KEARNEY, Peadar. The Soldier’s Song. Words by Peadar O Cearnaigh. Music by Padraig O hAonaigh. Arranged by Cathal Mac Dubhghaill.

Dublin: Published by Whelan & Son, 17 Upper Ormond Quay, [1916]. Quarto. pp. 4. First edition sheet music. Original printed wrappers with striking Celtic Revival design incorporating interlace motifs and a rifle vignette. Internally clean with music notation clear and legible. A very good copy of historically significant piece of Irish musical ephemera. Rare.

A rare and evocative early printing of The Soldier’s Song, later adopted as the Irish National Anthem (Amhrán na bhFiann). Words by Peadar Ó Cearnaigh (Patrick Heeney) and music by Pádraig Ó hAnnaigh (Patrick Heeney), here arranged by Cathal Mac Dubhghaill. The present edition reflects the song in its formative printed state prior to standardisation, preserving early musical and textual features of considerable historical importance.

Issued in Dublin during the revolutionary decade, copies were often heavily used, and survival in original wrappers is increasingly uncommon. The bold cover design, with its fusion of Gaelic ornament and martial symbolism, is emblematic of the cultural nationalism of the period. An important artefact of Irish nationalist culture, directly associated with the struggle for independence and later state identity.

"COPAC locates the TCD copy only.
Peadar Kearney (1883-1942), was the author of the Irish national anthem. Born in Dublin, an uncle of Brendan Behan, grew up in Dolphin's Barn and was educated at Model School, Schoolhouse Lane and Marino CBS. He left school at fourteen and worked in a variety of jobs. He joined the Gaelic League in 1901 and became a member of the Irish Republican Brotherhood in 1903. In 1907 he wrote the words of 'The Soldier's Song', and his friend Patrick Heeney, wrote the music. It became the marching song of the Irish Volunteers and in 1926 became our national anthem. He also wrote other popular songs including 'Down by the Glen Side', 'The Three Coloured Ribbon', etc.
The song, as ""A Soldier's Song"", was composed ""early in 1910 or late in 1909"", with words by Peadar Kearney, and music by his childhood friend and neighbour Patrick Heeney, who had collaborated on songs since 1903. Kearney assisted Heeney in setting the refrain. Heeney composed it with his melodeon. Seán Rogan, later of the Irish Citizen Army, may also have helped with the music, and first wrote it in musical notation. Kearney wrote much of the text in the Swiss Café at the corner of O'Connell Street and North Earl Street. The first draft of the text, handwritten on copybook paper, sold at auction in Dublin in 2006 for €760,000. After being rejected by The United Irishman, Bulmer Hobson's magazine Irish Freedom published the text in 1912. Whelan and Son of Ormond Quay, Dublin, published the lyrics for sale as a flysheet. It was used as a marching song by the Irish Volunteers and Seamus Hughes first sang it in public at a Volunteer fundraising concert. It was sung by rebels in the General Post Office during the Easter Rising of 1916. Its popularity increased among rebels held in Frongoch internment camp after the Rising.
The sheet music was first published in late 1916 by Whelan and Son, in an arrangement by Cathal Mac Dubhghaill (Cecil Grange MacDowell). In December 1916 in New York City, Victor Herbert published his own piano and orchestral arrangements under the title ""Soldiers of Erin, the Rallying Song of the Irish Volunteers"", on the instigation of R. F. O'Reilly, an Irish priest. O'Reilly arranged for proceeds to go to the Gaelic League, but paid royalties to Kearney and Heeney once he discovered they were the authors. With later cheques from the US, Kearney earned ""not much more than £100"".
By 1917, according to Séumas Robinson, the song was being parodied by British soldiers in Ireland. Éamon de Valera's platform at the June 1917 East Clare by-election featured a large banner with the opening two lines. That October the Irish Volunteers allied with Sinn Féin under de Valera and during the Irish War of Independence (1919–21) the Volunteers evolved into the Irish Republican Army (IRA). The song's popularity led to its being called the ""Sinn Féin anthem"". Copies were confiscated by British security forces as seditious. Carl Hardebeck played it unannounced on Low Sunday 1918 in St Peter's Cathedral, Belfast. Victor Herbert's version was well known to Irish Americans by 1919, when de Valera arrived as President of Dáil Éireann of the self-proclaimed Irish Republic. In the 1922-23 Civil War, the IRA split into the ""National Army"" of the nascent Irish Free State and the ""Irregulars"" loyal to the defunct Republic. Both sides continued to sing ""The Soldier's Song"". After the war, it remained popular as an Army tune, and was played at many military functions.