The FWA first appeared in public at a 1965 protest against the construction of the Llyn Celyn reservoir.[1] In 1966, the organisation participated in Irish celebrations marking the 50th anniversary of the Easter Rising, marching in Dublin.[2] A 1967 late-night television interview with David Frost brought the group to the attention of a wider audience.[3] The group courted publicity, and its leaders attracted a great deal of media attention with extravagant claims of financial support from millionaires, links with the Irish Republican Army (IRA) and Basque separatists, and dogs trained to carry explosives.[4][5] Members wore home-made uniforms and marched in historic sites like Machynlleth, as well as carrying out manoeuvres with small arms and explosives in the Welsh countryside.[1][4] The organisation claimed responsibility for the bombing campaign of Mudiad Amddiffyn Cymru (MAC), diverting the attention of the authorities and contributing to the arrest of its leadership and the group’s dissolution in 1969.[5][6]
History
Origins
Throughout the early 1960s, many within the ranks of Plaid Cymru had become radicalised and dissatisfied by the party's failure to prevent Liverpool Corporation's plans for the flooding of Tryweryn.[7]Owain Williams, a former party member and founding member of MAC, alleged that dissatisfaction was particularly strong among younger members and supporters.[7][8] In a 2003 interview for S4C’s Terfysgwyr Tryweryn (“Tryweryn Terrorist”) documentary, Williams suggested that many young people were frustrated with what he described as reliance on “so-called constitutional means of asking, bowing, scraping and grovelling.” It was this disillusionment, Williams asserted, that created the conditions for the emergence of militant nationalist organisations in Wales, which was a sentiment shared by his co-conspirator, Emyr Llywelyn Jones.[7]
The first organisation resembling the FWA appeared in 1959 as the Welsh Freedom Army (WFA), which initially distributed cards in Llangollen bearing the slogan “Resist English Rule in Wales: WFA”.[9] Cards were later distributed nationwide and placed under beer mats, in telephone kiosks, libraries, bookshops and anywhere else the group could think of.[10] Supporters of the group often daubed the group's acronym alongside nationalist slogans in areas where cards had been distributed, generating momentum for the illusive organisation.[10] At the same time, Harri Webb, a republican socialist poet and former member of the Welsh Republican Movement, together with Meic Stephens, was evoking the idea of a “Free Wales Army” in his poetry and songs.[10] In 1952, Webb designed the “White Eagle of Snowdonia”, often referred to by its Welsh name “Yr Eryr Wen” (literally “the White Eagle”), a symbol derived from Welsh legend, which later became the emblem displayed on the FWA's flags and uniforms.[11][12] The amorphous “army” soon gained attention as supporters across the country painted the initials "FWA" alongside nationalist slogans on roadsides, with one such incident in Gwynedd in 1964 prompting Plaid Cymru to issue an official denial of any involvement.[13] Speaking on HTV Wales’s Only Yesterday in 1995, Julian Cayo-Evans recalled that his first awareness of the FWA came when he noticed an Eryr Wen painted on a wall in Aberystwyth, which prompted his decision to join the movement.[14]
As momentum grew through 1964, a number of independently formed groups claiming to represent the FWA, or similar iterations, emerged across Wales.[15] While Cayo-Evans handcrafted his own uniform from his British ArmyService Dress using a cauldron of green dye in Lampeter, Tony Lewis similarly dyed his Royal Air Force (RAF) uniform green and formed a small group claiming to be the FWA in Cwmbran.[16]Gethin ap Gruffydd became active around this time and established similar organisations in South Wales, including the Anti-Sais Front, which later merged with other nationalist groups to form the National Patriotic Front.[15]Dennis Coslett, who would later become Cayo-Evans' second-in-command, formed the Welsh Republican Army (WRA) in Llangennech in 1965.[17] Coslett joined forces with Cayo-Evans' FWA upon being introduced to him by Dai Bonar Thomas, another foundational member of the fledgling paramilitary.[18]
Tryweryn
Julian Cayo-Evans (centre) leads FWA members during the group's first-ever public appearance at the Llyn Celyn opening ceremony protest, 21 October 1965
