoter, manager and television presenter. He is recognised as one of the most famous wrestlers to come from Wales. Williams was born in
174-526: A first language is largely concentrated in the less urban north and west of Wales, principally Gwynedd , inland Conwy and Denbighshire , northern and south-western Powys , the Isle of Anglesey , Carmarthenshire , North Pembrokeshire , Ceredigion , and parts of western Glamorgan , although first-language and other fluent speakers can be found throughout Wales. However, Cardiff is now home to an urban Welsh-speaking population (both from other parts of Wales and from
261-751: A British national identity only. Most residents of Wales (96 per cent, 2.9 million) reported at least one national identity of English, Welsh, Scottish, Northern Irish, or British. A survey published in 2001, by the Centre for Research into Elections and Social Trends at Oxford University (sample size 1161), found that 14.6 per cent of respondents described themselves as British, not Welsh; 8.3 per cent saw themselves as more British than Welsh; 39.0 per cent described themselves as equally Welsh and British; 20.2 per cent saw themselves as more Welsh than British; and 17.9 per cent described themselves as Welsh, not British. Forms of Christianity have dominated religious life in what
348-529: A Scottish ethnicity tick-box be included in the census in Scotland, and with this inclusion as many as 88.11% claimed Scottish ethnicity. Critics argued that a higher proportion of respondents would have described themselves as of Welsh ethnicity had a Welsh tick-box been made available. Additional criticism was levelled at the timing of the census, which was taken in the middle of the 2001 United Kingdom foot-and-mouth crisis . Organisers said that this had not affected
435-696: A Welsh Mormon settlement, lays claim to a greater proportion of inhabitants of Welsh descent than anywhere outside Wales itself. Malad's local High School is known as the "Malad Dragons", and flies the Welsh Flag as its school colours. Welsh people have also settled in New Zealand and Australia. Around 1.75 million Americans report themselves to have Welsh ancestry, as did 458,705 Canadians in Canada's 2011 census . This compares with 2.9 million people living in Wales (as of
522-539: A box describing themselves as of Scottish or of Irish ethnicity, an option not available for Welsh or English respondents. Prior to the census, Plaid Cymru backed a petition calling for the inclusion of a Welsh tick-box and for the National Assembly to have primary law-making powers and its own National Statistics Office . In the absence of a Welsh tick-box, the only tick-boxes available were 'white-British,' 'Irish', or 'other'. The Scottish parliament insisted that
609-534: A capital at Din Eidyn ( Edinburgh ) and extending from the area of Stirling to the Tyne. Offa's Dyke was erected in the mid-8th century, forming a barrier between Wales and Mercia . The process whereby the indigenous population of Wales came to think of themselves as "Welsh" (a name applied to them by Anglo-Saxon settlers ) is not clear. There is plenty of evidence of the use of the term Brythoniaid (Britons); meanwhile,
696-656: A common ancestry, history and culture . Wales is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom . The majority of people living in Wales are British citizens . In Wales, the Welsh language ( Welsh : Cymraeg ) is protected by law. Welsh remains the predominant language in many parts of Wales, particularly in North Wales and parts of West Wales , though English is the predominant language in South Wales . The Welsh language
783-498: A distinct genetic difference between those from northern and southern Wales, which was interpreted as the legacy of Little England beyond Wales . A study of a diverse sample of 2,039 individuals from the United Kingdom allowed the creation of a genetic map and the suggestion that there was a substantial migration of peoples from Europe prior to Roman times forming a strong ancestral component across England, Scotland, and Northern Ireland, but which had little impact in Wales. Wales forms
870-747: A distinct genetic group, followed by a further division between north and south Wales, although there was evidence of a genetic difference between north and south Pembrokeshire as separated by the Landsker line . Speaking of these results, Professor Peter Donnelly , of the University of Oxford, said that the Welsh carry DNA which could be the most ancient in UK and that people from Wales are genetically relatively distinct. The population of Wales doubled from 587,000 in 1801 to 1,163,000 in 1851 and had reached 2,421,000 by 1911. Most of
957-533: A dozen eggs every morning to maintain his strength. Ruane married his childhood sweetheart Rita Boylan at the age of 17 in 1965. They had three sons, Martin, Stephen, and Noel. All of them worked in construction. On 29 November 1998, Ruane died of lymphoma at his home in Prestwich , Greater Manchester . He was 52, and was survived by his wife Rita and three sons. Ruane appeared in the films Quest for Fire (1981) and Give My Regards to Broad Street (1984);
