Two Welshmen, a long way from home
Dyfed and Jason grew up in Wales. Both emigrated to America, now residing on opposite coasts, but still long for the country they left behind.
Dyfed and Jason
It started with the word
Dyfed and Jason were both raised in Wales. What the Atlantic changed was not where they were from, but how often they had to explain it.
Football is what put them in the same orbit. Their hometown club was bought by Ryan and Rob, Wrexham turned up on television, and a lot of people started asking about Wales at once. They first met properly at a couple of events thrown by New York Welsh and the Welsh Government, and somewhere in that they worked out they were carrying the same distance around. Neither of them wanted to put it down.
So they built Hiraeth: something for the Welsh who left and still feel it, and a way in for everyone who hasn’t been yet.
A longing for a home, or a time, you can’t fully return to. It’s specific to being a Welshman a long way from Wales.
But it isn’t only that. The instinct to hold onto a place, a language, a grandparent’s voice, a recipe, a way of doing things, belongs to anyone whose past isn’t where they currently stand. That’s most people, eventually.