We need your help now
Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.
You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.
If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.
Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
By continuing, you are indicating that you accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.
FIANNA FÁIL WANTS the copyright on the national anthem to be brought back under the ownership of the Irish State.
The song was written in 1907 by Peadar Kearney, who wrote the original lyrics in English. The song was adopted as the national anthem in 1922. Peadar Kearney died in 1942 and under the current law, copyright officially expired on 31 December 2012, 70 years after his death.
Since then the anthem has not been under any copyright and Fianna Fáil Senator Mark Daly feels this needs to be rectified.
“Having copyright in place is the only way that we can protect our national anthem from being used in an inappropriate manner,” the Senator said in a statement today.
Daly adds that he will be introducing a new bill into the Seanad which he says will “rectify the problem” of Amhrán na bhFiann not being under copyright.
The opening line of the national anthem was used on a range of Dunnes Stores clothing designed by former Kerry footballer Paul Galvin.
Senator Daly has said that such commercial use was “inappropriate”.
Others argue that copyrighting the national anthem is a form of censorship that would restrict artists from reimagining the song.
The US national anthem, for example, is in public domain and the tune is not copyrighted, although some versions of the song may be.
Jimmy Hendrix famously played the Star Spangled Banner at his concerts for a number of years during the Vietnam War, most notably at Woodstock in 1969.
Closer to home, Irish experimental group Meltybrains? recently released a 10-minute-long ambient version of Amhrán na bhFiann.
Speaking on RTÉ Radio yesterday, Daly said that he has “no issue” with musicians reinterpreting the song in their own way but that,
It’s the actual commercialisation of the national anthem, something that has happened in other countries and has also happened here unfortunately.
Other questions that would need to be addressed would be in exactly what instances use of the song would be considered “inappropriate”.
Poll: Should the Irish State hold the copyright for Amhrán na bhFiann?
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
This is what our senators are doing with their time ?
Really ?
How much are we paying these guys ?
Too late Mr. Daly.
Dinny O Brien’s lawyers just copy righted it today at 4:59pm
*clap of thunder and bolt of lightening as he sparks up a Monte Christo.
MUAWWWWWHAHAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Definitely copyright it.
Then the government can sell it to the Germans or some multinational when the sell the rights to our water, or some other national resource.
Brian
We voted to keep the Seanad
Ff working hard for their voters base.there voters base thinks Ireland is on the up again lol.hse crisis homeless crisis housing crisis a massive debt crisis.so long as we have gombeens we will have ff sorry to say
I and everyone I know voted to keep and reform the Seanaid,
Enda threw his toys out of the pram and refused and has not mentioned it since
He then loaded it with every failed public representative caring little for the public outcry,
Meanwhile the Seanaid needs reform…
I didn’t I reject the seanad
and then enda made james o reilly a senator ..and then made him deputy taoiseach..wow. long live cronyism. FG are just corrupt under Enda.Noonan should be in charge, again.
Our Anthem should be “A nation once again”
He’s not deputy Taoiseach, he’s deputy leader of Fine Gael. The “deputy Taoiseach” or Tainaiste is Frances Fitzgerald. And some of you need a basic course in civics because there is not such thing as voting a party out. You only get to vote someone in. And not enough of you voted Sinn Fein in. Or whoever your preferred alternative is.
That was OK until you started banging the SF drum…
Believe me I don’t bang the SF drum. Just knowing my audience, that’s all.
Why not have a 2nd vote – We ysually do. Some FF hack myst have the rights to our Anthem at the moment – Another back-hander to a FF Supporter.
FF seem to be on a major popularity push at the moment. Recently, they’ve highlighted the soaring cost of car insurance, the minimal take up of some gov backed mortgage scheme, the fact that 2700 social housing units in the country are vacant, and now this national anthem thing.
Since its a minority gov, they have the power to change things, they could make these red line issues on their continued cooperation with FG, but are they doing this, No. So its all just huff and bluff with the sole purpose of making the opposition (FG) look bad, while still having no intention of actually doing anything about these important issues.
The public taking back FF is like taking back a lover who lied to you and beat you until you were inches from death. I don’t get it.
What ever FF say.. Do opposite.. History has shown so..
Wow a tax on the right to sing our national anthem..
We could choose a much better song than that anyway.
Or more stopping people like Paul Galvin using it to advertise their crap clothes
It’s just a song, who cares and sort the country out you bunch of useless tools.