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#17328758290641044-471: A household name during the 1970s and 1980s. On television, the feud began when the two reached the finals of a September 1977 four-man knockout tournament only for Haystacks to walk out in the opening seconds of the final match. A November rematch between the two saw Daddy score a first fall early in Round One before Haystacks contrived to cause the referee to be crushed between himself and Daddy, resulting in
1131-503: A lumberjack match at the same early 1996 Croydon show as was headlined by a troupe of Michinoku Pro wrestlers in a six man tag match. Haystacks also wrestled all over the world. Ruane wrestled in Calgary , Alberta , Canada for Stu Hart 's Stampede Wrestling promotion as the "Loch Ness Monster", managed by J.R. Foley from Wigan , England (alias John Foley, alumnus of Billy Riley 's Wigan Snakepit wrestling school). He also worked for
1218-446: A major feud with masked fellow heel Kendo Nagasaki . Daddy in particular heard cheers during this feud and eventually completed a turn to blue eye. This was cemented when Haystacks and Daddy broke up their tag team in 1977 and feuded with each other, with Haystacks remaining as the heel, resulting in high ratings on Britain 's ITV Saturday sports show World of Sport any time they battled one another and establishing Haystacks as
1305-614: A no contest. Subsequent televised tag matches at Christmas that year and through 1978 would mostly result in Haystacks abandoning his partner to concede the losing falls to Daddy (although on one occasion in August 1978 Haystacks would return to knock out Daddy's tag partner Gary Wensor for a rare 2-1 victory.) Haystacks would be in Mighty John Quinn 's corner for his loss to Daddy at Wembley Arena in 1979 and would himself lose to Daddy at
1392-614: A scraper driver building motorways, and as a nightclub bouncer before a friend suggested he take up wrestling. Ruane began wrestling in 1967, initially for the independent WFGB as "Luke McMasters" (later incorrectly reported as being his legal name). In the early 1970s, Ruane worked for Wrestling Enterprises (of Birkenhead) , where he was billed as "Haystacks Calhoun", after the American wrestling star William Calhoun who had wrestled under that name in NWA: All-Star Wrestling and
1479-471: A single titled "Baby I Need You" in 1983. A play by Brian Mitchell and Joseph Nixon , Big Daddy vs Giant Haystacks , was performed at the Brighton Festival Fringe between 26 and 28 May 2011. Manic Street Preachers mention Giant Haystacks in their song Me and Stephen Hawking from their ninth studio album Journal for Plague Lovers (2009). In late 2021 a Giant Haystacks Retro figure
1566-590: A very positive outlook on the abilities of the Welsh, and was disappointed with the negativity of many of his countrymen. He died from a sudden heart attack in 2009, and was survived by his wife Wendy, and daughter Tara Bethan . In 2008 Tara went on to become a finalist in the BBC One television series I'd Do Anything , and mentioned her time being babysat by British wrestling superstars. Welsh people Modern ethnicities The Welsh ( Welsh : Cymry ) are an ethnic group and nation native to Wales who share
1653-508: A wrestler and boxer in fairgrounds; though he nearly lost his job as he could not bring himself to take the hat around the spectators, as he believed it was akin to begging. By the mid 1960s Williams became the top-billing performer on the independent wrestling circuit. As his career progressed he was invited to fight in India. While in India he wrestled the Bholu Brothers , and on one occasion he
1740-520: Is a focal point for many Welsh Hindus. There are about 2,000 Sikhs in Wales, with the first purpose-built gurdwara opened in the Riverside area of Cardiff in 1989. The Sabbatarian temperance movement was also historically strong among the Welsh; the sale of alcohol was prohibited on Sundays in Wales by the Sunday Closing (Wales) Act 1881 – the first legislation specifically issued for Wales since
1827-526: Is also taught in schools in Wales; and, even in regions of Wales in which Welsh people predominantly speak English on a daily basis, the Welsh language is spoken at home among family or in informal settings, with Welsh speakers often engaging in code-switching and translanguaging . In the English-speaking areas of Wales, many Welsh people are bilingually fluent or semi-fluent in the Welsh language or, to varying degrees, capable of speaking or understanding
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#17328758290641914-523: Is now Wales for more than 1,400 years. Most Welsh people of faith are affiliated with the Church in Wales or other Christian denominations such as the Presbyterian Church of Wales , Catholicism , and Russian Orthodox Christianity. Wales has a long tradition of nonconformism and Methodism . Some Welsh people are affiliated with either Buddhism , Hinduism , Judaism , Islam or Sikhism . In
