After a century of laying the foundations for a stronger and independent Wales, Plaid Cymru how have an historic opportunity to build the walls and create the sense of what its vision of the nation will become. Yes, we have entered a new age for our country.

Voters across the nation handed Rhun Ap Iorwerth the keys to Cardiff Bay but were not totally convinced that he and his other 42 MSs deserve the full run of the house. No, they’ll be kept in check by the political reality of trying to run the nation as a minority Government. And there are very noisy newcomer squatters there too, with Reform handed a sizeable bloc for its anti-Welsh, anti-immigrant and anti-progressive crypto-funded agenda.

Welsh Labour, after 27 years holding the reins of devolved power, were handed a sobering message from voters who returned just nine party MSs and sent First Minister Eluned Morgan packing. Yes, politics is cruel and unforgiving, and she deserves thanks at least for her decades of service to the nation.

The incoming First Minister and his Plaid Cymru Government – how strange it is to read that sentence – now must put actions to their decades of words. They inherit a nation that is both broke and broken, lacking the powers in a devolved system that kept Wales subservient to Westminster whims.

For Plaid to survive and the nation to thrive, more powers are needed for the expanded Senedd.

But this United Kingdom is now at a turning point. The nations of Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales are now led by parties that believe that their respective devolved destinies lie elsewhere, aligned with Europe, away from Westminster, on a course plotted away from the UK.

Right now, it’s hard to predict who Mr Ap Iorwerth and the First Ministers of Scotland and Northern Ireland will be dealing with in Westminster. But together, the three have a strong case - and strong mandates too – to say that the status quo is not working, that the ties that bind are loosening and that voters’ tempers are frayed at how things are.

Now it’s up to Mr Ap Iorwerth and his colleagues to determine how things will be.