1998 in Wales explained

This article is about the particular significance of the year 1998 to Wales and its people.

Incumbents

• Secretary of State for Wales
  • Ron Davies (until 27 October)^[1]
  • Alun Michael
• Archbishop of Wales – Alwyn Rice Jones, Bishop of St Asaph^[2]
• Archdruid of the National Eisteddfod of Wales – Dafydd Rowlands

Events

• 24 February – The Criminal Cases Review Commission overturns the murder charge of Mahmood Hussein Mattan, who was executed in 1952 for killing a Cardiff shopkeeper.^[3]
• February – Britain's first official register of historic landscapes is published by Cadw. It lists 36 landscapes in Wales of outstanding historic interest.
• 6 March – Flintshire Bridge is officially opened.^[4]
• 8–9 April – Torrential rain over eastern Wales results in widespread flooding.
• 13 April – Montgomeryshire MP Lembit Öpik is seriously injured in a paragliding accident in his constituency.^[5]
• May – Cistercian Way long-distance trail originates.
• June – The Arts Council of Wales publishes its consultation paper Building A Creative Society.
• 31 July – The Government of Wales Act 1998, that will establish a devolved Welsh Assembly, receives its Royal Assent.^[6]
• August – Ron Davies is appointed to the highest order of the Gorsedd of the Bards at the 1998 National Eisteddfod in Bridgend.
• 19 September – Ron Davies is elected in preference to Rhodri Morgan as Labour's candidate for First Secretary of the Assembly.^[7]
• 22–31 October – Heavy rainfall across Wales results in river levels rising to warning levels. Flood plains are inundated and there is extensive flooding of houses and other property.
• 27 October – Ron Davies resigns as Secretary of State for Wales after being mugged in an incident on Clapham Common, following what he described as an "error of judgment".^[1]
• 18 November – Jon Owen Jones, MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Wales, announces that the Environment Agency has been asked for a report on the October floods.
• November – Maenofferen slate quarry at Blaenau Ffestiniog ceases production.

Arts and literature

• Bryn Terfel gives a recital at Carnegie Hall.

Awards

• Glyndŵr Award – Iwan Bala
• National Eisteddfod of Wales (held in Bridgend)
• National Eisteddfod of Wales: Chair – withheld^[8]
• National Eisteddfod of Wales: Crown – Emyr Lewis, "Rhyddid"^[9]
• National Eisteddfod of Wales: Prose Medal – Eurig Wyn, Blodyn Tatws
• Wales Book of the Year

• • English language: Mike Jenkins – Wanting to Belong
  • Welsh language: Iwan Llwyd – Dan Ddylanwad
• Gwobr Goffa Daniel Owen – Geraint V. Jones, Semtecs

New books

English language

• Gillian Clarke – Five Fields
• James Hawes – Rancid Aluminium^[10]
• Rhys Hughes – Rawhead & Bloody Bones
• Mario Risoli – When Pele Broke our Hearts: Wales and the 1958 World Cup
• Sarah Waters – Tipping the Velvet

Welsh language

• Dafydd Huws – Dyddiadur Dyn Dŵad
• Huw Ethall – Pennar Davies: Y Dyn a'i Waith

Film

• Anthony Hopkins and Catherine Zeta-Jones star in The Mask of Zorro.

Welsh language films

• Bride of War, starring Huw Garmon (in Welsh, English, French, German and Polish).

Music

• Indie music band Terris are formed in Newport.
• Anweledig – Sombreros yn y Glaw
• Charlotte Church – Voice of an Angel
• Melys – Rumours and Curses
• Bonnie Tyler – All in One Voice

Broadcasting

Welsh-language television

• November – A new digital channel is launched, broadcasting in Welsh for twelve hours a day.^[11]

English-language television

Sport

• BBC Wales Sports Personality of the Year – Iwan Thomas^[12]
• Commonwealth Games – September
  • Kelly Morgan wins the badminton women's singles;
  • Iwan Thomas wins the men's 400 metres;
  • Desmond Davies wins the men's individual skeet shooting;
  • Wales win a total of 15 medals, including the three golds.
• Snooker
  • 8 February – Mark Williams wins his first Masters title.^[13]

Births

• 12 March – Will Jones, rugby player
• 5 June – Dafydd Jones, footballer
• 18 December – Cameron Coxe, footballer
• 25 December – Will Griffiths, rugby player
• 29 December – Mark Harris, footballer

