Ireland's Call

Bomany

With the World Cup on the horizon the issue of Coulter's Dirge, sorry Irelands call comes to mind. I hate it. It is just the sheer nauseating corniness of it. I feel embarrassed when it is belted out. Am I the only one who curls their toes when they hear this Phil Coulter anthem.

ironictoaster

Yep, Pile of píss

Irish Wolf

Probably not - but what do you suggest as an alternative.. and please, please, please don't say "The Field's of Athenry"..

toomevara

A vile concoction, but for some reason, known only to the gods above or indeed the dark one below......hey you dont think Coulter sold his soul to the divil at the crossroads to ensure its success?.....- it has somehow embeddded itself in the fabric of Irish rugby, rather like a determined nit burrowing into a lovely clean bit of scalp.....awful sh1te, but i'm afraid we are stuck with it....

Tim Robbins

toomevara wrote:

A vile concoction, but for some reason, known only to the gods above or indeed the dark one below......hey you dont think Coulter sold his soul to the divil at the crossroads to ensure its success?.....- it has somehow embeddded itself in the fabric of Irish rugby, rather like a determined nit burrowing into a lovely clean bit of scalp.....awful sh1te, but i'm afraid we are stuck with it....

It's not that bad. Some people will always hate somethings. The key change in it is corney, but otherwise it's a reasonable anthem. The spirit of it, I fully support. Amhran na Bhfiann was composed in 1907 but is generally known as a 1916 rebels song. It was originally written in English and subsequently translated into Irish. The 1916 rebels had very little support at the time (until their subsequent executions) and nowadays it has associations up the North some of us just don't understand.

Ireland's call was introduced after some of the Northern Protestant on the team received threats from Loyalists terrorists that their clubs would be attacked if the stood to the 'Soldier Song'. at that stage, the IRFU knew the situation was a mess and decided to get an anthem that people could stand in.

Personally, I think it is ridiculous the Northern Protestants still have to stand for the Soldier Song at home matches still and would respect them for doing it. It clearly doesn't respresent their tradition and we should be thinking and looking for our Irish commonality not our differences.

daveirl

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flogen

daveirl wrote:

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I think you're right.
As far as I'm aware the deal after partition was that Amhrán na bhFiann would be used when the team played in the Republic, God Save The Queen would be used when the team played in the North and neither would be used when away*.

Ireland's Call was adopted around the same time that teams like Scotland officially adopted Flower of Scotland, who up until then didn't have an official pre-match song, so that may have spurred Ireland on to commissioning its own song for overall use.

*This was when matches were played regularly in NI - as far as I'm aware they just play Ireland's Call when they're in NI now.

Amazotheamazing

In 1987, they used Danny Boy at the RWC, iirc. I don't mind needing a separate song, but does it have to be such a crap song as Ireland's Call?

MGrah

My recollection was that it was adopted to appease the South Africans for the '95 world cup as in the spirit of their new found tolerance and unity they thought we should do the same. There used to be no away national anthems played at any rugby fixtures until about 10 years ago (no idea of the actual timing) as I can remember the debate around GSTQ being played at Lansdowne Road at the time (jaysus, we've come a long way).

The issue of Ireland's Call or GSTQ being played for internationals at Ravenhill has never come up until this year as there have been no internationals played up north for a lot longer than Ireland's Call has been around.

My own view is that I am not too fond of the song, but the spirit of it, and intention is spot on. Those of us from the south should have more respect for our Northern cousins when it comes to these things as it is their team too and the respect they have always shown for AnaB has been exemplory in my experience. I'd say even the Ulster members of the squad would have appreciated the spine tingling affect at Croke Park this year.

Sangre

This reminds of some smelly idiot in the metro letter section correcting someone that they need to know Amhran na bhFiann for the RWC. Indeed.

razorblunt

Anyone song thats released as a single, sung by some Your A Star Reject (I'm looking at you Simon Casey) should not be considered an anthem.

Or have one verse in Irish, one in English at least.

Danie Gerber

I'm South African and corny as you might think Ireland's call is, to other rugby playing countries Ireland's Call, as indeed Flower of Scotland, are inspired anthems. Well respected and liked.

Some people around the world (mostly rugby supporters mind you) actually think Ireland's Call is the Irish national anthem!.

