The Soldiers Song (Full Version)

"A Soldiers' Song" was composed in 1907, with words by Peadar Kearney and music by Kearney and Patrick Heeney.[2] The first draft, handwritten on copybook paper, sold at auction in Dublin in 2006 for €760,000.[3] The text was first published in Irish Freedom by Bulmer Hobson in 1912.[2] It was used as marching song by the Irish Volunteers and was sung by rebels in the General Post Office (GPO) during the Easter Rising of 1916.[2] Its popularity increased among rebels held in Frongoch internment camp after the Rising,[2] and the Irish Republican Army (IRA) in the Irish War of Independence (1919--21). After the establishment of the Irish Free State in 1922, a large proportion of the IRA's men and apparatus became the National Army. The "Soldiers' Song" remained popular as an Army tune, and was played at many military functions