2001-464: Is the Welsh name for Wales. These words (both of which are pronounced Welsh pronunciation: [ˈkəm.ri] ) are descended from the Brythonic word kombrogi , meaning "fellow-countrymen". Thus, they carry a sense of "land of fellow-countrymen", "our country", and notions of fraternity. The use of the word Cymry as a self-designation derives from the post-Roman Era relationship of the Welsh with
2088-464: Is uncertain how many people in Wales considered themselves to be of Welsh ethnicity; the 2001 UK census did not offer 'Welsh' as an option; respondents had to use a box marked "Other". Ninety-six per cent of the population of Wales thus described themselves as being White British . Controversy surrounding the method of determining ethnicity began as early as 2000, when it was revealed that respondents in Scotland and Northern Ireland would be able to tick
2175-629: Is your country of birth? and How would you describe your national identity? (for the first time 'Welsh' and 'English' were included as options), What is your ethnic group? ('White Welsh/English/Scottish/Northern Irish/British' was an option) and Can you understand, speak, read or write Welsh? . As of the 2011 census in Wales, 66 per cent (2.0 million) of residents reported a Welsh national identity (either on its own or combined with other identities). Of these, 218,000 responded that they had Welsh and British national identity. Just under 17 per cent (519,000) of people in Wales considered themselves to have
2262-476: The 2001 census ). There is no known evidence which would objectively support the legend that the Mandan , a Native American tribe of the central United States, are Welsh emigrants who reached North America under Prince Madog in 1170. The Ukrainian city of Donetsk was founded in 1869 by a Welsh businessman, John Hughes (an engineer from Merthyr Tydfil ) who constructed a steel plant and several coal mines in
2349-674: The CWA in Germany and Austria , winning several trophy tournaments there, as well as in India , South Africa where he feuded with local fan favourite Jan Wilkins and Zimbabwe , where he was made an honorary citizen. In January 1996, after spending time as a debt-collector in Manchester , selling cars, and undergoing knee surgery, Ruane debuted in the United States for World Championship Wrestling , under
2436-541: The Daily Post , and in 1985 he wrote his autobiography Cario'r Ddraig: Stori El Bandito . For his continual promotion of the Welsh language, he was made a member of the Gorsedd of Bards at the 2000 National Eisteddfod at Llanelli. Williams was a Welsh nationalist, but he believed that the people of Wales should broaden their horizons through travel and self-learning to understand their country's own identity better. He also had
2523-636: The Iron Age , though some archaeologists argue that there is no evidence for large-scale Iron Age migrations into Great Britain, in which case the Celticisation of Britain would have occurred through cultural diffusion. Most people in Wales today regard themselves as modern Celts , claiming a heritage back to the Iron Age tribes. When the Roman legions departed Britain around 400, a Romano-British culture remained in
2610-493: The Isle of Anglesey (19%). Among respondents between 16 and 74 years of age, those claiming Welsh ethnicity were predominantly in professional and managerial occupations. In advance of the 2011 UK Census, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) launched a census consultation exercise. They received replies from 28 different Welsh organisations and a large proportion of these referred to Welsh ethnicity, language or identity. For
2697-655: The Norman Conquest , and several Normans encouraged immigration to their new lands; the Landsker Line dividing the Pembrokeshire "Englishry" and "Welshry" is still detectable today. The terms Englishry and Welshry are used similarly about Gower . Recent research on ancient DNA has concluded that much of Britain's Neolithic population was replaced by Beaker people in the Bronze Age . The British groups encountered by
Orig Williams - Misplaced Pages Continue
2784-602: The World Wide Wrestling Federation . Ruane's name was subsequently modified to "Giant Haystacks". In summer 1975, he moved to Joint Promotions , where he formed a heel tag team with Big Daddy (also a heel at this point). Haystacks' TV debut came in July that year, when he and Daddy teamed up against the brothers Roy and Tony St. Clair , losing by disqualification. Although mainly known as brutal superheavyweight heels who crushed blue-eye opponents, they also had
2871-528: The 2001, around 7,000 classified themselves as following "other religions", including a reconstructed form of Druidism , which was the pre-Christian religion of Wales (not to be confused with the Druids of the Gorsedd at the National Eisteddfod of Wales). Approximately one third of the population, some 980,000 people, profess no religious faith whatsoever. The census showed that slightly fewer than 10% of