In October 1965, the floodgates at the Tryweryn dam were opened, and water began to submerge the valley and what remained of Capel Celyn.[19] To mark the occasion, Liverpool Corporation held an official opening ceremony at the dam site on 21 October, which prompted a wave of protest from hundreds of Welsh nationalists.[19] In the lead-up to the opening, Plaid Cymru encouraged its supporters to attend in protest but urged restraint, issuing a statement a few days earlier describing the intended demonstration as “orderly, brief, concise and disciplined.”[20] Julian Cayo-Evans, meanwhile, was preparing for the FWA’s first public appearance at the protest, while Gethin ap Gruffydd released an open letter calling for action and issued a statement to the Western Mail declaring the group's intention to burn the Union Flag at the event, citing the absence of Welsh representation on the flag.[21] Cayo-Evans made similar statements to the Western Mail soon after, claiming that the FWA intended to prevent Liverpool Corporation dignitaries from reaching the dam by blocking the access routes.[21]
On the day of the opening ceremony, Cayo-Evans arrived in the nearby town of Bala, accompanied by two uniformed associates from West Wales, Owen Wyn Jones and Dafydd Elwyn Williams.[22] In the streets of the town, the trio encountered Tony Lewis’ uniformed group of nationalists for the first time; Lewis’ group had travelled from South Wales for the protest.[22] Upon meeting, the two groups joined together and travelled to Llyn Celyn to participate in the brewing demonstration.[22] Five hundred protesters had assembled at the main access road to the dam and harassed incoming Liverpool Corporation dignitaries by blocking the road, vandalising their vehicles and even attempting to overturn them.[19][23] The demonstration quickly escalated into a riot as Liverpool Corporation guests approached in buses via the old access road on the opposite side of the reservoir.[23] Despite pleas for restraint from Plaid Cymru president Gwynfor Evans, the crowd charged down the escarpment of the dam towards the ceremony's temporary grandstand, galvanised by the FWA agitators.[24][25] The crowd engaged with police officers deployed to protect the ceremony, resulting in a violent scuffle as protesters attempted to reach the grandstand and speakers’ platform.[23]
Liverpool Corporation attempted to continue with the event despite the brawl, but its speakers were unable to make themselves heard over the jeering of the crowd.[25] FWA members attempted to burn the Union Flag in the crowd, while fireworks and rocks were thrown in the direction of the platform by protesters.[26] The Lord Mayor of Liverpool, David Cowley, attempted to address the crowd from the microphone after stones were thrown in his direction, but found that it did not work, as the FWA had cut the wires of the ceremony’s sound system.[26] Prompted by a protester wielding a megaphone, the crowd began chanting “Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau,” which was soon drowned out by the gushing of water as Cowley responded by pressing the button to release the floodgates.[26] Witnessing the loss of control over the protest, Gwynfor Evans was filmed by television news cameras making an abrupt exit from the event.[26] The chaos forced the event to end far sooner than organisers had anticipated, and the FWA agitators were eventually apprehended and escorted away by police for their role in the skirmish, while also drawing the attention of journalists.[27] Following the protest, Cayo-Evans and Tony Lewis' groups joined forces, and those involved became convinced that the FWA needed to be at the forefront of Welsh nationalism.[24] From this point on, the group became a focus of attention for journalists and the authorities, and a police statement on 5 November 1965 warned that any future displays of the FWA insignia could result in prosecution.[28] The group was investigated by the North West Crime Squad and by police constabularies in Gwynedd and Flintshire, which concluded that it had breached the Public Order Act 1936 prohibiting the wearing of political uniforms; however, no action was taken at the time for fear of creating nationalist martyrs.[29]
Rumoured IRA links
Shortly after the disorder at the Llyn Celyn opening ceremony and the ensuing media attention, Julian Cayo-Evans told the Daily Mail that the FWA had established links with the IRA, a claim published by the paper in November 1965.[30] Around the same time, Cayo-Evans made similar remarks to the Western Mail, drawing parallels between the armed conflict in Ireland and the situation in Wales, stating that he regarded “militant nationalism as a matter not to be taken lightly.”[28] The FWA was rumoured to have received arms from the Official IRA (OIRA), although Cayo-Evans later denied this.[3] In Ireland, one rumour—used against the OIRA by its rivals within Irish republicanism—was that the OIRA had given or sold most of its weapons to the FWA as part of its turn away from political violence, leaving it defenceless when intercommunal violence erupted in Northern Ireland in August 1969.[31][32][33][34] Scott Millar, co-author of a history of the OIRA, wrote that there was contact between the two groups (including FWA members training in Ireland)[35] but no large-scale transfer of arms took place.[36][unreliable source?]
