A new national anthem for Ireland

'Amhrán na bhFiann' is showing its age and 'Ireland's Call' has never really lifted our spirits. To mark our national day, ' The Irish Times'asked Neil Hannon and Thomas Walsh of the Duckworth Lewis Method to come up with a new anthem. Here are the lyrics, and you can hear the song in full at irishtimes.com

IRELAND, IRELAND by The Duckworth Lewis Method (2010)

Ireland, Ireland damp sod of

earth,

Lost on the surf of the north

Atlantic.

Ireland, Ireland mountains and

mist,

Vodka and chips, it’s so

romantic

Joyce and Heaney, Beckett

and Wilde.

Bill O’Herlihy, Dunphy and

Giles.

Evans, Hewson, Mullen and

Clayton,

Westlife and Jedward, the

pride of our nation!

Ireland, Ireland once we were

poor,

Then we were wealthy now

we are poor again.

Cows and horses, donkeys

and sheep,

Munster and Leinster,

Connaught and ******

Chinese, Polish, Africans too,

Doing the jobs we don’t want

to do.

An Irish stew, a nation of

nations,

Working for peanuts in petrol

stations!

Ireland, Ireland you are the

best,

Place to the west of Wales

and Scotland.

Sometimes it’s heaven

sometimes it’s hell,

But I’d rather be Irish than

anything else!