Terry hails power of Llangollen's Eisteddfod

But not so the peace envoy, Terry Waite, who turning 80 today is planning a busy summer of campaigning for peace across the world, helping charities he is involved in and returning to the Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod.

Mr Waite, who became a household name when he was held hostage in the Lebanon from 1987 to 1991, says the Eisteddfod sums up what can be done to help peace when a local community works together.

His links with the event, which this year runs from July 1 to 7, led to singing star Alfie Boe performing at his 80th birthday charity event last night to raise money for his One to One charity for children traumatised by war.

Remarkable

He said: “Alfie Boe, like many people, sang at the Eisteddfod at the beginning of his career and returned as an international star.

“I have now been involved for about 15 years and hope that people see me as an honorary Welshman.

“The Eisteddfod is a remarkable event which began in 1947 after the Second World War to unite the world and promote peace through music.

“Still dependant on volunteers to this day it shows that local people can have a great impact on the world if they work together with a specific aim.

“Over the years musicians and dancers from countries divided through war have been able to meet and forge friendships they could never have done at home.”

Despite his four score years, Mr Waite is showing very few signs of taking it easy although he has vowed to slow down a little.

He is deeply involved in Hostage International, an organisation that works with those taken hostage and their families and returning hostages.

He said: “We also hold training seminars for people like the foreign office and the police looking at hostage negotiations and other aspects.

“More people than we realise are being taken hostage at home and across the world. And the problem is becoming increasingly prevalent for charity workers and journalists. At one time they would generally have been seen as being secure. But now they are taken hostage with impunity. We at Hostage International work in many places around the world, including the USA.”

The former peace envoy has also forged links with Clive Knowles, chairman of the British Ironwork Centre near Oswestry.He praised the centre’s ‘Save a life, surrender your knife’ campaign with the Knife Angel sculpture at its heart.

He said: “Clive is remarkably socially minded, raising enormous sums of money for charities.

“The Knife Angel is a remarkable visual demonstration of the appalling amount of knife crime in Britain and I was honoured to be able to watch it being created. To have knives taken off the streets, some of them used in the commission of crime and fashioned into the angel is a symbol that lives, however brutal, can be transformed.”