Scouse Not English? 01.08.16

Angharad Gwilym and Ted Parry explore long-established links and potential alliances between Wales and Liverpool in the face of the depredations of the British state. Could this English ‘Celtic’ city contribute to an imminent break-up of British culture?

Ted Parry: Angharad Gwilym and I met early last year, when I visited Liverpool for the first time in many years. She was presenting a discussion paper to a meeting for the organisation Philosophy in Pubs.1 After the discussion we found ourselves talking about the multiplicity of links between Wales and Liverpool and the idea of Liverpool as a Celtic city.

May we met again in the lounge of the Adelphi hotel, during Philosophy in Pubs’ annual conference, to talk about those links. In what we talked about we may, at best, have identified some starting points for a vast subject. At the time we met, Angharad was working in the archives of the Hillsborough Investigation. Although the Hillsborough inquest reached a verdict of unlawful killing against South Yorkshire Police this year, the ongoing investigation prevented us looking more closely at those events.