Thursday, September 20, 2007
It’s ‘that song’ wot sunk us…
I’m going to try and do a vox pop in Paris tomorrow on what Irish rugby fans really do think about Ireland’s Call. Shane Hegarty’s picked up some hostility towards it in within the pages of today’s Irish Times, and on RTE. Frank McNally is possibly on to something when he notes that “...as a song to unify Ireland’s two communities, it has succeeded well, if only because music-loving Catholics and Protestants seem to hate it equally.”
Mick Fealty @ 03:03 PM
I think its great.
Posted by on Sep 20, 2007 @ 03:12 PMBut “Flower of Scotland” the best....don’t understand how a team can lose after singing that............except the Scottish team of course !!!
Posted by on Sep 20, 2007 @ 03:18 PMNothing against Phil Coulter - but we can do better ... seriously. Amhrán na bhFiann is obviously out, but God know’s I’d settle for Londonderry Air (though it yank-ishness is cringeful, but great air). U2 anyone?
Posted by on Sep 20, 2007 @ 03:42 PMHonest question do any Unionist people support the team.
Posted by on Sep 20, 2007 @ 03:43 PMSlug
I agree. I remember earlier this year standing in the Bot in Belfast, jam-packed to the ceiling with Irishmen and women of all backgrounds, religions and political persuasions, cheering on lustily as they watched our boys give the English a hiding at Croker. Near the end someone started up singing `Ireland’s Call’, and I swear everyone in the placed bellowed it with tears in their eyes.
Shortly afterwards we got our political institutions back up and running, and for a few months now I have had the feeling - and everywhere I go I sense it in others - that Belfast in 2007 is a pretty damned good place to be, that history is a nightmare from which we are awaking, and that the future in unwritten.
Sorry, rambling. Anyway, I applaud `Ireland’s Call’ for having created a moment of genuinely shared patriotism even in the heart of divided old Belfast.
Posted by on Sep 20, 2007 @ 03:46 PMWhat rock do you live under n00blet? Ofcourse bloody unionists support the team, a quick look at any rugby thread in this place would confirm this.
Posted by on Sep 20, 2007 @ 03:47 PMI used to- but after the Ravenhill insult to my identity...Allez les bleus!!!!
“Ireland’s Call”? Yuk. I’d go for “Alternative Ulster”
Posted by on Sep 20, 2007 @ 03:48 PMI think it’s dreadful personally.
Posted by on Sep 20, 2007 @ 03:50 PMPounder, some civility please?
Posted by on Sep 20, 2007 @ 03:53 PMA bit off thread but one of the reasons I have difficulty supporting the Irish rugby team is the rugby bit.
I am quite a small person but grew a lot as a late teenager, I was tiny when I went to my country Prod grammar.
I lived in terror of large farmer’s sons running me over, I was pratically small enough to be the ball. This has left me most suspicious of rugby.
Sorry I felt the need to share that.
Posted by on Sep 20, 2007 @ 04:02 PMThe Sash usually fits the bill in terms of ‘a rousing tune’ rather than mournful so how’s about new words about how great Ireland is to that tune. One community ‘provides’ the tune the other the words. As a tune it already has pretty high recognition value plus the IRFU could save a bit of cash too - there is no shortage of bands who can play the tune so they could get the pre-match band for less. ;-)
Posted by on Sep 20, 2007 @ 04:03 PMPoor Darth, you just were born in the wrong era or country take your pick.
I must admit after watching the guys sing the national anthem in Croke Park and then watching them sing Irelands call last Saturday night in France you could see it on their faces that Irelands call is a poor second best.
So maybe it is time to get Danny Boy up and running God knows everyone knows it no matter where you are from
Posted by on Sep 20, 2007 @ 04:04 PM“So maybe it is time to get Danny Boy up and running God knows everyone knows it no matter where you are from “
I would prefer to reserve Danny Boy for NI occasions.
Posted by on Sep 20, 2007 @ 04:09 PMfair_deal,
Orange and blue is a better tune in my opinion.
Posted by on Sep 20, 2007 @ 04:10 PMWe have to sing something, and our Ulster Prod Countrymen tell us Amhrán na bhFiann is not acceptable.