Deaths

• 3 January – Tony Duncan, golfer and cricketer, 83
• 18 February – Robbie James, footballer, 40 (collapsed and died during match)^[14]
• 1 April – Mary Wynne Warner, mathematician, 65^[15]
• 2 April – Dai Davies, trade unionist, 88
• 4 April – Käte Bosse-Griffiths, author, 87^[16]
• 14 April – Dorothy Squires, singer, 83^[17]
• 11 May – Vronwy Hankey (née Fisher), archaeologist, 81^[18]
• 13 May – Arthur Rees, Wales international rugby player and police Chief Constable, 85^[19]
• 17 May – Hugh Cudlipp, journalist, 84^[20]
• 5 July – James Eirian Davies, minister and poet, 80^[21]
• 23 July – R. Tudur Jones, theologian and politician, 77^[22]
• 28 July – Nancy Evans, table tennis player, 95
• 3 August (in Waipukurau, New Zealand) – Ronnie Boon, Wales rugby union player, 89
• 12 September – Horace Charles Jones, poet, 92
• 5 October – Megs Jenkins, actress, 81^[23]
• 31 October – Eddie Perry, footballer, 89
• 16 December – Kenyon Jones, rugby player, 87
• 16 December – Tommy Davies, boxer, 78
• 31 December – Alan Morris, footballer, 44

See also

• 1998 in Northern Ireland

Notes and References

1. Book: David Pollard. Neil Parpworth. David Hughes. Constitutional and Administrative Law: Text with Materials. 14 June 2007. OUP Oxford. 978-0-19-928637-9. 172.
2. Book: Norman Doe. A New History of the Church in Wales: Governance and Ministry, Theology and Society. 29 February 2020. Cambridge University Press. 978-1-108-49957-6. 113.
3. Book: Roda P. Roberts. The Critical Link 2: Interpreters in the Community : Selected Papers from the Second International Conference on Interpreting in Legal, Health, and Social Service Setting. 2000. John Benjamins Publishing. 90-272-1636-3. 246.
4. Web site: Happy Birthday Flintshire Bridge – It was officially opened on March 6th 1998. 6 March 2018. deeside.com. 4 February 2020.
5. News: D. . Higgit . The day my life changed . Western Standard . 27 August 2005 . 2007-10-26 . https://web.archive.org/web/20080118222256/http://icwales.icnetwork.co.uk/news/feature-news/tm_objectid%3D15903539%26method%3Dfull%26siteid%3D50082%26headline%3Dthe-day-my-life-changed-----name_page.html . 18 January 2008 . dead .
6. Book: Robert Hazell. The State and the Nations: The First Year of Devolution in the United Kingdom. 2000. Imprint Academic. 978-0-907845-80-5. 2.
7. Book: Colin Pilkington. Devolution in Britain Today. 2002. Manchester University Press. 978-0-7190-6076-2. 133.
8. Web site: Winners of the Chair. National Eisteddfod of Wales. 3 February 2020.
9. Web site: Winners of the Crown. National Eisteddfod of Wales. 3 February 2020.
10. Book: David Armstrong. How Not to Write a Novel: Confessions of a Midlist Author. 4 November 2011. Allison & Busby. 978-0-7490-1135-2. 101.
11. Book: Janet Davies. The Welsh Language: A History. 15 January 2014. University of Wales Press. 978-1-78316-129-4. 125.
12. News: BBC Wales Sport Personality winners . BBC Sport . 2 August 2021.
13. News: Snooker: Williams wins on respotted black . https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220501/https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/snooker-williams-wins-on-respotted-black-1143772.html . 2022-05-01 . subscription . live . 9 February 1998 . . 14 May 2019.
14. Web site: Obituary: Robbie James. https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220501/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/obituary-robbie-james-1146080.html . 2022-05-01 . subscription . live. The Independent. 25 November 2010. Ivan Ponting. 21 February 1998.
15. I. M. James and A. R. Pears, "Obituary: Mary Wynne Warner (1932–1998)" Bulletin of the London Mathematical Society 34(6)(December 2001): 745–752. DOI: 10.1112/S0024609302001467
16. Web site: Obituary: Kate Bosse-Griffiths. https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220501/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/obituary-kate-bosse-griffiths-1155460.html . 2022-05-01 . subscription . live. The Independent. 10 April 1998. Meic Stephens. Meic Stephens. 4 October 2019.
17. Book: Bill Christine. They Left Their Hearts in San Francisco: The Lives of Songwriters George Cory and Douglass Cross. 25 October 2017. McFarland. 978-1-4766-6900-7. 183.
18. Web site: Peter Warren. Peter Warren (archaeologist). The Independent. 23 June 1998. Vronwy Hankey. https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220501/https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/obituary-vronwy-hankey-1166868.html . 2022-05-01 . subscription.
19. Web site: Obituary: Arthur Rees . https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220501/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/obituary-arthur-rees-1157859.html . 2022-05-01 . subscription . The Independent . Cole, Robert . 21 May 1998 . 1 June 2011.
20. Book: Dennis Griffiths. Fleet Street: Five Hundred Years of the Press. 2006. British Library. 978-0-7123-0697-3. 389.
21. Web site: Cofio Cawr – J. Eirian Davies. BBC De Orllewin. May 2004. 25 June 2017. cy.
22. Web site: Jones, Robert Tudur (1921–1998), theologian, church historian and public figure. D. Densil Morgan. Dictionary of Welsh Biography. National Library of Wales. 8 October 2019.
23. Book: F. Maurice Speed. James Cameron-Wilson. Film Review. 1999. W. H. Allen. 9781903111000 .