Irish Anthem (Irish & English Versions)

The history of Amhrán na bhFiann, Ireland’s national anthem, written in English as A Soldier’s Song and now sung in Liam Ó Rinn’s Irish translation.

Origins

Ireland’s national anthem began as A Soldier’s Song, written in English by Peadar Kearney around 1907, with music by his friend Patrick Heeney. Kearney, a Dublin house painter and member of the Irish Republican Brotherhood, was the uncle of the writer Brendan Behan. The song was first published in 1912 in the republican newspaper Irish Freedom and became popular with the Irish Volunteers. It was sung by insurgents during the Easter Rising of 1916 and afterwards in internment camps such as Frongoch in Wales, which helped to make it the marching song of the independence movement.

The Irish version and its adoption

The Irish-language text, Amhrán na bhFiann, is a translation by Liam Ó Rinn, published in the early 1920s. It opens with the words Sinne Fianna Fáil, corresponding to the English Soldiers are we. The song was adopted as the national anthem of the Irish Free State in 1926, taking the place of older songs such as God Save Ireland that had been used informally. Only the chorus is used as the anthem, and it is now almost always sung in Irish, though the English words remain well known. A shortened form of the music, made up of its first four bars and last five bars, serves as the Presidential Salute.

The original version of this page offered recordings of the anthem in Irish and English; that audio has not survived. For the song sung alongside it at Irish rugby internationals, see Ireland’s Call.

Chapters of Dublin History Irish Anthem

(Irish & English Versions)