A Nation Once Again
"A Nation Once Again" is a song, written sometime in the 1840s by Thomas Osborne Davis (1814-1845). Davis was a founder of an Irish movement whose aim was the independence of Ireland.
The song is a prime example of the "Irish rebel music" sub-genre (though it does not celebrate fallen Irish freedom fighters by name, or cast aspersions on the British occupiers as so many rebel songs do). The song's narrator dreams of a time when Ireland will be, as the title suggests, a free land, with "our fetters rent in twain." The lyrics exhort, albeit with less vitriol than some rebel songs, Irishmen to stand up and fight for their land: "And righteous men must make our land a nation once again." It should be noted that this "rebel song" was in fact written by a Protestant.
It has been recorded by many Irish singers and groups, notably John McCormack, The Clancy Brothers, The Dubliners, The Wolfe Tones in 1972, (a group with clearly Republican leanings), the Poxy Boggards, and The Irish Tenors (John McDermott, Ronan Tynan, Anthony Kearns) and Sean Conway for a 2007 single.
In 2002, "A Nation Once Again" was voted the world's most popular song according to a BBC World Service global poll of listeners, beating out such favourites as "Vande Mataram" and "Dil Dil Pakistan." Neither The Beatles nor Bob Marley made the cut, though Cher was #8 with "Believe".
Lyrics
- When boyhood's fire was in my blood
- I read of ancient freemen,
- For Greece and Rome who bravely stood,
- Three hundred men and three men;
- And then I prayed I yet might see
- Our fetters rent in twain,
- And Ireland, long a province, be.
- A Nation once again!
Chorus:
A Nation once again,
A Nation once again,
And lreland, long a province, be
A Nation once again!
- And from that time, through wildest woe,
- That hope has shone a far light,
- Nor could love's brightest summer glow
- Outshine that solemn starlight;
- It seemed to watch above my head
- In forum, field and fane,
- Its angel voice sang round my bed,
- A Nation once again!
(Chorus)
- It whisper'd too, that freedom's ark
- And service high and holy,
- Would be profaned by feelings dark
- And passions vain or lowly;
- For, Freedom comes from God's right hand,
- And needs a Godly train;
- And righteous men must make our land
- A Nation once again!
(Chorus)
- So, as I grew from boy to man,
- I bent me to that bidding
- My spirit of each selfish plan
- And cruel passion ridding;
- For, thus I hoped some day to aid,
- Oh, can such hope be vain?
- When my dear country shall be made
- A Nation once again!
(Chorus)
Trivia
- A Nation Once Again is sung by the character, Paul's Grandpa (played by Wilfred Brambell) in the 1964 film, A Hard Day's Night.
External links
- BBC News Service: World's Top Ten
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