‘A poem is the realised love of desire that has remained desire.’ 

OR

‘The poem is the realised love of desire still desiring.’ 

René Char

Coleg Bangor

In the fourteenth century the great Welsh prince Owain Glyndŵr dreamt of creating two studia generalia in Wales on the model of other medieval Catholic universities. War and his ‘Disappearance’ scuppered that dream and the cost to Wales has been incalculable. In the 1880’s the desire to create a University in North Wales was immense and willed by a huge diversity of its people. Three thousand Penrhyn slate quarrymen contributed to the cost by having a fixed deduction taken off their weekly wages. The same quarrymen who, fewer than 20 years later, would strike for 3 years on no pay because of such poor working conditions(deeply impacting British labour and trade union development.)  In the village of Pentraeth on Anglesey each household, without exception, contributed to the university scheme. Many other villages did the same. There was simply a very real desire to create a centre of higher learning. Glyndŵr’s dream was being made reality by the dreams of the local people. Coleg Bangor was founded in 1884. This month two of my cousins are starting courses there and I’m proud of them and all the people who gave to its foundation.