2958-538: The Brythonic-speaking peoples of northern England and southern Scotland, the peoples of " Yr Hen Ogledd " (English: The Old North ). The word came into use as a self-description probably before the 7th century. It is attested in a praise poem to Cadwallon ap Cadfan ( Moliant Cadwallon , by Afan Ferddig) c. 633 . In Welsh literature , the word Cymry was used throughout the Middle Ages to describe
3045-720: The English language. Patagonian Welsh (Cymraeg y Wladfa) is a dialect of the Welsh language which is spoken in Y Wladfa in the Argentine region, Patagonia . There has been migration from Wales to the rest of Britain throughout its history. During the Industrial Revolution thousands of Welsh people migrated, for example, to Liverpool and Ashton-in-Makerfield . As a result, some people from England, Scotland and Ireland have Welsh surnames. Welsh settlers moved to other parts of Europe, concentrated in certain areas. During
3132-556: The Industrial Revolution. The English were the most numerous group, but there were also considerable numbers of Irish; and smaller numbers of other ethnic groups, including Italians migrated to South Wales. Wales received other immigration from various parts of the British Commonwealth of Nations in the 20th century, and African-Caribbean and Asian communities immigrated particularly to urban Wales. In 2001, it
3219-600: The Iron Age and Roman era Britons showed strong similarities with both each other and modern-day Welsh populations, while modern southern and eastern English groups were closer to a later Anglo-Saxon burial. Another study, using Iron Age and Anglo-Saxon samples from Cambridgeshire, concluded that modern Welsh people carry a 30% genetic contribution from Anglo-Saxon settlers in the post-Roman period; however, this could have been brought about due to later migration from England into Wales. A third study, published in 2020 and based on Viking era data from across Europe, suggested that
3306-616: The Jewish population of that area, which reached a peak of 4,000–5,000 in 1913, has declined; only Cardiff has retained a sizeable Jewish population, of about 2000 in the 2001 Census. The largest non-Christian faith in Wales is Islam, with about 22,000 members in 2001 served by about 40 mosques, following the first mosque established in Cardiff . A college for training clerics has been established at Llanybydder in West Wales . Islam arrived in Wales in
3393-530: The Middle Ages. From the early 1960s, local council areas were permitted to hold referendums every seven years to determine whether they should be "wet" or "dry" on Sundays: most of the industrialised areas in the east and south went "wet" immediately, and by the 1980s the last district, Dwyfor in the northwest, went wet; since then there have been no more Sunday-closing referendums. Despite Christianity dominating Wales, more ancient traditions persisted. In 1874 it
3480-451: The RAF; and on discharge he became a professional footballer . He played for several notable teams around North Wales and the north of England, including Bangor City , Shrewsbury Town , Oldham Athletic and Pwllheli . He later became the player-manager of Welsh team Nantlle Vale , and the club, under his mentoring, became known as a very dirty and overly violent team. Williams himself was one of
3567-582: The Romans were thus largely descended from these Beaker populations. The post-Roman period saw a significant alteration in the genetic makeup of southern Britain due to the arrival of the Anglo-Saxons; however, historical evidence suggests that Wales was little affected by these migrations. A study published in 2016 compared samples from modern Britain and Ireland with DNA found in skeletons from Iron Age, Roman and Anglo-Saxon era Yorkshire. The study found that most of
Orig Williams - Misplaced Pages Continue
3654-775: The UK, and won the Stampede International Tag Team Championship in Canada, with the Dynamite Kid . Ruane was born in Camberwell , London, on 10 October 1946. He weighed 14 lbs and 6 oz at birth. His father was from Ballyhaunis , County Mayo , Ireland. In 1949, when he was three years old, Ruane and his family moved from London to Broughton in Salford , Lancashire , which remained his home. He attended St. Thomas' School until he left aged 14. He worked as
3741-627: The US may have been 26 times greater than Welsh emigration), to many countries, including the US (in particular, Pennsylvania ), Canada and Y Wladfa in Patagonia , Argentina. Jackson County, Ohio was sometimes referred to as "Little Wales", and one of several communities where Welsh was widely spoken. There was a Welsh language press but by the late 1940s, the last Welsh language newspaper, y Drych began to publish in English. Malad City in Idaho , which began as
