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An artist who created a memorial for those killed in a dam disaster has sparked outrage after referring to Welsh language activists as the “Taliban”.

Giovanni Jacovelli, who produced a replacement memorial for 16 people who died after a dam failed and flooded Dolgarrog in 1925, caused controversy when he made the remark on Twitter.

After people questioned why the memorial was not also written in Welsh, he said: “Praised by all, except Welsh language Taliban! I’m gutted.”

His comments sparked anger on the social media platform.

North Wales Police and Crime Commissioner Arfon Jones was one of those to express his disappointment in the comments made by the currently-closed Conwy Valley Maze owner.

He said: “Shameful comment about my first language and culture, you should apologise and withdraw gracefully.”

Mr Jacovelli created the new memorial after a request from Dolgarrog Community Council.

The community received over £22,000 in grants to renovate the memorial and surrounding garden area.

Six children were among those killed when water and boulders struck the community on 2 November 1925.

The flooding was triggered by a failure of the Eigiau dam which was breached following two weeks of heavy rain and within 20 minutes, the water had flooded across the main road, sweeping away houses, the church, church house, sweet shop, butchers and water mains.

Dafydd Williams, chairman of the community council, said he planned to speak with councillors to see if a translation of the memorial could be included.

He said: “I would like it if we could sort that out.

“Mr Jacovelli has done a marvellous job in putting this together and when I asked him to do this job I told him that we wanted it to be the same as the old memorial.

“It wasn’t in Welsh either and I had said to do it the same.”

Cllr Williams said it was “my slip up” and said he was hopeful something could be done about it.

He added that while he had been made aware of the comments by Mr Jacovelli on Twitter, it was not a matter for him to comment on.

Speaking to the Daily Post, Mr Jacovelli said he had been left “gutted” by the response.



He said: “It was a lot of work by a lot of people and when it was unveiled we had a great reaction.

“It is a very one sided argument and you are not able to respond to anything without being seen as anti-Welsh.

“This was directed at a few Welsh language fanatics.”

When asked about the use of the term Taliban, Mr Jacovelli said: “It is an unfortunate use of a terminology that is not properly understood.”