I voted yes but I’m not that bothered tbh.
If you run the poll again I may answer differently.
A bit like the Lisbon Treaty.
And who gets to decide what “appropriate use” is ? Just let the copyright lapse.. It belongs to the Irish people so let them use it without restriction..
*let the copyright stay lapsed….
Crappiest song ever!!! Scotland and Wales have way better anthems!!!
God Save the Queen? that is the official National Anthem of all the United Kingdom countries
The song is in the public domain. It should stay there. Copyright laws are restrictive enough without pointlessly adding to them.
Won’t be long until the EU give us a new one anyway so what’s the point :(
We would be better of putting in proper guidelines for both the flag and anthem and their use and treatment in the public domain. Having Paul Galvin using it for a clothing commercial or having lads sticking Clinton Morrisons ass on our flag are hardly ideal
I thought Denis O’ Bribe owned it ?
Who gives a f**k about copyright.start building houses for de people. Bl**ding copyright! I ask ye. What’s next?should we all be entitled to an umbrella coz its always bl**din raining?
Yes … If it keeps it out of the hands of Galvin and the like ….. Jaysus … Paul Galvin for F sake ..
You’d think they’d worry about being actual republicans as opposed to pseudo republicans. I get the sentiment of course, but there’s more to be worrying about
I think the author has meltybrains?
I would be highly surprised if the overall view is not Yes. It needs to be protected
Why? It’s censorship plain and simple.
will the irish team have to pay the government every time they sing it ?
Off topic I know, but I have to ask if anyone really has any faith in our political system, or is it just that people think it could be even worse?. I noticed that John Bruton wrote a book a while ago titled ‘Faith In Politics’ and it’s very hard not to be utterly cynical about that title. I can’t believe that if we go along for the ride for much longer that we aren’t going to end up in a very debased society. It’s just that I can’t remember any real political action/legislation in the last 8 years that would have inspired me to believe that we’re going in the right direction (of course I could just have forgotten some important legislation or an act of real conviction by a politician, or I could just be worn down by the sheer apparently never ending self-promotion, self-justification, self-serving parade of most of our politicians.
The Irish national anthem is probably one of the worst globally.
Even small 3rd world islands can have dignified orchestral pieces possessing of great depth, movement and feeling.
Ours is a tinny little ode for a claptrap marching band with an awful melody. Sounds weak and thin no matter what instrument it is played on.
For all our heritage of art, music and literature, is this really the best we can come up with?
High time, with all of the changes in the North and our advancement as a country, that we dig a bit deeper for something of beauty about the future. Not a little rattling war ditty that means nothing to anyone.
Id be happy with lukes ‘a song for ireland’, keep your orchestra
Am I not allowed sing it in Celtic Park anymore? :(
Haven’t they go more important things to worry about?
It was never the states to copyright in the first place and they were successfully sued by the legitimate owners in the 1930′s for breach of copyright
I’m sorry, you do not get to change the law because a country wants to own a song. Copyright law exists to encourage creativity by guaranteeing temporary ownership. The public domain, where copyright materials go once their copyright expires, is designed to encourage creativity through adaptation, sampling, etc.
Mark Daly doesn’t get to change international copyright law because a song can be repurposed, whatever that song may represent, in the same way the estates of Arthur Conan Doyle or L Frank Baum don’t get to deem the earlier works of those writers still in copyright, because they want to save face, or more specifically make a few extra quid.
This is a shameful abuse of the law proposed by the Senator, that plays into the most bilious jingoism; that a song about a country is above all other art, and the State itself is above all law.
I feel like recording my own cover of Amhrán na bhFiann and selling it online just to spit in the Senator’s eye.
It amazes me how much airtime/column inches this finna fail lightweight has gotten with this flim-flam appeal to Trump type voters under the guise of a patriotic appeal to protect a song! A song!
It’s great when copyrights end. It means anyone can play the song at anytime without paying royalties.
Recently Happy Birthday can now be sung on television without them paying royalties. It just came off patent.
Fianna Fáil. A great bunch of lads. #vivapopulism
Does anyone actually care? They have better things to be doing with their time.
What a f*cking waste of time. This clown doesn’t understand what copyright is or how it works. There should be an IQ test for politicians.
I thought our anthem was Ode to Joy.
I think they should give it to England.
No.
have your say