3828-672: The United Kingdom, 4.7% in New Zealand, 4.1% in Australia, and 3.8% in the United States, with an estimated 16.3 million people in the countries studied having at least partial Welsh ancestry. Over 300,000 Welsh people live in London . The names "Wales" and "Welsh" are modern descendants of the Anglo-Saxon word wealh , a descendant of the Proto-Germanic word walhaz , which was derived from
3915-413: The Welsh language soap opera Pobol y Cwm , as El Bandito. In the episode he came to the valley for a wrestling match with Giant Haystacks , who also played himself. Williams set up a training gym at his house, and many female wrestlers graduated from his 'Garage' training facility including Tina Starr, Rusty Blair, Carla Sanchez and Bella Ogunlana. In his later life Williams became a sports journalist for
4002-562: The Welsh population are regular church or chapel goers (a slightly smaller proportion than in England or Scotland), although about 58% of the population see themselves as Christian in some form. Judaism has quite a long history in Wales, with a Jewish community recorded in Swansea from around 1730. In August 1911, during a period of public order and industrial disputes, Jewish shops across the South Wales coalfield were damaged by mobs. Since that time
4089-567: The Welsh trace, on average, 58% of their ancestry to the Brittonic people, up to 22% from a Danish-like source interpreted as largely representing the Anglo-Saxons, 3% from Norwegian Vikings, and 13% from further south in Europe such as Italy , to a lesser extent, Spain and can possibly be related to French immigration during the Norman period. A 2015 genetic survey of modern British population groups found
4176-537: The Welsh, though the older, more generic term Brythoniaid continued to be used to describe any of the Britonnic peoples , including the Welsh, and was the more common literary term until c. 1100 . Thereafter Cymry prevailed as a reference to the Welsh. Until c. 1560 the word was spelt Kymry or Cymry , regardless of whether it referred to the people or their homeland. During their time in Britain ,
4263-463: The acquisition of Welsh is a gateway to better careers, according to research from the Welsh Language Board and Careers Wales. The Welsh Government identified media as one of six areas likely to experience greater demand for Welsh speakers: the sector is Wales's third-largest revenue earner. Although Welsh is a minority language , and thus threatened by the dominance of English, support for
4350-618: The ancient Romans encountered tribes in present-day Wales that they called the Ordovices , the Demetae , the Silures and the Deceangli . The people of what is now Wales were not distinguished from the rest of the peoples of southern Britain; all were called Britons and spoke Common Brittonic , a Celtic language . This language, and Celtic culture more generally, seems to have arrived in Britain during
4437-452: The areas the Romans had settled, and the pre-Roman cultures in others. The people in what is now Wales continued to speak Common Brittonic with significant influence from Latin , as did people in other areas of western and northern Britain; this language eventually evolved into Old Welsh . The surviving poem Y Gododdin is in early Welsh and refers to the British kingdom of Gododdin with
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#17328758290644524-521: The beginning of his career to 48 stone (670 lb; 300 kg) by the end of it; at his heaviest, he weighed 49 stone 13 pounds (699 lb; 317 kg). In the 1970s he formed a heel team with Big Daddy . After Big Daddy turned face and the team broke up, the two engaged in a long-running, high drawing feud. During his career, Ruane held the European Heavyweight Championship and British Heavyweight Championship in
4611-414: The earliest use of the word Kymry (referring not to the people but to the land—and possibly to northern Britain in addition to Wales) is found in a poem c. 633 . The name of the region in northern England now known as Cumbria is derived from the same root. Only gradually did Cymru (the land) and Cymry (the people) come to supplant Brython . Although the Welsh language was certainly used at
4698-607: The early 19th century, and founded towns in Labrador 's coast region; in 1819, the ship Albion left Cardigan for New Brunswick , carrying Welsh settlers to Canada; on board were 27 Cardiganian families, many of whom were farmers. In 1852, Thomas Benbow Phillips of Tregaron established a settlement of about 100 Welsh people in the state of Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil. Internationally Welsh people have emigrated, in relatively small numbers (in proportion to population, Irish emigration to
4785-423: The first time ever in British census history the 2011 Census gave the opportunity for people to describe their identity as Welsh or English. A 'dress rehearsal' of the Census was carried out on the Welsh island of Anglesey because of its rural nature and its high numbers of Welsh speakers. The Census, taken on 27 March 2011, asked a number of questions relating to nationality and national identity, including What
