The Mold Riots of 1869 came at a time of social and cultural upheaval throughout Wales, with Welsh identity becoming politicised for the first time. In the particular context of north-east Wales, the coverage of the Mold Riots in the local press reveals an early attempt to negotiate identity politics through newspaper editorials and evolving forms of journalistic language in a semi-anglicised border region in which questions of religion, language, class and loyalty were emerging as divisive political issues. It argues that contemporary coverage of the aftermath of the riots offers an insight into an early politicised form of journalistic leader column which allowed local newspapers, all of which had a cross-border remit, to articulate their own interpretations of political and national identity.