For as long as I can remember, it seems I have been aware of the connections between the South Wales valleys and the Spanish Civil War.

As a young man, I remember going, with my mother, to Merthyr Tydfil for a 'Spanish evening', where we met many of the surviving International Brigaders. Then, when I first went to university, I began to study the conflict more seriously.

Later, in the late-1990s, I attended a day school and a screening of Ken Loach's 'Land and Freedom', at the Phoenix Theatre in Ton Pentre. This rekindled my interest in the subject, and one of the results of this was this poem.

I have always loved swifts and their annual screaming sorties through my home town. I admire their aerobatic skill and seeming playfullness. I was aware, from a young age, that many swifts came from Spain. One Summer's day, in 1997, I was excited watching the swifts in Treorchy and an image of their forebears flying over the Spanish Civil War came to me.

Though I'm not a supporter of the far Left, I admire the courage and tenacity shown by people who came from my community in standing up to fascism. I hope 'Spain in the Rhondda' does them justice.