4872-416: The growing Welsh-medium schools of Cardiff itself) due to the centralisation and concentration of national resources and organisations in the capital. For some, speaking Welsh is an important part of their Welsh identity. Parts of the culture are strongly connected to the language — notably the Eisteddfod tradition, poetry and aspects of folk music and dance. Wales also has a strong tradition of poetry in
4959-420: The increase came in the coal mining districts; especially Glamorganshire , which grew from 71,000 in 1801 to 232,000 in 1851 and 1,122,000 in 1911. Part of this increase can be attributed to the demographic transition seen in most industrialising countries during the Industrial Revolution , as death rates dropped and birth rates remained steady. However, there was also a large-scale migration into Wales during
5046-586: The issue. As many as a third of all properties in Gwynedd are bought by people from outside Wales. The issue of locals being priced out of the local housing market is common to many rural communities throughout Britain, but in Wales the added dimension of language complicates the issue, as many new residents do not learn the Welsh language. A Plaid Cymru taskforce headed by Dafydd Wigley recommended land should be allocated for affordable local housing, called for grants for locals to buy houses, and recommended that council tax on holiday homes should double. However,
5133-401: The kitchen", during his matches. Williams was an avid promoter of wrestling bouts and appropriated the name 'British Wrestling Federation', (previously used in the 1960s by a group of promoters led by Paul Lincoln ) under which his shows were sometimes held. He also appeared in many of his own bills, stating "No point in wasting money for another wrestler". Despite his hard-man image, Williams
5220-545: The knees to win by a technical knockout. He lost the title back to St. Clair in April 1979 at the same venue by disqualification. On 5 February 1991 in an angle at a TV taping for S4C 's Reslo show in Machynlleth , Wales , Haystacks issued a challenge to Pat Roach - having just been disqualified in a tag match (later released on VHS on the Wrestling Madness compilation) pitting himself and Drew McDonald against Roach and Robbie Brookside - for Roach's European Heavyweight Championship . Haystacks defeated Roach for
5307-400: The language at limited or conversational proficiency levels. The Welsh language is descended from Brythonic, spoken across Britain since before the Roman invasion . In 2016, an analysis of the geography of Welsh surnames commissioned by the Welsh Government found that 718,000 people (nearly 35% of the Welsh population) have a family name of Welsh origin, compared with 5.3% in the rest of
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#17328758290645394-429: The language grew during the second half of the 20th century, along with the rise of Welsh nationalism in the form of groups such as the political party Plaid Cymru and Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg (Welsh Language Society). The language is used in the bilingual Welsh Parliament (Senedd) and entered on its records, with English translation. The high cost of translation from English to Welsh has proved controversial. In
5481-420: The late 19th and early 20th centuries, a small wave of contract miners from Wales arrived in Northern France; the centres of Welsh-French population are in coal mining towns, and particularly the French department of Pas-de-Calais along with miners from many other countries. They tended to cluster in communities around their churches. Settlers from Wales (and later Patagonian Welsh) arrived in Newfoundland in
5568-415: The latter was written by Paul McCartney , who was a fan of Ruane, and both were later lifelong friends. Roy Jenkins , Elizabeth the Queen Mother , and Frank Sinatra were also fans of Ruane. In 1990, he also appeared on S4C in an episode of the Welsh language soap opera Pobol y Cwm , as himself when he came to the valley for a wrestling match with El Bandito ( Orig Williams ). Ruane released
5655-550: The match and fled to the dressing room after being unmasked. Haystacks made sporadic defences of his title during 1992-1993 and he and Nagasaki continued their enmity, sometimes in tag matches where Haystacks teamed with lesser superheavyweight Scrubber Daly (Malcolm Hardimann) until Nagasaki's 1993 retirement. At this point manager Lloyd Ryan and Nagasaki impersonator King Kendo took over the feud, lasting until Haystacks's 1996 WCW debut. Indeed, prior to receiving his call-up for WCW, Haystacks had been advertised to face King Kendo in
5742-408: The mid 19th century, and it is thought that Cardiff's Yemeni community is Britain's oldest Muslim community, established when the city was one of the world's largest coal exporting ports. Hinduism and Buddhism each have about 5,000 adherents in Wales, with the rural county of Ceredigion being the centre of Welsh Buddhism. Govinda 's temple and restaurant, run by the Hare Krishnas in Swansea ,
