A National Anthem can never be made to order.  It must grow spontaneously out of some stirring incident of the hour.  Never in those days were our people so deeply moved as by the Manchester Martyrdom.  There is no grander episode in all Irish history.  The song of “God Save Ireland,” embodying the cry raised by Edward O’Meagher Condon, and taken up by his doomed companions in the dock, so expressed the feelings of all hearts that it was at once accepted by Irishmen the world over as the National Anthem.

I sympathise with the ground taken up by our friends of the Gaelic League that a National Anthem should be in the national tongue.  That objection has to some extent been met by the very fine translation of “God Save Ireland” into Gaelic by Daniel Lynch.  This appeared in one of my publications, and is the version now frequently sung at Irish patriotic gatherings.

With regard to the objection that the air—­“Tramp, tramp, the boys are marching”—­to which T.D. wrote the song is of American origin, I was under the impression that Patrick Sarsfield Gilmore, the famous Irish-American bandmaster, was the composer of it, and that, therefore, we could claim the air of “God Save Ireland” as being Irish as well as the words.  To place the matter beyond doubt, Gilmore himself being dead, I wrote to his daughter, Mary Sarsfield Gilmore, a distinguished poetical contributor to the “Irish World,” to ascertain the facts.  I got from her a most interesting reply, in which she said, “I am more than sorry to disappoint you by my answer, but my father was not the composer of the air you mention.”

I have heard it suggested that McCann’s famous war song “O’Donnell Aboo!” should be adopted as our National Anthem instead of “God Save Ireland,” and I have heard of it being given as a finale at Gaelic League concerts.

Without doubt it is a fine song, and the air to which it is generally sung is a noble one.  A distinguished Irish poet tells me he is of opinion that “what will be universally taken up as the Irish National Anthem has never yet been written.”  My friend may be right, but let us see what claim “O’Donnell Aboo!’”—­song or air—­has upon us for adoption as our National Anthem.

To do this I must go back in my narrative to the time when I made the acquaintance of Mr. Michael Joseph McCann, its author.  This was a few years before “God Save Ireland” was written, and over twenty years after “O’Donnell Aboo!” appeared in the “Nation.”

A party of young Irishmen from Liverpool engaged the Rotunda, Dublin, for a week.  They called themselves the “Emerald Minstrels,” and gave an entertainment—­“Terence’s Fireside; or the Irish Peasant at Home.”  I was one of the minstrels.  The entertainment consisted of Irish national songs and harmonized choruses, interspersed with stories such as might be told around an Irish fireside.  There was a sketch at the finish, winding up with a jig.