KEARNEY (PEADAR), THE SOLDIER'S SONG, FIRST EDITION WITH MUSIC

Four printed pages, in two parts, 31 x 24cm approx.. Written in 1909-1910 by Peadar Kearney, music by Paddy Heaney and...

KEARNEY (PEADAR), THE SOLDIER'S SONG, FIRST EDITION WITH MUSIC

Four printed pages, in two parts, 31 x 24cm approx.. Written in 1909-1910 by Peadar Kearney, music by Paddy Heaney and arrangement by Cathal MacDubhgall. Later to become "Amhrán na bhFiann" when it was translated to the Irish by Liam Ó Rinn in 1923. Becoming the official Irish national anthem in 1926 following some debate about various alternatives. Peader Kearney was a founder member of the Irish Volunteers and The Soldiers Song was sung in the GPO during the Rising and was popular among the Volunteers. As a result, later that same year (in December) it was published by Whelan and Son, Dublin, 6. Seamus Whelan was a sympathiser. The printer was Patrick Mahon of Yarnhall Street, who had also supplied some type for the printing of the 1916 Proclamation. The cover design, with rifle butt signed in a stylised C.macD., is by Cathal Mac Dúbhghaill. The first edition to include the music is rare and being sold not only on the 100th anniversary of the Rising, but also the anniversary of the document itself.

Peadar Kearney joined the Irish Republican Brotherhood in the early 1903, and became a member of its Supreme Council. He served in the Jacobs Factory garrison under Thomas MacDonagh during the rising. He evaded capture but was arrested during the War of Independence and interned at Ballykinler Camp in County Down in 1920-21. In the Dáil debate preceding the original acquisition of copyright by the State in 1934, there was discussion of the song's merits and flaws. Frank MacDermot said, "Leaving out sentiment, I must confess, from both a literary and a musical point of view, I would regard the "Soldier's Song" as, shall we say, a jaunty little piece of vulgarity, and I think we could have done a lot better."]Thomas F. O'Higgins responded, "National Anthems come about, not because of the suitability of the particular words or notes, but because they are adopted generally by the nation. That is exactly how the "Soldiers' Song" became a National Anthem in this country. It happened to be the Anthem on the lips of the people when they came into their own and when the outsiders evacuated the country and left the insiders here to make the best or the worst of the country. It was adopted by the people here before ever it was adopted by the Executive Council"

 

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