‘I have a dream for Tuesday. We’re going to thrash England!’ the politician and songwriter Dafydd Iwan told hundreds of Wales supporters at an event in Doha’s West Bay, on Sunday evening, before launching into a rendition of Yma o Hyd (‘Still Here’) — his anthem to the country’s indefatigable spirit.
The crowd loved it. Just like they love how the grizzled, bearded firebrand, jailed in 1970 for not paying fines for defacing English road signs as part of the fight for Welsh language rights, has become a totemic part of a campaign in which national identity features prominently.