The Welsh abroad: Wales in Hungary
Today we analyse the initiative ‘Magyar Cymru,’ a project founded to strengthen cultural links between Wales & Hungary.
How did it catch our eye?
Before we go into detail about this project, we thought it best to show you how we became aware of it in the first place. This was through no other than Magyar Cymru’s own youtube channel, which has a score of interesting videos about the connections between the two countries.
What is Magyar Cymru?
Simply put, it is a volunteer-led cultural initiative that creates daily social media content in English, Welsh, and Hungarian to create stronger cultural ties between Wales & Hungary. However, Magyar Cymru is also responsible for many creative projects, and works together with the Welsh-Hungarian Cultural Association to lead events including a Welsh makeover of a café in Budapest for Welsh-Language Music Day and running a performance of Calon Lân in Hungarian by the folk singer Andrea Gerák.
Who is behind Magyar Cymru?
Magyar Cymru was founded in 2019 by Balint Brunner, a Hungarian-born PR consultant who is the secretary of the Welsh-Hungarian Cultural Association. He is an advocator for better Welsh-language integration for immigrants coming to Wales and was nominated as a Shwmae Su’mae Day ambassador in 2020.
When asked for comment, Brunner said:
“From music, through football to literature, there are many things that unite our two nations. This is why Magyar Cymru was born: to raise awareness of these cultural parallels and to give voice to the many individuals who share a passion for everything Welsh-Hungarian.”
“We’ve heard some incredible stories over the last year or so — from real Welsh-Hungarian weddings, to Hungarian villagers singing Welsh hymns. We’ve also come across a Welshophile music collector in Budapest, Hungarian schools and businesses across Wales, and Welsh-speaking Hungarian children in Caernarfon!”
We at VocalWales had heard of Anglophiles, but never of Welshophiles — let alone in Hungary!
How are Magyar Cymru working on Welsh-Hungarian relations?
Apart from the organised events mentioned earlier, they are the spearheads of the ‘Let’s build bridges’ movement.
This movement brought together Hungarians in Wales, Welshophiles in Hungary and those who felt a strong sense of attachment to Wales to create what they describe as a ‘love letter’ to Wales and her people.
Montgomery in Powys, where a famous poem in Hungary called ‘The Bards of Wales’ is set, responded to the video with their own video. This discussed the Poem as well as including greetings from locals and local schools for Hungarians.
The video was more popular than could be imagined and reached over 50,000 views on social media in weeks as well as hitting mainstream media including national TV and radio channels in Hungary.
What Magyar Cymru has done doesn’t stop there though. Since their formation in 2019, they’ve produced a Welsh map of Hungary and have spread far in the UK with coverage by BBC News and the Guardian in addition to many other outlets.
What are Magyar Cymru planning on doing in the future?
After the easing of lockdown and when things return to normal, there is a plan for a major intercultural event to be hosted in Montgomery where a plaque in honour of poet János Arany — the writer of ‘The Bards of Wales,’ will be unveiled.
Let us also not forget Kunágota, known as Hungary’s ‘Welshest’ village, which we hope can be a site for a second intercultural event in the future!
We’ll end the article with a final comment by Brunner — “Today, eleven projects, nearly a thousand followers and 100 pieces of media coverage later, I’m simply amazed by the reaction we’ve had on both sides — and can’t wait to build more ‘bridges’ between our two cultures.”
At VocalWales, we too hope more bridges can be built and we will certainly be attending the event in Montgomery when things are back to normal.
