Original - 1916 - National Anthem Music Sheet

1916 - Peadar Kearney 'The Soldier's Song' (National Anthem) Music Sheet
First Edition

Published by Whelan & Son, Dublin. Scarce.

Music by Pádraig O' hAonaigh, arranged by Cathal MacDubhgall.
Peadar Kearney worked first as a labourer in Dublin, where he was born and educated. In 1911 he got a job at The Abbey Theatre as a props man where he met Patrick Heeney who helped him score The Soldier’s Song which he had composed in 1909-1910. He joined the Irish Republican Brotherhood in early 1903, and became a member of its Supreme Council. He was a founder member of the Irish Volunteers. The Soldier’s Song quickly became the Volunteers’ most popular marching song and was widely published. It was sung in the GPO during the Rising. In the 1916 Rising Peadar Kearney fought under Thomas MacDonagh at Jacob’s biscuit factory in Bishop Street. He evaded capture after the Rising was put down but was arrested during the War of Independence and interned at Ballykinlar Camp in County Down in 1920-21.Published by Whelan and Son, Dublin, 1916. Composed as a marching song for the Irish Volunteers, The Soldier's Song' was adopted as the Irish National Anthem in 1926.