Is “Sinne Fianna Fil … le gunna-scrach faoi lmhach na bPilar, seo libh canaig’ Amhrin na bhFiann” inconsistent with or irrelevant for a country that has long favoured neutrality?
I can’t believe no one has mentioned Das Lied der Deutschen. That and Amhrn Na bhFiann are my favourite. The tune and 1st verse (used during WWII but not anymore) of the German one are smashing. Everytime I heard that tune during the World Cup the hairs stood up in the back of my neck and you could see it really got the crowd and players going (well the German ones anyway). What a cracking opening 2 lines:
Deutschland, Deutschland ber alles,
ber alles in der Welt,
I don’t see your point Iamthelaw. Its about the soldiers fighting to free Ireland from its invaders not its stance on international wars.
I mean, it seems fair enough to me for the French or Americans to have a national song that talks about fighting, but if there is a fight, firstly we’re probably not going to get involved and secondly if we did we’d get our asses kicked. I dislike the “God save…” anthems as much as Rock but wouldn’t something about unification (a la South Africa) or just generally expressing pride in the country (Russia, Australia) be more appropriate for us?
A huge fan of Amhran na bhFiann myself. Absolutely love it before a game in Croke Park. I don’t think it’s ever had the same resonance at any rugby or soccer internationals I’ve attended. Maybe when we play England in the home of Irish sport then that might change. Really like German, Italian and French ones - we used to sing the German one in secondary school when some old German wench took over the class! The dark horse for me at the WC was the Japanese anthem - thought it was immense at the time but can’t recall the air of it now. Must do some googling.
Is Irelands Call a national anthem? Is not just a song composed to keep everyone happy. Its crap anyway. The French one is tremendous though.
Star spangled banner really touches my patriotic bone
Irelands call is a Ball Ox of a song. Composed to keep certain section of our community happy. If you want to play for Ireland stand under the tricolour and sing our national anthem, if not then fook off.
My own particular favourite is Flower of Scotland.
Absolutely not. It is the very right of our country’s self-determination in matters such as neutrality that we are singing about - not whether we fight in foreign imperial wars that mean fuck all to us.
A woeful effort there from Gibraltar. Not one of the players made era’ bit of a fist of it so it was left to the intrepid Robbie Keane on the sideline to get stuck in.
And fuck it - I know it’s 12 years since this thread was at the top of the leaderboard…