In April 1966, the FWA accepted an invitation from Sinn Féin to participate in unofficial celebrations of the Semicentennial of the Easter Rising in Dublin.[37] Wishing to put on a good display for the event, Cayo-Evans implored the organisation's membership and supporters to attend and succeeded in mustering a uniformed turnout for the parade.[37] Present at the official celebrations was Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg, whose prominent members were reported to have distanced themselves from the FWA and the unofficial march organised by Sinn Féin, an action that allegedly led to an incident in which Cayo-Evans threatened Dafydd Iwan.[38] During an interview with Wyn Thomas in 2000, Dennis Coslett recounted how he and Cayo-Evans were first introduced to the IRA over the course of the weekend.[39] According to Coslett, the pair were met by an IRA volunteer in the evening, who took them by taxi to the British Embassy in Dublin and proceeded to smash a number of windows with a volley of stones.[39] The weekend’s celebrations concluded with further antics when the FWA contingent returning to Wales on the Dún Laoghaire–Fishguard ferry tore down the Union Jack flying from the ship's deck and raised the Welsh flag in its place, reportedly to cheers from fellow passengers.[39] Coslett also claimed that during the incident aboard the ferry, a member of the group entered the ship’s bridge and announced over the loudspeaker that the FWA had seized the vessel and was sailing it to Y Wladfa, the Welsh-speaking colony in Patagonia.[39]
Militancy
The organisation attempted a single militant action of its own, which involved a failed bombing of the water pipeline connecting the Elan Valley Reservoirs to Birmingham.[40][41] In his biography, John Barnard Jenkins recounted how an associate of MAC had been contacted by the FWA in February 1967, requesting that they be supplied with an explosive device.[41] As both the leader and bomb-maker of MAC, Jenkins agreed and supplied the FWA with the requested gelignite device through a chain of contacts while keeping the identity of its manufacturer secret.[40][41] However, Jenkins alleged that he was initially unaware that the bomb was intended for use by the FWA, asserting that his associate requesting the device simply said it was for “our friends who want to attack a pipeline.”[42] Following weeks of scouting the pipeline, the FWA unit under Dennis Coslett's command identified a section they believed to be vulnerable at Cefn Penarth, near Llandrindod Wells, where the line crossed a river via the Fron Aqueduct.[41][43] Planted in late February, the device was intended to detonate in the early hours of the morning, destroying the midsection of the pipe and dominating national news headlines on Saint David's Day shortly thereafter.[41]
The bomb, an inflated car inner tube with forty sticks of gelignite and a detonator attached, was tied to a tree with a rope before being lowered down an access manhole, where the flowing water pulled it towards the pipe's interior midsection.[40][44] Having primed the bomb to detonate at 3 a.m., the would-be saboteurs fled the scene, leaving the device suspended in the pipe.[45] The following morning, Coslett telephoned the Western Mail news desk to announce the attack and, speaking to the editor John Humphries, introduced himself as having “a communiqué from our commandant for Mr. Humphries.”[40][45] Humphries was accustomed to Coslett’s regular calls to the news desk with spurious announcements and dismissed him when he declared, “There’s a bomb in the pipeline for you, Humphries!”, assuming it to be a hoax.[40][46] However, unbeknownst to Coslett, the bomb had failed to detonate and was discovered four days later by Tom Powell, a local sheep farmer, who informed the authorities.[40][45][46] British Army bomb disposal units from Western Command were dispatched to dismantle the device and safely detonated it in a nearby forest.[47] Coslett later recounted how the operation had unfolded, and had cited a priming error made as a result of the group's haste during execution.[41] Following the failure of the bombing, Jenkins resolved never to entrust the FWA with another device and adopted a much stricter approach to his own operations, later stating in his biography that “They made a mess of it.”[48]
