The National Anthem
If you didn't experience the visceral joy of watching Munster and Leinster's victories in the Heineken Cup last weekend, I'm sure you have heard about it all in recent days. The two stunning victories over English teams have been recounted at length in all arms of the media for a few days now. We didn't mean to gloat so thoroughly at your misfortune Mr. Chabal.
Myself and a few work colleagues were discussing whether the glow emanating from Irish provincial rugby at the moment will wash over the national team's Six Nations campaign. We got to mulling over the prospective Irish line-ups. Unsurprisingly no Ulster (or Connacht) players were making the straw poll teams. Some of my Munster work colleagues were relishing this prospect (Still bitter over Heineken Cup '99 I suspect). In the light of the likely absence of Ulster players to make the cut we got around to one of my pet hates. "Why do we have to sing Ireland's Call instead of, or aswell as, Amhrán na bhFiann?", people ask.
I have no love for the aesthetics of Ireland's Call. Excellent sentiment, terrible execution. Within the scope of Rugby, I don't like to see it knocked, because the Irish players all belt it out with as much, if not more, fervour and pride as Amhrán na bhFiann. I'll never forget the tears rolling down the face of The Bull among others in the minutes before the grudge South Africa test in Dublin in 2004 while singing it. It's great to see the same attitude to sectarianism in a team as was portrayed by George Best or Barry McGuigan in their careers.
I would like to see the sentiment behind Ireland's Call extended to our Republic in general. Amhrán na bhFiann is a great tune and my heart subscribes to it, but my head doesn't. I find many young Irish people's reaction to this position is abhorrence. They hold Amhrán na bhFiann very dear as a part of their Irishness. Looking at it objectively, it was a song originally written in English less than 100 years ago. The uncountable Irish people who died in the famine for example, never heard of it. The original translation began with Sinne Laochra Gaedheal rather than the current Sinne Fianna Fáil, leading to suspicion of a song-jacking somewhere in its formative years. This song was popularised in a white hot cauldron of crisis on this Island early in the last century when the nation's psyche was jarred and fractured.
I mean no disrespect to the people who popularised this song, many were heroes no doubt. But my own sense of Irishness is not something I would like to constrain to the short time the Republic I now live in has existed. Nor is it something which I would like represented as a soldier's song. We have come so far in recent decades, far enough to cast away the chip on our shoulder from wrong-doings visited upon us in the past. I would like the national anthem to reflect a different Ireland than is celebrated by Amhrán na bhFiann. There is so much else to fête.
I hope to see a United Ireland in my lifetime and my assumption would be that any unification will entail a change of National Anthem, which is probably one of the more trivial changes that would ensue. The possibility of unification on the horizon likely negates any serious momentum for a change of National Anthem in the meantime building up. That's a shame.
Published by Paul.
Myself and a few work colleagues were discussing whether the glow emanating from Irish provincial rugby at the moment will wash over the national team's Six Nations campaign. We got to mulling over the prospective Irish line-ups. Unsurprisingly no Ulster (or Connacht) players were making the straw poll teams. Some of my Munster work colleagues were relishing this prospect (Still bitter over Heineken Cup '99 I suspect). In the light of the likely absence of Ulster players to make the cut we got around to one of my pet hates. "Why do we have to sing Ireland's Call instead of, or aswell as, Amhrán na bhFiann?", people ask.
I have no love for the aesthetics of Ireland's Call. Excellent sentiment, terrible execution. Within the scope of Rugby, I don't like to see it knocked, because the Irish players all belt it out with as much, if not more, fervour and pride as Amhrán na bhFiann. I'll never forget the tears rolling down the face of The Bull among others in the minutes before the grudge South Africa test in Dublin in 2004 while singing it. It's great to see the same attitude to sectarianism in a team as was portrayed by George Best or Barry McGuigan in their careers.
I would like to see the sentiment behind Ireland's Call extended to our Republic in general. Amhrán na bhFiann is a great tune and my heart subscribes to it, but my head doesn't. I find many young Irish people's reaction to this position is abhorrence. They hold Amhrán na bhFiann very dear as a part of their Irishness. Looking at it objectively, it was a song originally written in English less than 100 years ago. The uncountable Irish people who died in the famine for example, never heard of it. The original translation began with Sinne Laochra Gaedheal rather than the current Sinne Fianna Fáil, leading to suspicion of a song-jacking somewhere in its formative years. This song was popularised in a white hot cauldron of crisis on this Island early in the last century when the nation's psyche was jarred and fractured.
I mean no disrespect to the people who popularised this song, many were heroes no doubt. But my own sense of Irishness is not something I would like to constrain to the short time the Republic I now live in has existed. Nor is it something which I would like represented as a soldier's song. We have come so far in recent decades, far enough to cast away the chip on our shoulder from wrong-doings visited upon us in the past. I would like the national anthem to reflect a different Ireland than is celebrated by Amhrán na bhFiann. There is so much else to fête.
I hope to see a United Ireland in my lifetime and my assumption would be that any unification will entail a change of National Anthem, which is probably one of the more trivial changes that would ensue. The possibility of unification on the horizon likely negates any serious momentum for a change of National Anthem in the meantime building up. That's a shame.
Published by Paul.
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