Ó CEARNAIGH, Peadar [Peadar Kearney]. The Three-Coloured Ribbon (Signed by the author)

SIGNED BY THE AUTHOR OF “THE SOLDIER’S SONG

Words by Peadar Ó Cearnaigh. Music: Old Air. Arranged by Cathal MacDubhghaill. Dublin: Published by the Author [The Gaelic Press], n.d. [c.1920s]. Large 4to. pp. 4. Printed music and words, within decorative border. Signed by the author on the upper cover, “Is Mise, Peadar Ó Cearnaigh.” Contemporary ownership and other markings to upper cover, with old price label; some light creasing and handling, otherwise a very good copy. Rare, particularly signed by Kearney.
A scarce signed issue of one of the best-known songs of the Irish revolutionary period, written by Peadar Kearney (1883-1942), author of The Soldier’s Song (Amhrán na bhFiann), which was adopted as the Irish national anthem in 1926. The National Library of Ireland records The Three-Coloured Ribbon as a patriotic song by Kearney, arranged by Cathal MacDubhghaill, and notes that it formed No. 3 of the “Soldier’s Song Series.”
Written in the aftermath of the Easter Rising of 1916, the ballad is voiced by a woman mourning her sweetheart who leaves her on Easter Monday to fight for Irish freedom and does not return. The three-coloured ribbon of the title — the Irish tricolour worn around her hat — becomes at once an emblem of mourning, fidelity and national independence. The opening verse sets the entire narrative in a few simple lines: the singer remembers her “true love”, who departed with his comrades on Easter Monday “to make Ireland free”. The song concludes with the dead Volunteer’s final message that he had remained true to Ireland and had given his life for her freedom.
Kearney was himself no detached observer of the revolutionary movement. A member of the Irish Republican Brotherhood and Irish Volunteers, he participated in the revolutionary struggle and became one of its most enduring popular songwriters. His The Soldier’s Song, written in 1907 with music by his friend Patrick Heeney, became a marching song of the Volunteers and ultimately the national anthem; his other enduring compositions include Down by the Glenside and The Three-Coloured Ribbon.
The arranger, Cathal MacDubhghaill (Cecil Grange MacDowell), is himself a fascinating figure in the cultural history of the Rising. A native of Carlow, an accomplished musician, organist and choirmaster, he fought with Éamon de Valera’s men at Boland’s Mills in Easter 1916, was subsequently imprisoned at Richmond Barracks and Frongoch, and was closely associated with Kearney in the arrangement of revolutionary songs. MacDubhghaill later married the republican poet Maeve Cavanagh, author of Sheaves of Revolt — providing a particularly attractive connection with the Cavanagh volume described above. Cavanagh’s own Bureau of Military History statement records that MacDubhghaill was the first to arrange The Soldier’s Song for music.
There is also useful evidence for the early history of the present song in Kearney’s surviving papers. A letter dated 14 October 1921 records J. J. Walsh’s willingness to make Kearney an offer for The Three Coloured Ribbon, demonstrating that the song was already regarded as a commercially valuable part of his repertoire in the revolutionary period.
Kearney’s family connections add another significant strand to his place in twentieth-century Irish literature. His sister Kathleen was the mother of Brendan Behan, making Kearney uncle to Brendan and Dominic Behan; revolutionary politics, Dublin street culture, theatre and song consequently ran through two generations of this remarkable family.
The present example is considerably enhanced by Kearney’s autograph inscription in Irish, “Is Mise, Peadar Ó Cearnaigh” — “It is I, Peadar Ó Cearnaigh” — prominently placed on the upper cover.
A rare and evocative piece of Irish revolutionary musical ephemera, linking the Easter Rising, the Irish tricolour and the author of the national anthem; particularly desirable with Kearney’s bold autograph inscription on the upper cover.

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