Anthem Mayhem

National anthems are meant to inspire patriotism, not generate confusion. In this piece, I will write about my experience of the latter because I need to unburden myself of the painful memories. Besides, there’s more comedic value in the confusion part.

     I learned the words to Ireland’s National Anthem, ‘Amhran na bhFiann’, around the age of nine. Our teacher taught us English lyrics before we learned the Gaelic version. In English, the anthem is called ‘The Soldiers’ Song’. I didn’t have a huge grasp of apostrophe use at that age, so couldn’t tell if ‘The Soldiers’ Song’ was about a group of soldiers or an individual one. I just wish someone had told me the answer was waiting in the first three words of the chorus. (See below).

     My school friends and I learned the lyrics to the song’s opening verse, and we were soon singing about singing a soldiers’ song and everything seemed fine. And then it came to the bit where we were ‘impatient for the coming fight.’ This made me uneasy; I was never impatient for a fight in my life. In fact, I only would only shadow box on overcast days. 

     As we moved on to the chorus – the anthem proper – my unease turned to shock when I discovered the first three words:

     ‘Soldiers are we…’

     ‘Soldiers are we’ might be appropriate lyrics for an anthem called ‘The Soldiers’ Song’ but, nonetheless, I now found myself not only singing about a fight I didn’t want but also lying about my occupation as well. I was not a soldier. I wasn’t even in the boy scouts. My classmates didn’t look like military types either. In fact, most of the country would be lying while singing those lyrics. After all, there were only about twenty thousand soldiers in Ireland at the time – and that statistic includes Irish members of the Salvation Army. 

     I had been told from a young age that I should always tell the truth (unless a woman asked if her dress looked good on her). Saying I was a soldier was a lie, a sin. So every time I sang ‘The Soldiers’ Song’, I would have to include it on my list of sins. Patriotism came at a cost: an extra one Our Father and three Hail Marys at confession. Maybe, in an effort to be truthful, I should have sung ‘Shoulders have we’ instead. 

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John. E. McBride (2017)