Post by Wasp on May 2, 2007 23:53:43 GMT
(Margaret Canning, Irish News)
A southern peace group has called for new words to the Irish national anthem to coincide with the restoration of devolution next month.
Juliatta Clancy, a founder of the Meath Peace Group, said a competition for a peace monument to be located on the border could also include a competition for new lyrics to Amhrán na bhFiann/The Soldiers Song.
In a pre-election party pledge Taoiseach Bertie Ahern said he would give €5 million to a new peace monument for the border counties if Fianna Fail is re-elected for a third term.
The party's manifesto also says it will put teaching the anthem on to the school curriculum.
Mrs Clancy said that if the Taoiseach hoped to mount a monument to peace he should consult on new words to a national anthem to reflect a more peaceful era in Ireland.
She said such a process "might make us think a bit more about what we need for reconciliation".
Mrs Clancy said some words of the anthem – "mid cannons" roar and rifles peal" – evoked violence and should not be taught to children.
"We should be looking at something that accepts we have come through this awful time but that we are looking forward to something new and bright."
But Fianna Fail's Dermot Ahern, the republic's minister for foreign affairs, said the party "backs the anthem as it stands".
"Any anthem will reflect the period it was written and adopted by the people as their anthem," he said.
"Ours reflects the revolutionary period at the early part of the last century. The French and US anthems are similarly revolutionary. We have no plans to change the anthem."
The Soldier's Song was written in 1907 by Peadar Kearney, an uncle of Brendan Behan.
It was published in the newspaper Irish Freedom in 1912 but not widely known until it was sung at the GPO during the Easter Rising.
May 2, 2007
A southern peace group has called for new words to the Irish national anthem to coincide with the restoration of devolution next month.
Juliatta Clancy, a founder of the Meath Peace Group, said a competition for a peace monument to be located on the border could also include a competition for new lyrics to Amhrán na bhFiann/The Soldiers Song.
In a pre-election party pledge Taoiseach Bertie Ahern said he would give €5 million to a new peace monument for the border counties if Fianna Fail is re-elected for a third term.
The party's manifesto also says it will put teaching the anthem on to the school curriculum.
Mrs Clancy said that if the Taoiseach hoped to mount a monument to peace he should consult on new words to a national anthem to reflect a more peaceful era in Ireland.
She said such a process "might make us think a bit more about what we need for reconciliation".
Mrs Clancy said some words of the anthem – "mid cannons" roar and rifles peal" – evoked violence and should not be taught to children.
"We should be looking at something that accepts we have come through this awful time but that we are looking forward to something new and bright."
But Fianna Fail's Dermot Ahern, the republic's minister for foreign affairs, said the party "backs the anthem as it stands".
"Any anthem will reflect the period it was written and adopted by the people as their anthem," he said.
"Ours reflects the revolutionary period at the early part of the last century. The French and US anthems are similarly revolutionary. We have no plans to change the anthem."
The Soldier's Song was written in 1907 by Peadar Kearney, an uncle of Brendan Behan.
It was published in the newspaper Irish Freedom in 1912 but not widely known until it was sung at the GPO during the Easter Rising.
May 2, 2007