Jackz

*good no one looking*

I like Ireland's call.

flogen

MGrah wrote:

My recollection was that it was adopted to appease the South Africans for the '95 world cup as in the spirit of their new found tolerance and unity they thought we should do the same. There used to be no away nationaThose of us from the south should have more respect for our Northern cousins when it comes to these things as it is their team too and the respect they have always shown for AnaB has been exemplory in my experience. I'd say even the Ulster members of the squad would have appreciated the spine tingling affect at Croke Park this year.

I don't think anyone's suggesting that we shouldn't have an all-inclusive song for the all-island team - I think people are just saying this particular attempt at such a song sucks.

AlphaMale 3OO

The song is poor and nauseating. If a player is playing for Ireland, why cant he sing the IRISH national anthem? If Northern players have a problem with that let them play for England, they want to be a part of the Union anyway. I've seen Northern players playing in the annual blues game belting out God Save The Queen leaving me in no doubt as to where their loyalty lies. If the British national anthem was ever played for an Irish team playing in Belfast I would cease supporting Irish rugby instantly. I'm sorry if this offends anyone but its my point of view.

Amazotheamazing

forbesii wrote:

The song is poor and nauseating. If a player is playing for Ireland, why cant he sing the IRISH national anthem? If Northern players have a problem with that let them play for England, they want to be a part of the Union anyway. I've seen Northern players playing in the annual blues game belting out God Save The Queen leaving me in no doubt as to where their loyalty lies. If the British national anthem was ever played for an Irish team playing in Belfast I would cease supporting Irish rugby instantly. I'm sorry if this offends anyone but its my point of view.

So what if the want to remain in the union? The team represents the Island of Ireland, not the the Republic.

Spud83

forbesii wrote:

The song is poor and nauseating. If a player is playing for Ireland, why cant he sing the IRISH national anthem? If Northern players have a problem with that let them play for England, they want to be a part of the Union anyway. I've seen Northern players playing in the annual blues game belting out God Save The Queen leaving me in no doubt as to where their loyalty lies. If the British national anthem was ever played for an Irish team playing in Belfast I would cease supporting Irish rugby instantly. I'm sorry if this offends anyone but its my point of view.

Eh because they are playing for Ireland not the Republic of Ireland. Regards Amhrán na bhFiann being played before a match in Lansdowne it is customary to play the national anthem of the hosting country before the match, and as the Republic Of Ireland is the hosting country the anthem gets played.

Thomas_S_Hunterson

toomevara wrote:

hey you dont think Coulter sold his soul to the divil at the crossroads to ensure its success

He got ripped off

At least when robert johnson did it, he got a good deal;)

psicic

Ah! The old debate surfaces again....

Personally, I think Ireland's call is pretty decent; recognisable, stands out from the other much older anthems and is easy enough to belt out a few lyrics to. Compared to other anthems (such as God Save the Queen) it has a lot more energy about it.

Okay, it's not super funky or new, but thank God it's not one of those modern fake orchestral pieces (like the Americans are so fond of churning out on their TV shows). To be honest, Ireland's Call has the right balance of sentimentality, patriotism and naffness to be an anthem for a good few years to come.

Sure, it's nice to hear the Republic's anthem at the home matches, but it's a 32 County team - it simply isn't the national anthem of a good proportion of the supporters and players of Irish Rugby. Anyone who can't see that Rugby is a game, not a political relic of the Boundary Commission needs to come into the 21st Century.

We are all part of the same Union on this island - the Irish Rugby Football Union. Ireland's Call until something better comes along - and I think that will be a while yet.

Then again, I might have a bit of a twisted view.... if only we could use Flower of Scotland.... brilliant anthem and I think everyone in Ireland can sing the first few lines in a Scottish accent:

"O flur o Sco-tland..."

RuggieBear

forbesii wrote:

The song is poor and nauseating. If a player is playing for Ireland, why cant he sing the IRISH national anthem? If Northern players have a problem with that let them play for England, they want to be a part of the Union anyway. I've seen Northern players playing in the annual blues game belting out God Save The Queen leaving me in no doubt as to where their loyalty lies. If the British national anthem was ever played for an Irish team playing in Belfast I would cease supporting Irish rugby instantly. I'm sorry if this offends anyone but its my point of view.

banned for sectarianism.

joe_chicken

It's a pants song.

It feels like the lyrics were scrawled on the back of a beer mat in Cafe En Seine.

Roight gouys sing it from the top:
"Oirland, Oirland, forever *hiccup* standing tall"

RuggieBear

I'm locking this as it always ends up the same ****e debate.

daveirl

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