5829-441: The name for the territory that best maintained cultural continuity with pre-Anglo-Saxon Britain: Wales. The modern names for various Romance-speaking people in Continental Europe (e.g. Wallonia , Wallachia , Valais , Vlachs , and Włochy , the Polish name for Italy) have a similar etymology. The modern Welsh name for themselves is Cymry (plural) (singular: Cymro [m] and Cymraes [f]), and Cymru
5916-414: The name of the Gaulish people known to the Romans as Volcae and which came to refer indiscriminately to inhabitants of the Roman Empire . The Old English -speaking Anglo-Saxons came to use the term to refer to the Britons in particular. As the Britons' territories shrank, the term came ultimately to be applied to a smaller group of people, and the plural form of Wealh , Wēalas , evolved into
6003-421: The past the rules of the British Parliament forbade the use of Welsh in any proceedings. Only English was allowed as the only language all members were assumed to speak. In 2017, the UK government agreed to support the use of Welsh in the Welsh Grand Committee, although not in parliamentary debate in the house outside of this committee. In 2018 Welsh was used in the grand committee for the first time. Welsh as
6090-584: The predominant language in parts of Wales, particularly in North Wales and parts of West Wales. According to the 2001 census the number of Welsh speakers in Wales increased for the first time in 100 years, with 20.5% of a population of over 2.9 million claiming fluency in Welsh. In addition, 28% of the population of Wales claimed to understand Welsh. The census revealed that the increase was most significant in urban areas, such as Cardiff with an increase from 6.6% in 1991 to 10.9% in 2001, and Rhondda Cynon Taf with an increase from 9% in 1991 to 12.3% in 2001. However,
6177-642: The proportion of Welsh speakers declined in Gwynedd from 72.1% in 1991 to 68.7% in 2001, to 65.4% in 2011 and 64.4% in 2021. Similarly, in Ceredigion the percentage fell from 59.1% in 1991 to 51.8% in 2001, to 47.3% in 2011 and to 45.3% in 2021. Ceredigion saw a 19.5% influx of new residents between 1991 and 2001. The decline in Welsh speakers in much of rural Wales is attributable to non-Welsh-speaking residents moving to North Wales, driving up property prices above what locals may afford, according to former Gwynedd county councillor Seimon Glyn of Plaid Cymru , whose controversial comments in 2001 focused attention on
6264-693: The region; the town was thus named Yuzovka (Юзовка) in recognition of his role in its founding ("Yuz" being a Russian or Ukrainian approximation of Hughes). Former Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard was born in Barry, Wales. After she suffered from bronchopneumonia as a child, her parents were advised that it would aid her recovery to live in a warmer climate. This led the family to migrate to Australia in 1966, settling in Adelaide. Giant Haystacks Martin Austin Ruane (10 October 1946 – 29 November 1998)
6351-554: The results. The foot-and-mouth crisis delayed the 2001 United Kingdom general election ; the first time since the Second World War that any event had postponed an election. In the census, 14% of the population took the 'extra step' to write in that they were of Welsh ethnicity. The highest percentage of those identifying as of Welsh ethnicity was recorded in Gwynedd (at 27%), followed by Carmarthenshire (23%), Ceredigion (22%) and
6438-534: The ring name "Loch Ness". He served as a member of the Dungeon of Doom who were at that time, feuding with Hulk Hogan . However, the feud was short-lived, ending abruptly when Ruane was diagnosed with lymphoma and returned to Britain. His last match was against The Giant at WCW Uncensored 1996 , where he would lose in a short match. Ruane, a private person, was a devout Catholic and refused to wrestle on Sundays. He claimed to have eaten three pounds of bacon and
6525-625: The same census shows that 25% of residents were born outside Wales. The number of Welsh speakers in other places in Britain is uncertain, but there are significant numbers in the main cities, and there are speakers along the Welsh-English border . Even among Welsh speakers, very few people speak only Welsh, with nearly all being bilingual in English. However, a large number of Welsh speakers are more comfortable expressing themselves in Welsh than in English. Some prefer to speak English in South Wales or
6612-641: The same venue in 1981. From time to time in the 1980s, either man would turn up at the conclusion of the other's televised match to issue a challenge for a further singles bout. The feud would continue on and off, generally in tag team matches, until Daddy's retirement in December 1993. Meanwhile, on 23 November 1978 at the Royal Albert Hall , Haystacks captured the British Heavyweight Championship from Tony St. Clair by splashing St.Clair in
