Madam, - Now that our Taoiseach is in reclaim mode, could one bring up the little matter of our National Anthem?
The song itself was composed in 1907 by Peadar Kearney, with music by Patrick Heeney, and was translated into Irish by Bulmer Hobson. It was adopted as the anthem by the government of the day led by WT Cosgrave in 1926. However, there is one point which stands out a mile here and that is the outrageous manner in which the anthem was hijacked by Bertie's forerunners about 45 years ago.
I have seen numerous letters from readers, in several publications, over the past few years, asserting that the version now used is not genuine in that the first three words, "Sinne Fianna Fáil", were substituted for the original "Sinne Laochra Gaedheal". Regrettably, they got nowhere and no debate resulted.
I completely agree with this claim - for two reasons. The first is simply that I remember joining in the singing of the anthem in Croke Park and keeping an eye on the wording, as it was set out in every programme, to keep in tune. Then I spotted a change, when the word "Gaedheal" was replaced by the word "Fáil".
No big deal. I thought, just an editorial adjustment, or something. And then came the second change - I don't know how much later, maybe a year or two - when "Laochara" was replaced by "Fianna". I knew a stroke had been pulled, but it did not rank very high on my then priorities and I did nothing about it, like so many others - I just stopped singing the anthem.
The second reason came to me when the matter was raised by readers, as mentioned above, and I checked on the exact sequence of events in 1926. The Fianna Fáil party was founded in April of that year and The Soldiers' Song was adopted as the national anthem just three months later, in July 1926.
Could anybody in their right senses suggest that the head of government, WT Cosgrave, would hand such an accolade as this to his most threatening political enemy of the time? "Sinne Fianna Fail"? Absolutely no way.
The whole sorry saga is a true reflection of the self-serving deviousness of our leading political party, of the utter gutlessness of the main political opposition (to whose notice I once brought the matter) and of the fawning obsequiousness of our people as a so-called sovereign, independent and democratic state.
Is there a tribunal in it? Quite possibly. But who pays for tribunals - the wrongdoers? No, we do, the tax-paying citizenry. All one could demand now is that an all-party committee should draw up rules to prevent such an aberration happening again and get on with the job of replacing our worn-out anthem with something more suited to the 21st century. - Yours, etc,
JOHN NEWMAN,
Dublin 11.