RE: The opening of Cardigan Castle next week and the subsequent row over the choice of an English band (Bellowhead) to headline its official opening concert in July.

I HAVE no doubt that the views expressed by Richard Crawford ( in sister newspaper the Tivyside Advertiser letters, March 31) are sincerely held, but it seems to me naïve to presume that Cardigan Castle will be sustained over the years to come by catering exclusively for Welsh people.

How many businesses in Cardigan and its environs would survive if they were similarly oriented? The grants were given in order to save a precious piece of heritage from extinction; its future viability depends on the funds that it can generate of its own accord. Whether we like it or not, Cardigan Castle is as much a cash-flow-dependent business as, say, Marks & Spencer, from here on.

In any case, a “Welsh first, last and all the time” proposition diminishes the stature of the cosmopolitan Rhys ap Gruffydd. Dr Crawford rightly acknowledges the foreign inspiration for that first Welsh Eisteddfod, the “great feast” of 1176. The concept was almost certainly brought to Cardigan by the Flemish wool traders who dwelt in the area and who travelled regularly to Arras (at that time more Flemish than French).

And one must not forget the astonishingly close relationship that the Lord Rhys established with King Henry II, supposedly his arch-enemy!

HUW MORGAN

Newcastle Emlyn