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THE GOVERNMENT HAS said it may consider bringing in new laws to protect the national anthem after copyright on Amhrán na bhFiann officially expired.
Michael Noonan told the Dail that the Department of Finance will do what it can to make sure the national anthem is not mocked or used in an inappropriate way now that it has fallen out of copyright.
Copyright for the national anthem officially expired on 31 December 2012.
Many other countries have already seen copyright expire on their national anthem leaving it open to be remixed and used for commercial use - most notably by the Sex Pistols with their version of God Save the Queen and Jimi Hendrix’s Woodstock performance of The Star Spangled Banner.
The State bought the copyright for Amhrán na bhFiann in 1933 for £1,000 to ensure that it would be available for free for general use and so performance fees would not be charged for its use – a situation that Michael Noonan said will not change even though the copyright has now ended.
However the ending of copyright has led to some debate about the relevance of the anthem now and whether a new anthem or new wording should be introduced.
In response to a question from TD Maureen O’Sullivan, who has been campaigning for the government to reclaim the copyright, Michael Noonan said that the government still plans to ensure the national anthem can be freely available for general use. He told the Dáil:
In relation to protecting the integrity of the National Anthem my Department will look at the possibility of introducing legislation should it be required to ensure that the National Anthem is not being used in an inappropriate context and without due deference such as to render it an object of scorn or derision.
The Minister did not go into detail about exactly how the anthem could be rendered an object of scorn or derision; however one barrister noted that the issue could be one of freedom of expression.
“The Constitution provides for freedom, ‘subject to public order and morality’ to express freely one’s opinions and convictions,” Fergal Crehan told TheJournal.ie. “However, it also provides that State may ensure that organs of public opinion, ‘while preserving their rightful liberty of expression, including criticism of Government policy, shall not be used to undermine public order or morality or the authority of the State’. Elsewhere, the publication of seditious material is stated to be an offence”.
The question is, would the banning of a satirical or commercial treatment of the Anthem be a breach of the right to freedom of expression, or would it be a reasonable limitation of it in the interests of public order?My feeling is that, absent a specific subversive, public order or morality element, it would be the former. Minister Noonan has referred to lack of deference, scorn and derision. I think that falls a long way short of what might justify such measures.
The song was written in 1907 by Peadar Kearney, who wrote the original lyrics in English. The song was adopted as the national anthem in 1922. Peadar Kearney died in 1942 and under the current law, copyright officially expired on 31 December 2012, 70 years after his death.
Maureen O’Sullivan told TheJournal.ie in December that she was concerned about how the anthem could be used now copyright has expired. “I wouldn’t want it to be seen as a jingle for an ad,” she said.
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Leave it alone if it’s not broke. Don’t fix it.
Why are the waiting to introduce legislation? They bloody knew that the copyright was up. Our national anthem should be protected from abuse.
Ill have to dump all those bootleg copies. Time to change rhat tune. Ir should be about emigration not soldiers. Thars what were famous for.
Nice spelling^^^^
That song will be whipped up so fast enda won’t know what happened..he can only do anything if a Irish nation gets it but nothing if the person lived in another country..another piece of our history gone,I really hate fg pure blue shirt sc*m
They are going to translate the words in to German for edna
Ole ike Ben Edna highson whahaha
Why bother with a new anthem? I love the current one and its the one that’s been honoured and sung since the creation of the state. Keep it!!!
Because fg are ripping away our history
Everytime I heard the national belted out in croke park or in landsdown rd in front of a full house it always puts the hair standing on the back of my neck. A real battle cry to what it means to be irish.
What does it mean to be Irish?
@Waffler
Wearing a Celtic football jersey.
Amadán Debbie
Queue a Mark McCabe dance remix to comemerate the Gathering!
Sinne Fianna… BREAK IT DOWN!!
Chika Chika, REMIX!!
Originally it was “Sinne laochra gael”, and then around 1930 you-know-who changed it to “sinne fianna fail”…. Cynical in the extreme.
Great we can finally remove the words ‘Fianna Fáil’ from it!
Why would we do that? We shouldn’t dismantle our national anthem just because a party stole its name from it.
I wouldn’t mind if they left the copyright off it for a while, it’d be nice to hear some the song in different styles and in more modern ways than the stuffy marching variation that seems to be the only one available anywhere.
Can’t see Gangnam style working in this case….
The contributions by Hendrix, The Pistols were great artistic interpretations that captured the mood of the youth at the time. I’m sure we could do with some of that expression today and bring some passion back to our identity. Laisse faire you bores!
Different times though; Hendrix and the Pistols actually shocked people when they used the anthems. I imagine with this generation of music’s lack of individuality, it would be used for a Clubland or dubstep version.
If Only Rory Gallagher was around today I’d love to hear what he would do with it
So the copyright has expired and the government really don’t want us to mess with the anthem, eh? Look, i’m as proud of my country and nationality as the next person, but I happen to have my Contrary Pants on today. Thanks for telling me what you don’t want to happen Mr Noonan. My Thinking Cap goes rather well with these knickers I reckon…
Jesus you’d think they would be more concerned with other more pressing issues
So the government should ignore everything except for the really big issues? …… Seems a really idiotic idea
The big issue protecting endas 4k a week
Somebody needs to do a dubstep remix of the anthem!
Lash a few yokes in ta ya and stick on Amhrán na dubstep, wha!
No, just….no.
Mash it up with fiddy cents “straight to the Bank”
Rubber bandits surely!!!!
