A century ago, in July 1926, ‘The Soldier’s Song’ became the official national anthem of the Irish Free State.

Reflecting a lack of love towards the song at the time, it did so without any fanfare, announced as a brief answer in Dáil Éireann on July 20 by the Minister of Defence, Peter Hughes, to a question from a backbench government TD, Osmond Grattan Esmonde.

The Irish-language version that is used almost exclusively now, Amhrán na bhFiann, was only commonly sung from the 1930s.

It has remained the national anthem ever since, with the only possibility of that changing being the prospect of a united Ireland.

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Written in the first decade of the 20th century, with the lyrics from poet, writer and Irish Republican Brotherhood member Peadar Kearney and the melody from his friend Patrick Heeney, the English version was sung as a marching and rallying song by the Irish Volunteers during the Third Home Rule crisis, becoming more popular amongst republicans in post-Easter Rising Ireland.

Liam Ó Rinn was the first to translate it into Irish in late 1916.

It continued to grow in popularity during the War of Independence, eclipsing a previous anthem, Timothy Daniel Sullivan’s God Save Ireland, which was identified with the........

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