Random idle musing about the Irish national anthem

[BlackAmericanoNoSugar]

(Not a political thread)

DH is watching the rugby so I heard Ireland's Call in the background, which got me thinking that if Ireland ever united in the future then we would probably need a new national anthem. My preference would be not to have another battle related one.

So, ignoring for the moment that I don't think I've sung the national anthem since I left school so it's largely irrelevant to me, I've been thinking about what sort of anthem we could have. I would quite like Hozier to compose it, mostly because I like his stuff so far. I think it should be a six part harmony, two parts for male, two for female and two for children and be simple but rousing. Each of the two part categories should work together without one of or both the other categories, so a completely male version would sound good but different to, say, a female and child version. I would like it to be about several types of weather in the same day, wild mountains, waves crashing on the shore, people banding together and lots of green (although now that I've typed that it sounds a bit Disney version of Ireland). It should be able to be sung unaccompanied but also sound good with traditional instruments.

(I should be sorting out the chaos in the kitchen, but I don't want to which is why I'm having a flight of fancy instead. )

I love our current anthem, and think ‘Ireland’s Call’ is a major national embarrassment (while acknowledging we need something other than Amhrán na bhFiann for 32-county sports, or looking ahead to a putative post-unification era). Not sure about Hozier, though. I think we should probably repurpose something we already have, though not sure what.

I think it's a moot discussion, in that Ireland is unlikely to ever be united. Or not for a very long time.

Most national anthems are quite militaristic though.

I suppose an anthem is meant to make you feel patriotic and proud. Ireland's call does stir anything in me.It just reminds me of Rugby which I'm not particularly int.
Amhrán na bhFiann fares slightly better. Although when I hear it, it reminds me of it being blasted at the end of the night in the nightclubs along with the lights coming on, and everyone having to stand awkwardly to attention. (probably showing my age here)

How about Mary Black’s A Song for Ireland? Fills most of your requirements!

God, yes. Everyone’s hair stuck to their scarlet faces, ungluing themselves from shifting the face off someone during a slow set, and wondering uneasily about how you were going to get home, which is 20 miles away and your friend Siobhán’s boyfriend, who used to fit 12 peoole in his banger, has just dumped her.

(Once, in fairness to him, Ray D’Arcy, who’d been DJing, gave us a lift in his van with his equipment. Somewhere in rural Carlow. Or possibly Kilkenny. We were scattered and he was afraid someone was going to puke on his turntables…)

I agree militarism is pretty built into the national anthem as a genre. The Marseillaise, which I love, is pretty much ‘Fuck off, Germans, or your impure blood will water our ploughlands’.

I remember that too!

Too soft and romantic, and too many summer sunsets and bits about fish. I appreciate anthems get used on all kinds of occasions, but a lot of the times they’re used most prominently it’s at sporting events. An Irish anthem has to be able to go toe to toe with the French singing about holding off invaders who want to cut their throats, and Italians being ready to die because Italy called.

Gosh no, not her dirge. We need something uplifting and rousing.

I love that description - thank you for reminding me of my teen years!!

What about ‘Oró, Sé Do Bheatha 'Bhaile’?

Well, we already all know the tune so perhaps a few tweaks to the lyrics. 😂

Amhran na bhFhiann is so hard to sing - the low bits are too low for women and the high bits are too high for men. I think a new anthem should be Maniac 2000, ‘We’re a nation now, NAAATion now, so we are hey.’

I feel like the unionists will have something to say about the Irish 😂Although it would be peak Gaeltacht memories for me and would make up for not getting the end of the nightclub memories when it’s sung.

i like the Hozier idea. He’s a good anthem man.

Right, so I think we will need to have the sort of lyrics that have dual or alternative meanings. So when it's sung by children it's sweet, they sound as though they plan to protect the beautiful countryside by picking up litter and care for others in the community by opening doors and helping old ladies across the road, but when sung forcefully by adults there is an undertone of lacking mercy on the rugby pitch and subjecting invaders to brutal and unceasing guerrilla warfare that will make them regret even looking in our direction.

There might need to be some input from poets, they're good that sort of thing.

I think scrap all national athems and all flags (flegs?!). They contribute far to much to jingoism and division.

@Vestigially I was always so sloshed by the end of the nights that I wouldn't recognise it. Used to think "oh, this sounds familiar" and then be hauled to my feet by my pals. It didn't go down well in 1980s NW Ireland to be sitting (slumping) during the national anthem. Ugh!

I love our National Anthem and would hate it if we had to give it up, it's part of our identity, Irelands Call is complete dirge

Ireland's Call is so embarrassingly bad that DH puts the telly on mute rather than listen to it during the Rugby. And I've had a lifetime of hearing Amhrán na bhFiann being completely butchered, usually by some local schoolgirl, at countless GAA matches.

Can we just keep the Amhrán na bhFiann tune and have no lyrics? Like the Spanish did with their anthem? It doesn't seem to slow them down sporting-wise. If we make sure to play the music with a lively tempo, maybe it could work...🤔

I love

My Heart is in Ireland

As a N Irish person I am loving your ideas for the new national anthem for a united Ireland OP 🤣🤣

It was such a commission to compose. ‘Can we have - stirring sentiments - references to four provinces - major key - keep in the one octave (okay, you can have one stray note) - a key change (ref every Eurovision and Boyzone song - and under three minutes’

Also kind of love the idea of Mary Black singing it TBH but I take the point about it not being quite the right vibe for sports (or indeed war!)

I like Amhrán na bhFiann and Ireland's Call.

As a Scottish woman I have no right to an opinion about the Irish anthem but I'd throw something from the Cranberries in there. During the rugby world cup, they played the Cranberries 'Zombie' at the end of a game and the singing from the fans gave me goosebumps!

I can’t remember who showed me this, possibly DH, aeons back, but apparently it’s not unheard of for people to be singing

WE HAVE COME TO ANSWER OUR COUNTRY’S CALL
FROM THE FOUR PROUD PROTESTANTS OF IRELAND

— which, as an ‘Ireland’s Call’ hater, always cheers me up slightly, as I imagine four very busy Church of Ireland members roaming around with lists calling on people to do something unspecified but magnificent which involves standing shoulder to shoulder.

(The key change is the only good bit of ‘Ireland’s Call’. I love a stirring key change.)

I'm very fond of Amhrán Dóchais, which I haven't heard sung since I we sang it in school, which is neither today nor yesterday😉
The opening bars are used as the Taoiseach's Salute, like the first bars of the national anthem are the President's Salute.

I like it because it is so upbeat - a song of hope and self-reliance, about putting bad times behind us and standing up tall and strong to face the future with courage, nothing about world domination or foreign blood watering our soil..🙄

It was written in 1913 but I think it is a traditional air, and that makes it even better.
Does anybody remember singing it? it starts
'Slán go fóill le brón is buairt' [goodbye forever to sorrow and worry]