While the failed Cefn Penarth bombing was the only occasion on which the paramilitary committed to direct militant action, associates of the group were reported to have stolen gelignite from collieries and trained in assembling explosive devices for future attacks. One such revelation occurred after MAC attacked the Clywedog Reservoir construction site in March 1966, causing an estimated £30,000 worth of damage and delaying construction of the dam by six months.[49][50] The MAC saboteurs responsible for the attack planted an olive green patrol cap bearing an Eryr Wen and the motto "Gorchfygwn" (literally "to overcome") near the site of the explosion in an apparent attempt to mislead the authorities, and no suspects were ever identified.[49][51] Police investigators interviewed between 200 and 300 individuals in connection with the bombing, including Gwynfor Evans, who was reportedly asked to try on the FWA patrol cap for size after being approached by detectives following a conference in Caersws.[52] Homes of FWA members were raided during the investigation, and Lyn Ebenezer narrowly avoided investigators discovering a pistol gifted to him by Cayo-Evans that was in his possession.[53]
However, the investigation identified Owen Pennant Hughes of Nebo on 15 March, who was found to have been storing nine pounds of gelignite and six detonators on his farm, and who told investigators during questioning that he was in contact with Cayo-Evans.[54] Hughes had attracted the attention of the authorities due to lettered correspondence between himself and other FWA members, one of whom, addressed as “Llan,” was identified by police as Marcus Gale of Llangollen.[55] Facing a substantial body of evidence against him, Hughes pleaded guilty to possession of explosives under suspicious circumstances and was sentenced to three years’ probation, but the case lacked sufficient evidence to link him to the Clywedog bombing, resulting in his acquittal on charges of involvement.[56] Leads obtained from Hughes’ questioning resulted in the arrests of Marcus Gale and his accomplice, Harry Jones of Wrexham, who appeared before the DenbighAssizes on 4 May 1966.[57] Gale was charged with possession of nine detonators and six sticks of gelignite under suspicious circumstances, while Jones was charged with stealing the explosives in Gale’s possession from Hafod Colliery near Rhosllanerchrugog during his employment there; both men pleaded guilty.[58] During questioning, Gale suggested that some of the explosives had been provided to him by an individual from South Wales, and that he had received instruction on assembling an explosive device from this person at meetings on Hughes’ farm in Nebo, although he claimed not to know their identity.[59] As with Hughes, police were satisfied that both men had no involvement in the Clywedog attack and they were subsequently sentenced by Judge Widgery to two years of probation, on the condition that they fully renounce all associations with the FWA.[59]
The Aberfan disaster
In September 1967, the group advocated for families of victims of the Aberfan disaster, whose compensation claims were being blocked by the Charity Commission, "marching on their behalf and working behind the scenes for them."[1][5] The organisation became aware of the dispute through Fred Grey, secretary of the Aberfan Parents Association (APA), who sought support from Julian Cayo-Evans and the FWA after receiving his telephone number by local teacher and language campaigner Neil Jenkins.[60] Intervention in the dispute was encouraged by John Summers, a freelance journalist who had cultivated close ties with the paramilitary.[61][62] Upon being informed, Dennis Coslett and Dai Bonar Thomas met with the APA to discuss what immediate action could be taken to support the victims.[63] The following day, the FWA hosted a press conference at the Morlais Arms public house in nearby Merthyr Tydfil, at which an ultimatum to the involved authorities was issued, in the presence of journalists, which read:
