DESCRIPTION:
"The Soldiers' Song" ("Amhrán na bhFiann" in Irish) is the national anthem of Ireland. The music was composed by Peadar Ó Cearnaigh (Peadar Kearney) and Patrick Heeney, and the original English lyrics were authored (as "A Soldiers' Song") by Kearney in 1907. It is sung in the Irish language translation made by Liam Ó Rinn.

Like the tricolor, the popularity of The Soldier's Song dates from the Easter Rising in 1916. After the insurrection, the Volunteers, who were detained in British Detention Camps, used it to voice their defiance to their captors; it was quickly taken up in Ireland to express the same sentiment.

In a short time, "The Soldier's Song" took the place of the two other pieces: "God Save Ireland", a Fenian song written about the last words of the Manchester Martyrs, and set to an American march; and Thomas Davis' stirring masterpiece "A Nation Once Again" - both had been used from time to time as an informal national anthem. The Soldier's Song became the national anthem by government decree in July, 1926.

The phrase "Bearna Bhaoil," in the Irish language, means "the Gap of Danger," and refers to a battle in the rising of 1798, when John Kelly, the Boy from Killan, led a charge against the Bewley Gates in the seige of New Ross. The carnage at that location earned it the title Bearna Bhaoil, and it became a symbol of the danger that Ireland's sons were willing to face for her freedom. Even when The Soldier's Song is translated into other languages, the term "Bhearna Baoil" remains in the Irish.

The lyrics are those of an Irish rebel song, exhorting all Irish people to participate in the struggle to end the hegemony ("despot" over "slave") of the English ("Saxon foe") in Ireland ("Inisfail"). There are allusions to earlier Irish rebellions, and to support from the United States ("a land beyond the wave").

IN ENGLISH:

"The Soldier's Song"

We'll sing a song, a soldier's song,
With cheering rousing chorus,
As round our blazing fires we throng,
The starry heavens o'er us;
Impatient for the coming fight,
And as we wait the morning's light,
Here in the silence of the night,
We'll chant a soldier's song.

Soldiers are we
whose lives are pledged to Ireland;
Some have come
from a land beyond the wave.
Sworn to be free,
No more our ancient sire land
Shall shelter the despot or the slave.
Tonight we man the Bearna Bhaoil
In Erin's cause, come woe or weal
'Mid cannons' roar and rifles peal,
We'll chant a soldier's song.

In valley green, on towering crag,
Our fathers fought before us,
And conquered 'neath the same old flag
That's proudly floating o'er us.
We're children of a fighting race,
That never yet has known disgrace,
And as we march, the foe to face,
We'll chant a soldier's song.

Soldiers are we
whose lives are pledged to Ireland;
Some have come
from a land beyond the wave.
Sworn to be free,
No more our ancient sire land
Shall shelter the despot or the slave.
Tonight we man the Bearna Bhaoil
In Erin's cause, come woe or weal
'Mid cannons' roar and rifles peal,
We'll chant a soldier's song.

Sons of the Gael! Men of the Pale!
The long watched day is breaking;
The serried ranks of Inisfail
Shall set the Tyrant quaking.
Our camp fires now are burning low;
See in the east a silv'ry glow,
Out yonder waits the Saxon foe,
So chant a soldier's song.

Soldiers are we
whose lives are pledged to Ireland;
Some have come
from a land beyond the wave.
Sworn to be free,
No more our ancient sire land
Shall shelter the despot or the slave.
Tonight we man the Bearna Bhaoil
In Erin's cause, come woe or weal
'Mid cannons' roar and rifles peal,
We'll chant a soldier's song.