Fianna Fail rubbish calls to remove words “Fianna Fail” from Irish national anthem

Posted By: December 04, 2017

Senator Mark Daly has rubbished recent calls for the words to be removed from Ireland’s national anthem, Amhran na bhFiann

Cormac Byrne. Irish Mirror. Dublin. Sunday, December 3, 2017

A Fianna Fail senator has branded any proposal to remove the words ‘Fianna Fail’ from the national anthem as ‘simple populism’.

He said: “Over the past number of weeks, there has been a public consultation on the use of, and guidelines surrounding, our national anthem, Amhrán na bhFiann.

“Many different viewpoints have been received by the Seanad public consultations committee, which will meet on Tuesday the 5th of December to hear from the Minister for Finance, the Defence Forces, the Lord Mayor of Cork, schools, experts on copyright and members of the Deaf Community.

“While every person is entitled to put forward their opinions on the national anthem, we were surprised to receive a number of submissions which proposed changing the lyrics of Amhrán na bhFiann.
“There is no public support, I believe, for changing the wording of Amhrán na bhFiann’.

“Some years ago, the idea of removing Fianna Fáil from our national anthem was mooted by a number of figures connected with Fine Gael.

“Thankfully common sense prevailed, and the former Minister for Finance, and Fine Gael grandee, Michael Noonan stepped in, and stamped out any talk of changing the words.

“Fianna Fáil does not, and will never support such a change. Amhrán na bhFiann has been our national anthem since before the foundation of my political party, Fianna Fáil.

“In fact, the Irish language version, translated by Liam Ó Rinn from Peadar Kearney’s original English language version, was first published in the Freeman’s Journal on 3 April 1923, under Ó Rinn’s pen name ‘Coinneach’, three years before Fianna Fáil was even established.

“Those who still harbour partisan, political positions need to reflect on their position.

“Amhrán na bhFiann, irrespective of one’s political loyalties, has been, and remains a source of national unity.

“I am confident that support for our national anthem as it is currently is shared by the vast majority of the public. A recent opinion poll showed 82% support for the national anthem.”