If a sum of £5,000 was not paid within a week to each of the bereaved families of Aberfan then the Active Service Units of the Free Wales Army would take immediate action. The Merthyr Tydfil Town Hall, the Committee Rooms of the Fund, plus the offices of the solicitor being paid to act as Secretary/Treasurer of the Fund would all be blown up. If, after this, nothing was still done, then the County Government Offices would be blasted, and following that the Government Offices in Cardiff would be destroyed...[64]
There was alleged to be a large turnout of uniformed members of the paramilitary present at the conference, who subsequently marched along the high street of the town while brandishing flags and chanting hymns.[64][65] Given the controversary surrounding the Clywedog bombing a year preceding the disaster, there is reason to believe that the authorities did not take the ultimatum lightly.[66] It is not known how much impact this intervention ultimately had on the outcome of the dispute; however, the commission agreed the following Friday that £5,000 was to be paid to the families of the victims.[64][67] Despite his frustrations with the FWA, John Jenkins credited the group’s intervention in the dispute, along with its disruption of the Llyn Celyn opening ceremony, as its “finest achievement.”[66] However, Jenkins clarified that the FWA lacked the necessary technical skills and materials to carry out its threats, and would have required MAC to make good on them.[66]
Trial and imprisonment
On 25 January 1968, a memorandum from the Director of Public Prosecutions advised against “taking the organisation’s activities too seriously,” observing that doing so “would give it an unmerited importance and publicity which its leaders are plainly seeking.”[68][69] The memorandum was issued following an enquiry to the Attorney General by Emlyn Hooson, the LiberalMP for Montgomeryshire, who was angered after reading an article co-authored by Stan Gebler Davies and Bryn Griffiths in TownMagazine.[70] In the article, Dennis Coslett reportedly threatened the lives of both Hooson and the Secretary of State for Wales, Cledwyn Hughes, referring to them as “those traitors in the House of Commons.”[70] The article also included photographs of the paramilitary conducting combat drills with firearms and mock explosives on Cayo-Evans' estate near Lampeter, along with numerous inflammatory statements and claims of responsibility for MAC bombings.[71] The Director of Public Prosecutions, Norman Skelhorn, concluded that the FWA had not violated Section 2 of the Public Order Act 1936, which prohibited political uniforms, as the drills depicted in the article had taken place on Cayo-Evans’ private property.[70] Skelhorn further described the Town article as “inaccurate and grossly exaggerated” and cautioned the Attorney General against taking any further action; the Attorney General, Elwyn Jones, in turn advised Prime Minister Harold Wilson.[68]
Despite persistent media coverage of the group’s extravagant claims, it was later revealed by papers from The National Archives that the journalist John Summers, one of the reporters publishing such stories, was in fact a police informant.[72][73] In the papers, it was stated that Summers had been supplying Kenneth Clark of the No. 8 Regional Crime Squad with detailed reports of his meetings with the FWA, including names, addresses, photographs and even a spent 9mmcartridge.[74] One of Summers’ reports to Clark in August 1966 described a meeting with the group at the Stag and Pheasant Inn in Pontarsais, where members had openly discussed using explosives to destroy the newly constructed Severn Bridge linking England and Wales.[72][74] Perhaps the most significant aspect of Summers’ involvement with the police is that he was actively informing on the group as early as 1966, indicating that the authorities had detailed knowledge of its activities for several years prior to the arrests and subsequent trial in 1969.[75] Clark’s report, preserved in The National Archives, offers insight into Summers’ motivations for informing on the group, stating that:
Summers would seem to be increasingly uneasy as to his contact with the Free Wales Army and goes to great lengths to emphasise that his only connection with the organisation is as a journalist. It is impossible to assess to what degree Cayo Evans and his henchmen have led Summers on, either with a view to publicity or simply to obtain money from him in payment for a story. Summers denies, incidentally, that he has ever paid Cayo Evans but I rather doubt that Cayo Evans has not received money from Summers himself or from his publishers.[75]
