Sometimes a fact crosses your path, and you wonder why you have lived so long without knowledge of it !

I’ve always had an interest in Wales; my name is Welsh, Gwenhwyvar, my great grandmother enchanted me with stories of her St Davids childhood, and another much loved grandmother had the surname Dyas. However, not until this week did I know that the word Wales means land of strangers or foreigners.

Apparently, when the Celts were pushed back to the west of Britain by invading European tribes they called themselves Brythoniaid or Britons . But as they battled constantly with their neighbours they began to refer to themselves as Y Cymry - or compatriots. Meanwhile the Anglo Saxons and Normans called them Welisc or ’strangers’, and the country Wealas.

Compatriots - fellow countrymen, people you can rely on, people who are not strangers or foreigners. What can this teach us today about community building?