6699-509: The small village of Ysbyty Ifan in North Wales in 1931. He was the son of a local quarryman, and was educated at the local primary school. Williams was accustomed to fighting from a young age, including war evacuees from Liverpool and practising boxing with his village friends. Despite his combative nature, Williams was awarded a place in the local grammar school at nearby Llanrwst . After leaving school, Williams spent his National Service with
6786-426: The time, Gwyn A. Williams argues that even at the time of the erection of Offa's Dyke, the people to its west saw themselves as Roman, citing the number of Latin inscriptions still being made into the 8th century. However, it is unclear whether such inscriptions reveal a general or normative use of Latin as a marker of identity or its selective use by the early Christian Church . There was immigration to Wales after
6873-596: The title the following night February 6 in Llantrisant , Glamorgan Wales but lost it back to Roach later that year. In late 1991 at Fairfield Hall , Croydon Haystacks faced Nagasaki in a match - filmed for a BBC2 Arena documentary on Nagasaki - for what was said to be the CWA World Heavyweight Championship (in fact held at the time by Rambo ) and was awarded the match and the championship when Nagasaki, suffering from cracked ribs, withdrew from
6960-517: The urbanised areas and Welsh in the North or in rural areas. A speaker's choice of language can vary according to the subject domain (known in linguistics as code-switching ). Due to an increase in Welsh-language nursery education, recent census data reveals a reversal of decades of linguistic decline: there are now more Welsh speakers under five years of age than over 60. For many young people in Wales,
7047-436: The worst members of his team, and would often be red carded and sent off for his repeated fouling. After a particularly rough game, he received an injury, which forced his retirement from football. Before leaving football, Williams had noticed the local crowds dwindling, with one of the major factors being the televised wrestling, which was being shown mid-day on Saturdays. He took advantage of this new fad, and began working as
7134-404: The wrestling name, "El Bandito", due to his large handlebar moustache . As a wrestler, Williams played as a heel , the industry term for a villainous character, and enjoyed being physically imposing. He would hurl himself at his opponents and did not hold back his foot stomps on prone combatants. He believed in hard matches, and often quoted the old saying "If you can't stand the heat, get out of
7221-512: Was a British professional wrestler of Irish parentage, best known by the ring name Giant Haystacks . He was one of the best-known wrestlers on the British wrestling scene in the 1970s and 1980s. He also worked in Canada and the United States under the name Loch Ness Monster or simply Loch Ness . Ruane was known for his massive physical size, billed as standing 6 ft 11 inch (2.11 m) tall and weighing from 31 stone (430 lb; 200 kg) at
7308-638: Was a popular member of the wrestling community, and went on to promote several wrestlers including Adrian Street , "Mighty" John Quinn , Tony St Clair, Mark Rocco and Johnny Saint . In the 1980s, as a popular showman and a natural Welsh speaker , Williams was offered the job of presenting S4C 's wrestling show, Reslo . Although ITV had shown wrestling on British television since the 1950s, Williams brought different forms of matches to Welsh audiences, including cage fights, chain matches and pole matches, as well female wrestling. None of these had been done on ITV. In 1990, he also appeared on S4C in an episode of
7395-690: Was awoken at night by Bholu Pahalwan who told him that the entire troupe was leaving for Pakistan as another promoter was offering more money. Williams went with them, spending another 18 months in Asia. Later in his life, Williams stated that fighting with the Bholu Brothers was the highlight of his career. Other tours saw him take in the Middle East, the Far East, Continental Europe and America. While in America he adopted
7482-628: Was released by Chella Toys. There was a blue and brown variant for 2022 release. In February 2022 writer Rob Cope released a memoir Giant Haystacks: My Heavyweight Hero via online publisher lulu.com detailing his meetings with Haystacks, then in the last months of his life and the story the wrestler had told him of his life and career. The book was released to raise funds for the Christie Cancer Hospital in Manchester. Archival footage has been used when promoting various WWE events, including
7569-595: Was reported as common for an officiant to walk in front of the coffin with a horse's skull, which may be a tradition linked with the Mari Lwyd tradition. The Welsh language is in the Insular Celtic family; historically spoken throughout Wales, with its predecessor Common Brittonic once spoken throughout most of the island of Great Britain. Prior to the 20th century, large numbers of Welsh people spoke only Welsh, with little or no fluent knowledge of English. Welsh remains
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