Following the announcement in May 1967 that Prince Charles would be invested as Prince of Wales in a ceremony in Caernarfon on 1 July 1969, MAC intensified its bombing campaign, prompting the formation of a Special Branch task force under Jock Wilson, known as the “Shrewsbury Unit,” to identify the bombers.[76] Supported by MI5 agents, the unit was based just over the border in Shropshire to avoid interference from local Welsh police forces, which were at this stage regarded by the Home Office with suspicion due to their failure to effectively address the bombing campaign.[76][77][78] Under the intense scrutiny of the Shrewsbury Unit, the fortunes of the FWA were soon to change when a bomb detonated in the control tower of RAF Pembrey in Carmarthenshire on 8 September 1968, seriously injuring Warrant Officer William Hougham.[79] The attack drew fierce condemnation across all political circles in Wales, and even Julian Cayo-Evans attempted to distance both the FWA and the wider nationalist movement from the incident.[80] John Jenkins maintained until his death that MAC had no involvement in the bombing.[81] Several theories have since been proposed regarding the attack — one suggesting it was carried out by locals angered by low-level air exercises from the base, and another, advanced by Gwynfor Evans, attributing it to an RAF cadet who was later committed to a psychiatric ward.[82][83] No suspect was ever identified, but the incident nonetheless marked the beginning of the end for the FWA.[84] Within days of the bombing, Cayo-Evans was approached for questioning by Jock Wilson, during which a deal was allegedly struck whereby the organisation would be absolved of any responsibility for the attack in exchange for the disclosure of its weapons cache.[85] Photographs of police frogmen recovering the FWA’s cache of guns and munitions from the shallow lake of Maes-llyn near Tregaron were published in the Western Mail in the days that followed.[86][87]
Details surrounding the alleged deal between Cayo-Evans and Jock Wilson have been widely disputed, with Cayo-Evans claiming that Wilson had threatened him with life imprisonment and the loss of both his Glandenys estate and access to his children if he refused to cooperate.[88] One of the officers involved in the Shrewsbury Unit, John Owen Evans, dismissed Cayo-Evans’s claims of coercion, stating that it was well known in police circles that “Cayo and Dennis Coslett would make up stories afterwards."[89] Speaking to Wyn Thomas in later life, Coslett said he bore no ill will towards Cayo-Evans for his decision, but described it as “a silly thing to do,” since the authorities now had “all the evidence to commit us to trial.”[88] Following the events of Pembrey and the seizure of the FWA arms cache, Harold Wilson personally advised the Attorney General to reconsider his previous stance on pressing charges against the paramilitary.[90] Months later, on 26 February 1969, nine members were arrested in dawn raids and charged with public order offences.[4][5][91] The trial, in Swansea, lasted 53 days, ending on the day of the investiture.[4] On the first day of the trial the defendants were "greeted with an impromptu recital of 'Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau' from the public gallery."[5] Almost all of the prosecution's evidence came from journalists who had reported the group's claims.[4][5] John Summers was never called to give evidence, but defence counsel John Gower described him as a shadow hanging over the trial, leaving “a nasty smell” over the proceedings.[75] Julian Cayo-Evans, his second-in-command, Dennis Coslett (who refused to speak English throughout the trial), Gethin ap Gruffydd, and three other members were convicted; Cayo-Evans and Coslett spent 15 months in jail.[5] Present at the trial was Saunders Lewis, a founding member and former president of Plaid Cymru. Lewis had himself been among "the Three" convicted for arson during the Tân yn Llŷn (Fire in Llŷn) protest at Penyberth in 1936, likely explaining his sympathies for the accused.[92] Allegedly, Lewis "never forgave" Gwynfor Evans, for refusing to attend the trial or show support for the FWA men.[93]
