Centenary of the National Anthem

16 July 2007

Peadar Kearney, along with Patrick Heeney, also wrote the music.  Designed by well-known Irish designer, Ms Ger Garland, the stamp shows a girls’ choir from Coláiste ĺosagáin in Stillorgan, Co Dublin alongside an illustration of the national flag. 

The song consists of three verses and a chorus, but it was the chorus that was formally adopted as the National Anthem in 1926, replacing ‘God Save Ireland’.  The Irish Volunteers had adopted the song in 1914 but it wasn’t until 1916 that the song became known when it was sung in the GPO during the Easter Rising.  The English version was first published in 1912 in the Irish Freedom newspaper and in 1923 the Irish version appeared, for the first time, in the Irish Defence Forces magazine An tÓglach. 

The new stamp, together with a First Day Cover, may be viewed or purchased at  www.irishstamps.ie, at main Post Offices, and at the GPO Philatelic Shop  (Tel: (01) 705 7400).

/end

Media contact:  Anna McHugh, Head of Corporate Communications, An Post
TEL:  086 2530697 / (01) 705 8832