Fair Enough. And watching them look awkward as it’s bellowed out is painful. And makes Nationalists look bad for forcing the issue.
Replacing “Ireland’s Call” is a job for our children, or their children.
Unless anyone can think of a better number - I can’t.
Posted by on Sep 20, 2007 @ 04:17 PMMay be you could come up with the words FD. You could have one verse in Irish, one id SCots and one in English then no one would be left out
What is all this I have just heard about Eddie O’Sullivan giving a press report about aspersions against Ronan O’Gara
Posted by on Sep 20, 2007 @ 04:24 PMCarrickfergus - the opposing team would just lie down and ask to be put out of their misery !
Posted by on Sep 20, 2007 @ 04:26 PMI like the idea of a rousing Orange Tune, of which there are several, with the words from a Green Lyricist.
Can someone with lyrical talent have a go?
Posted by on Sep 20, 2007 @ 04:27 PMHow about “A Nation Once Again”? I know of no more rousing tune, and lyrically it’s full of aspirational stuff about freedom. It’s not political and has nothing in it that I think anyone would seriously object to. It’s also a cracking concept for a sporting nation that has a border up the middle of it. And it was written by a great Irish Protestant.
Any thoughts anyone?
(I hope the Wolfe Tones’ murdering of this great song doesn’t render it unacceptable?)
Posted by on Sep 20, 2007 @ 04:34 PMWe will have to keep it until someone writes something better but on the other hand we can enter it in the Euro-vision contest and really annoy everyone else
Posted by on Sep 20, 2007 @ 04:40 PMCome Billy, let’s hear your pitch for this one:
“It’s not political...”
Posted by on Sep 20, 2007 @ 04:40 PMSpeaking as a unionist when Ireland play rugby I’m a nationalist, if you see what I mean.
I’ve stood beside people from all over this island watching our boys in green line up and have had a lump in my throat the size of a house brick when ‘Ireland’s Call’ came on (247 pints does help). I think a lot depends on who is leading the song. I’ve heard some woeful renditions. But when it is done well, often spontaneously, as Billy Pilgrim alludes, it puts the fire into you, by god whatever foot you kick with.
Anyway, now that I’ve created enough cover, can i cordially invite you to contribute to my web, ‘Legitimate Tangent’ (only people from NI will get the pun) which purports to be a sideways look at the lunacy of life in the public sector. Mick, indulge me, please:
http://legitimatetangent.blogspot.com/
Cheers!
Posted by on Sep 20, 2007 @ 04:46 PMMick
Well, of course it’s political, after a fashion. What I mean is that it’s a song, the lyrics of which might be equally embraced by nationalists or unionists.
(I admit the song has been used in a politicized manner by some nationalists - I refer to the Wolfe Tones - but that’s a matter of context, a context which is extra-textual. Therefore the song might just as easily be used in a more unifying context, such as as a shared anthem - or in short, reclaimed from the Wolfe Tones and used in a context closer to the poet’s original intention.)
Here are the lyrics:
“When boyhood’s fire was in my blood
I read of ancient freemen,
For Greece and Rome who bravely stood,
Three hundred men and three men;
And then I prayed I yet might see
Our fetters rent in twain,
And Ireland, long a province, be.
A Nation once again!
Chorus:A Nation once again,
A Nation once again,
And lreland, long a province, be
A Nation once again!”Nothing about the Saxon foe in there. The only reference is to the 300 Spartans ffs. Nothing out of kilter with notions such as “the land of the free” or “Britons never shall be slaves”.
I accept the song suffers from the misconceptions of others, but I still point out they are just that - misconceptions.
Bloody Wolfe Tones.....
Posted by on Sep 20, 2007 @ 04:49 PMI’m afraid I must be suffering along with the others…
“then I prayed I yet might see
Our fetters rent in twain,
And Ireland, long a province, be.
A Nation once again!”Fine motives perhaps, but ‘non political’? Really?
Posted by on Sep 20, 2007 @ 05:00 PMA nation united in rugby and also united in song, well done Billy.
Posted by on Sep 20, 2007 @ 05:13 PM
