AN ARCHBISHOP'S rallying cry for unity has, ironically, ended up reviving old arguments and divisions over national identity and how God Save the Queen is received outside of England.

Last weekend, Stephen Cottrell, the Archbishop of York, wrote in The Telegraph about the changing nature of identity in the UK and what it means for England and a sense of Englishness, where a sense of national unity is "more fractured than I have ever known it in my lifetime".

Arguing for stronger regional government in England similar to devolution in Wales and elsewhere, the Archbishop said that "without a big vision of one United Kingdom and the tight focus of regional identity and governance, we will shrink into an amalgamation of communities always in danger of falling apart and only serving the individual good".

The Archbishop was talking chiefly about England, but to illustrate his arguments, he turned to the recent Euro 2020 football tournament and the "conundrum" of why Scotland sang its own anthem before the match against England, who sang the British anthem, God Save the Queen.

"We should, surely, have sung one national anthem," he wrote, before suggesting that crowds at future home nations sports ties could "belt out our individual anthems... then sing our national anthem (meaning God Save the Queen) together". 

It is these suggestions that have proved so controversial in recent days, reviving an old debate and memories of how, less than 50 years ago, the playing of God Save the Queen at Welsh sports matches was abandoned, after growing disquiet and a series of tit-for-tat refusals to play various anthems that left officials red-faced on both sides of the border. 

In Wales, our anthem, Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau, grew organically from modest beginnings and has the distinction of being the first national anthem to have been sung before an international sporting event.

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Penned by a Pontypridd father and son, Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau was first performed in public in Maesteg in 1856 and spread throughout communities over the following years, with a string of public performances securing its transformation from stirring ode to national anthem by the end of the century. 

Its association with sport was secured in 1905 in a world-first when - before a rugby tie between Wales and New Zealand - the crowd sang it in unison in response to the All Blacks' Haka. 

As Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau grew in popularity, so too did the conversation over God Save the Queen which, as the British national anthem, was traditionally played before Welsh sporting events, as well as at official occasions.

Resistance to the playing of the 'English' anthem in Wales would lead to crowds here booing God Save the Queen, and since the Archbishop's comments, footage has recirculated and been shared widely on social media of a 1968 rugby match between Wales and France, in which the sound of that anthem is barely audible over a chorus of boos from the home crowd.

But when Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau begins to play, the mood instantly changes and Cardiff Arms Park erupts into song. You can view that footage below.

In his book Red Dragons: The Story of Welsh Football, writer Phil Stead describes the 1970s as "a time of growing national awareness in Wales" during which the issue of pre-match anthems came to a head.

When the WRU decided to forgo God Save the Queen before games against France in the mid-1970s, it did so because it had been "embarrassed by booing crowds" at previous matches, Stead writes. That crowd reaction did not exist in a vacuum – there had been "murmurings of discontent over the anthem for some time", Stead adds.

But this decision came at a price, for when England next welcomed Wales to Twickenham, Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau was not played before kick-off, in a "unilateral" decision made by the band that left the English RFU president "thoroughly embarrassed," sports historian Huw Richard told the BBC this week. 

Divisions over the anthems were also affecting football in this time, when a "growing independent streak" in Wales led the FAW to request Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau be played at Wembley in the 1978 British Championship - a request the English refused, Stead writes.

The Archbishop may have been speaking to a primarily English audience in his recent opinion piece, and he did write about "empowering the separate nations and regions to serve their own localities better". But in suggesting the whole UK unites to sing God Save The Queen at events - when it is seen by many in Wales as the 'English' anthem - he has ignited here a very different conversation around identity and unity.

News anchor Huw Edwards offered a different take on the Archbishop's comments and the resulting row, tweeting: "Chill out everyone. It's August. All kinds of nonsense gets to be 'news'. Have a drink and get off Twitter."

  • This article originally appeared on our sister site The National.