Could ya imagine Jedward doin their take of it…please FOR THE LOVE OF GOD!!!!!
I’d die a happy man if I never see or hear from them again. What talentless nut cases. Ireland is capable of much better talent then them!
I’d love to see how many people actually know the anthem
Very,very few! Just a chorus line belted out-Sinne Fianna Fail (!).
Should be taught compulsory in all schools like America, Australia etc its disgraceful people don’t know our anthem
Was in a hostel with 6 English girls who didnt even know theirs and its in their language.God forbid people arent fluent in a language thats effectively been extinguished.
People like you roibeárd that can’t even spell your own name correctly contribute to the opinion that the Irish language is being extinguished. Get off your hole and have a bit of pride.
Nothing pis**me off more than when the footballers/hurlers don’t know the words at All Ireland GAA matches and either mime or not sing at all. It should be an honour. It’s even worse when we are being represented at an international level by our boys in green and the majority of them don’t sing at all. Grr…
Where did i ever say i was fluent?Its a google translation,forgive me if i dont remember a language i havent had to use for in 13 years
The anthem is all that remains of the spirit of freedom Irishmen and women fought and died for.Wouldnt surprise me if the free state changed it since they are out of touch with everything it is to be free,Irish and soverign.
I’m Irish and can say that the soldiers song never struck a chord with me. Bogmen at gaa games seem to be the only people who react to it
go and stand on Hill 16 during a packed out Dubs game this summer and you’ll quickly see that you’re spouting nonsense
So will it be a flight or betting company that uses it first in an advert. jedward or aslan come back tour that will try to modernise it.
Shur don’t we have Ireland’s call ;-(
Sure we can sing the German one
No Doreen, we can’t. Nor should we.
I assumed that the Anthem was always in the public domain. After all it was Originally used as a Marching song for the Irish Volunteers so its always been a song that belongs to the people
I could O’Leary using it in his next Ryanair advert, it would be just the sort of media-frenzy publicity he would thrive on.
Tesco will use it to sell horse burgers ;-)
Anything created by, on behalf of, or acquired by the government should be public domain.
We’ve already paid for it, so the government shouldn’t be telling us what we can and can’t do.
Whats the government worried about? the way they do everything the EU wants the national anthem will soon be Ode to Joy, then your really have something to complain about.
Seriously what will happen if a band did use it either as backing for new words or remix existing words… what is so bad about that? Will lives end? states fall? will the Island of Ireland sink below the waves? Will every irish person suddenly vanish is a puff of smoke. no of course not…
What will happen is one group of people will think the song is great, another group will want the band shot and the majority wont give a shit. ohh and the band will make some money.
And why we are spending money on the paperwork of a song, resources in our country are lacking, politicians and councillors are shaming us in their chambers, and we’re worried about a song that can stir a sense of pride, but the majority don’t know all words to!
Could we have an English version instead – at least if people want to sing it they will know the meaning of it.
Can see Ronan Keating offering his services to rewrite it….
It will be difficult to enforce any law preventing people from ‘messing’ with the national anthem. Only a fraction of the populace know the words and fewer still understand the meaning of more than the odd word.
The anthem is nothing more than a stupid ditty.
like you
Would like to see someone like mark Ronson modernise it a little. Then get an Irish artist to perform it – the thrills, Shane filan, tr dallas or maybe Sinead o’connor?
In the spirit of the Sex Pistols and Hendrix using their national anthems as a form of protest i think there will never be a better time.
Mark fing Ronson?! Hope you were being sarcastic!
Perhaps Mr.Filan otherwise engaged in U.K.now?
He has a proven track record in remixes. Have you heard his version of Valerie?
I completely forgot about this. Start your engines.
“The government says it will bring in new legislation if necessary to stop people from messing around with Amhrán na bhFiann.”
Oh, it’ll be necessary. Even if I have to do my own hip-hop Amhrán na bhFiann/My Country, ‘Tis Of Thee mashup. If Barry Cryer was Irish, he’d already have sung God Save The Queen to the tune of Amhrán na bhFiann on “I’m Sorry, I Haven’t A Clue”.
You’d think they’d have considered this before the copyright expired, rather than just going “ah, lads, sure leave it alone, would ya”. But, no. Quelle surprise.
Sure it’s consistently used in an inappropriate way.
I’d be surprised if even 10% of the country sing the lyrics correctly or even understand what they mean.
@Séamus Ó Cléirigh:
You are right.
I live in Thailand, and every Thai student sings the Thai National Anthem every morning at 8am. I never remember being thought Amhrán na bhFiann in all my years at school in Ireland. When I was watching The Euro Football Finals on Thai TV last year with my Thai friends, They all stood to Amhrán na bhFiann when Ireland were playing but they could not understand why i didn’t know the words to my own country’s Anthem.
The government Rialtas na hÉireann (to the best of my knowledge) is not the state. The ‘state’ is the people of Ireland. Therefore it is my understanding that the government needs to put it to the ‘state’ before reserving the right to hold copyright on My/Our National Anthem Amhrán na bhFiann.
A few days ago I tried to post Amhrán na bhFiann on Facebook, but Facebook sent me a message to say that I did not have The Copyright, so it could not be posted.
I am not trying to say that I am right, but I would like to be proved otherwise.
Yes. Excellent. But popularity waning due to local affairs.
I would give him a shot to demo some samples. If Enda etc are not happy they can go back down the Phil coulter route. Ronson is fresh. Would appeal to the new Ireland too.
@Len Raynor : reply above.
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