2001 in Wales

This article is about the particular significance of the year 2001 to Wales and its people.

Incumbents

 * First Minister – Rhodri Morgan
 * Secretary of State for Wales – Paul Murphy
 * Archbishop of Wales – Rowan Williams
 * Archdruid of the National Eisteddfod of Wales – Meirion Evans

Events

 * 1 March – Peter Clarke is appointed Children's Commissioner for Wales.
 * 1 June – Official opening of Cardiff Bay Barrage.
 * 7 June – In the UK general election:
 * Plaid Cymru retain a total of 4 seats. They lose Ynys Môn to Labour but Adam Price gains Carmarthen East and Dinefwr from Labour's Alan Williams.
 * Newly elected Labour MPs include Hywel Francis (Aberavon), Mark Tami (Alyn and Deeside), Wayne David (Caerphilly), Ian Lucas (Wrexham) and Chris Bryant (Rhondda)
 * Kevin Brennan replaces Rhodri Morgan as MP for Cardiff West.
 * 16 June – Entrepreneur Terry Matthews is knighted in the Queen's Birthday Honours list.
 * 11 July – Welsh language pressure group Cymuned is launched at a meeting in Mynytho.
 * 1 August – Coleg Harlech Workers' Educational Association (North Wales) is created through the merger of The Workers' Educational Association (North Wales) and Coleg Harlech.
 * 16 September – To commemorate "Glyndwr Day", actress Siân Phillips unveils a memorial statue to Catrin Glyndŵr in London.
 * 26 October – A memorial service to celebrate the life of Harry Secombe is held at Westminster Abbey and attended by the Prince of Wales (now Charles III).

Arts and literature

 * 15 March – Julien Macdonald is chosen as fashion house Givenchy's new designer.
 * 24 March – Opening of the exhibition Let Paul Robeson Sing! in Cardiff.
 * 15 December – Rob Brydon wins Best TV Comedy Actor award in the British Comedy Awards.
 * 25 December – Matthew Rhys and Tom Ward star in a TV adaptation of The Lost World.
 * November – John Bourne establishes the Wrexham Stuckists group of artists.
 * Jessica Garlick makes the last ten in the first series of Pop Idol.
 * Andrew Vicari sells a collection of 125 paintings of the First Gulf War to Prince Khaled of Saudi Arabia for £17 million.
 * Irish photographer Paul Seawright is awarded a personal chair by the University of Wales, Newport.

Awards

 * Prix Hélène Rochas – Rebecca Evans
 * Cardiff Singer of the World – Marius Brenciu
 * Glyndŵr Award – John Meirion Morris

National Eisteddfod (held in Denbigh)

 * National Eisteddfod of Wales: Chair – Mererid Hopwood (first woman ever to win the chair)
 * National Eisteddfod of Wales: Crown – Penri Roberts
 * National Eisteddfod of Wales: Prose Medal – Elfyn Pritchard
 * Wales Book of the Year:
 * English language: Stephen Knight – Mr Schnitzel
 * Welsh language: Owen Martell – Cadw dy ffydd, brawd
 * Gwobr Goffa Daniel Owen -

English language

 * Malcolm Pryce – Aberystwyth Mon Amour
 * Alastair Reynolds – Chasm City
 * Jon Ronson – Them: Adventures with Extremists
 * Carole Seymour-Jones – Painted Shadow: The Life of Vivienne Eliot, First Wife of T.S. Eliot

Welsh language

 * Roger Boore and Rhian Nest James – Hoff Hwiangerddi
 * Gwynfor Evans – Cymru o Hud
 * Tudur Dylan Jones – Adenydd
 * Angharad Tomos – Cnonyn Aflonydd

Music

 * Feeder – Echo Park (album)
 * Hilary Tann – The Grey Tide and the Green, commissioned for the Last Night of the Welsh Proms and performed by the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Owain Arwel Hughes
 * Catatonia – Paper Scissors Stone (album)
 * Goldie Lookin' Chain – Don't Blame the Chain (album)
 * Melys – Chinese Whispers (album)
 * Terris – "Fabricated Lunacy" (single) and Learning to Let Go (debut album)

Film

 * John Rhys-Davies makes his first appearance as Gimli in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.
 * Sara Sugarman writes and directs Very Annie Mary, featuring Welsh stars such as Jonathan Pryce, Kenneth Griffith, Matthew Rhys, Ioan Gruffudd, Mary Hopkin and Ruth Madoc.
 * Rhys Ifans co-stars in The Shipping News.
 * A Bollywood film, Mein Dil Tujhko Diya (I Gave You my Heart), is shot in Aberystwyth and the Elan Valley.
 * In Gosford Park, Jeremy Northam plays a fictionalised version of Ivor Novello. Several of Novello's songs feature in the film's soundtrack.
 * Nia Roberts stars in A Day Out.

Welsh-language films

 * Against the Dying of the Light
 * Y Delyn

Welsh-language television

 * Y Stafell Ddirgel (drama serial)

English-language television

 * The Bench

Sport

 * BBC Wales Sports Personality of the Year – Joe Calzaghe
 * Football – Liverpool F.C. win the FA Cup the first time it is played in Cardiff's Millennium Stadium.

Births

 * 23 March – Dream Alliance, racehorse bred near Blackwood

Deaths

 * 11 January – Lorna Sage, critic, 57 (emphysema)
 * 20 January – Crispin Nash-Williams, mathematician, 68
 * 18 February – Claude Davey, Wales international rugby union captain, 92
 * 22 February – Cledwyn Hughes, Lord Cledwyn of Penrhos, former Secretary of State for Wales, 84
 * 11 April – Sir Harry Secombe, singer and comedian, 79
 * 16 April – Henry Morgan Lloyd, clergyman, 89
 * 26 April – Dafydd Rowlands, minister and writer, 69
 * 30 April – Brian Morris, Baron Morris of Castle Morris, poet, critic and politician, 71
 * 25 May – Delme Bryn-Jones, operatic baritone, 67
 * 10 June – Samuel Ifor Enoch, theologian, 86
 * 17 July – Val Feld, the first member of the Welsh Assembly to die, 53 (cancer)
 * 19 July – Roderic Bowen, MP, 87
 * August – Valerie Davies, Olympic swimmer, 89
 * 19 September – Rhys Jones, archaeologist, 60
 * October – John Owen, television writer (suicide)
 * 6 December – Eryl Stephen Thomas, former Bishop of Monmouth and of Llandaff, 91
 * 7 December – Ray Powell, MP, 73