Few people know the words of ‘Amhrán na bhFiann’, and fewer still know what they mean, so why, asks Ryle Dwyer, is playing ‘Ireland’s Call’ at rugby matches such a big deal?

“A CROWD of us were going along the Shepherd’s Bush Road when out of a lane came a chap with a donkey — just the sort of donkey and just the sort of cart they have at home,” Michael Collins recalled. “He came out quite suddenly and abruptly and we all cheered him. Nobody who has not been in exile will understand me, but I stand for that.”

IT’S one of those Irish football yarns that is so delicious you almost have to assume it’s apocryphal. But here, from the horse’s mouth, is confirmation that every word of the great Terry Mancini ‘national anthem’ legend is true.