It did eventually blow up in their faces though, because with the US and Russia needing to get their iron industries and then steel industries productive, they effectively lured the best and most talented away. The US then blew us away and well before the start of the first world war, our steel boom was effectively finished.
We have quite a few notable people David Thomas from Alltwen - who became known as the father of the US Iron industry and others who helped set up New Tredegar in the US who built the iron/steel works to build the canons and weapons for the confederacy in the US civil wars. John Hughes who helped to build the Russian steel industry. We were exploited and then the best did what the best always do and got the rewards for their skills and talents elsewhere, where they were respected and appreciated.
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- Itās odd. As soon as I read the beginning of @Toffidilās post, I thought, āOh, Truck Shops!ā I hadnāt really associated them with money, you see, as they were a way of avoiding paying working people!!
- Iām sorry to be so thick, but what do the new initials OMB mean? (If the answer is not polite, PM me!)
- to @dave_5 Iām not sure we can get away with saying things quite like that, just by putting a
after them. (You do this by typing a colon. This gives you a choice. If you want something in particular, like a naughty imp, type colon imp 
and select the offered picture!!
(Gee folks Iām going into competition with our Slovenian friend!! (NOT!))
edit: While I was typing that @Toffidil 's last arrived. Yes indeed! It is such a shame Hughesovska - Donetsk, now inā¦well sort of in Ukraineā¦is having such troubles now. Of course, Peter the Great invited John Hughes, rather ironic!!
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OMB doesnāt mean anything. Itās a meme from Tudur Owenās radio show that has lately entered the wider Welsh-speaking lexicon. Itās used as an exclamation in the same way as OMG, but itās not actually an acronym in the same way that OMG is.
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Sorry, me again. That page says that OMB satnds for O Mam Bach, but I suspect that that is a backronym.
I thought it meant oh my āenlightened oneā.
(However, I shall definitely now switch to thinking it means āo mam bachā!)
To @robbruce and @owainlurch Diolch!! I feel less stupid now, as it wasnāt all that obvious!!
On another point, (perhaps if thereās interest another thread for interesting extracts) - I really like reading the newspapers from the 19th century through to the early twentieth century. You can see the switch from very patriotic welsh language papers through to a point where the papers have changed ownership and are all in English, with a very different political slant. Aberdare Times, Aberdare Leader etc - there were so many back then. The ones in the US are really interesting as well - Y drych etc. You can really sense the mood of those times and the energy and passion that people felt for Wales, the language and the culture etc. The national library of Wales has a great list of them:
http://newspapers.library.wales/browse/p
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Iāll see your make-up-bag and raise you a general canvas bach, I mean bag:
http://www.perisandcorr.com/products/omb-canvas-bag
Anyway, bacronym or not, it seems to have achieved some traction.
And arenāt there other expressions like ābois bachā? And at least one other that I canāt quite remember.
Iād like to thank @robbruce for kindly responding to my (individual) plea - caredig iawn. Thanks also to @henddraig for elucidating an explanation of OMB. 
Anyone who knows me well or has played in the same forward pack as me will know that I am not averse to swearing (in several languages, I can now proudly admit 
). Itās just that I include this wonderful forum in my list of places where strong bad language feels out of place.
Diolch eto - gwerthfawrogi iawn.
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When I lived on Gower, I used to help to Index The Cambrian. This was in English and was ublished from 1804. It certainly gave me a very clear impression of life as it really was!
āWe on Gower have no need of Police. We look after our own.ā (I forget the exact date, but I remember the quote well!!)
I did a bit of research on prostitution in Swansea and a lot of my reading was like the plot of a novel by C. Dickens.
Woman had outdoor relief, someone asked for her wedding lines and she couldnāt find them She was denied relief and told to go to the Workhouse. She moved into a really cheap room and paid by selling everything she could get money for. She had a little girl (about 10).
This isnāt the place for the rest but I will never forget that example of Victorian Values! It ended with a Coroner declaring that ānobody in Swansea dies of starvation!ā
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Not sure whether youād class it as authentic, given that itās scripted fiction, but here is Arthur from Rownd a Rownd using āO Mam bachā, at about 1m 12s:
http://www.s4c.cymru/clic/c_level2.shtml?programme_id=529479571
(7 Gorffennaf)
ā¦and that reminded me of his also using ābobol bachā, which was probably the one I was trying to remember before.
O mam bach was also frequently heard in the classic football comedy Cāmon Midffield.
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there are a load of threads on this subject, all now pretty old. We all, i think, are equally bemused, although it seems now, after Trumpās election, to be a world wide phenomenon - a voting rebellion against the 'establishment ', unfortunately groups like UKIP and men like Trump are somehow seen as anti-establishment! The whole UK is currently aiming sharp instruments at noses to spiteā¦ what?
You are NOT the only person who is utterly at a loss!
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@ElenTylwythTeg and @henddraig
May I respectfully and hopefully repeat my wish expressed a little over a year ago.
There are still a lot of raw nerves on this issue and still a lot of ugliness to come, which is why my own preference from now on would be to let the battles and debates take place in other arenas and keep this lovely forum a haven of blissful happiness. 
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I think Huw is spot on. There are better venues to discuss this than the forum. Iām going to remove the posts after his request to stop, and lock the thread.
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after them. (You do this by typing a colon. This gives you a choice. If you want something in particular, like a naughty imp, type colon imp 
and select the offered picture!!
). Itās just that I include this wonderful forum in my list of places where strong bad language feels out of place.