Symbols
The army's motto was "Fe godwn ni eto", Welsh for "We shall rise again".[94] Its adopted symbol, the Eryr Wen, was a shorthand heraldic white eagle that adorned the flags and uniforms of the organisation that was designed in 1952 by Harri Webb.[95][96] Drawing from the ancient Welsh poetic tradition, the eagle is intended to represent the eagles of Snowdonia, which in Welsh mythology are said to protect Wales. This symbolism features in Llywarch ap Llywelyn's 13th century poem, Mab Darogan. Translated from Middle Welsh into English, the poem reads: "Myrddin's prophecy is that a king shall come with heroism from among the Welsh people. Prophets have said that generous men shall be reborn of the lineage of the eagles of Snowdonia." Being a skilled metalworker, Tony Lewis adapted Webb's symbol into metal cap badges that were affixed to the caps of FWA members.[95][97]
While the FWA adopted the Eryr Wen, the paramilitary's association with the symbol has seen its legacy endure into the present day. During the Meibion Glyndŵr arson campaign throughout the 1980s and 1990s, the symbol was often seen as graffiti or daubed on the ruins of burnt-out holiday homes.[98] Nationalist murals across Wales frequently feature the symbol, the most notable of these being the Cofiwch Dryweryn (Remember Tryweryn) mural near Llanrhystud, Ceredigion.[99] More recently, the symbol has returned to prominence as a result of the socialist republican youth movement, Mudiad Eryr Wen (Movement of the White Eagle). In addition to adopting both its namesake and symbolism, the movement has painted the symbol on defaced English-language road signs on numerous occasions.[100][101]
Legacy
In 2000, the Apollo Hotel on Cathedral Road in Cardiff was rebranded by brewers Tomos Watkins as the Cayo Arms in reference to Julian-Cayo Evans, and a hanging pub sign in his likeness was present outside the front of the pub.[102][103]However, the pub later closed for refurbishment and was subsequently reopened in 2018 as the Pontcanna Inn by the City Pub Company.[104]
In 2005, the Western Mail newspaper published information from The National Archives, asserting that Cayo-Evans had a "mental age of 12", and that Coslett was "unbalanced". These claims have been disputed by those close to the men, with writer and artist Robert ap Steffan stating in 2005: "Cayo was a highly intelligent man and Dennis was well loved in his home town of Llanelli, it's ridiculous to call them undeveloped or unbalanced. They were both tough guys who did not suffer fools but to call them that is over the top. I would expect a thing like that – ridiculing the enemy – but I had tremendous respect for both of them and Cayo was a fabulous individual, one of the last great characters of West Wales." Similarly, Meic Stephens commented: "I did not really know Coslett but I met Cayo several times and I don't remember him being retarded, I always found him a charming lad and great company late at night. He always seemed to have a sunny temperament and he was a wonderful accordion player. We talked about horses most of the time and he seemed to be perfectly ordinary and normal."[105]
In 2009, photos of the group's exercises taken by undercover police officers (and introduced as evidence at the 1969 trial) were brought out of storage and put on display in a museum exhibit.[106]
In 2025, the ITN Archive published archived footage of the FWA to YouTube. This included an interview with Julian Cayo-Evans and Gwynfor Evans.[107]
↑ Davies, John (1993). A History of Wales. Penguin History (Reviseded.). London: Penguin Books (published 25 January 2007). p.592. ISBN978-0-14-014581-6.
↑ Evans, Gwynfor (1 May 1996). For the Sake of Wales: The Memoirs of Gwynfor Evans (New Updateded.). Cardiff: Welsh Academic Press (published 1 April 2001). p.193. ISBN978-1-86057-006-3.
↑ Gruffydd, Alwyn (2 December 2004). Cyfres Dal y Gannwyll: Mae Rhywun yn Gwybod[Somebody Knows] (in Welsh). Gwasg Carreg Gwalch. p.61. ISBN978-0863816758.
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