We need an anthem for the whole island

YOUR columnist Fergus Finlay (Irish Examiner, February 20) did us a great favour by highlighting the violence inherent in many national anthems, especially Amhrán na bFhiann and La Marseillaise.

It is unacceptable to have national anthems that glorify killing associated with sporting events. They are from another age, and it is not just that people here do not know the lyrics in Irish, but they feel embarrassed to sing them.

Having grown up under the apartheid regime in South Africa I know the real intent behind songs and anthems glorifying violence.

My ancestors came as Huguenot asylum seekers to Cork. My Irish grandfather was gassed in World War I and when he returned to Ireland he was greeted by a gunshot though his hat in Queenstown (now Cobh). He moved to South Africa.

My German grandfather worked in the justice department of the Weimer Republic and was removed when Hitler came to power.

So when I stand on Hill 16 I take comfort neither from those who killed people in Croke Park on Bloody Sunday in 1920 nor from those who advocated a blood cult and used violence to bring about our revolution.

I can only hope a new day of reconciliation between Europeans is dawning. As someone of Irish, South African, German and French extraction, I feel at home whether Ireland wins or loses.

The growing reconciliation between Britain and Ireland is a great gift to this generation. As the strands of unionism and nationalism begin the final dance for peace, we need to find a new anthem for all of Ireland — one that respects the two states making up the Irish nation and based on the vote of the whole of Ireland in the Good Friday Agreement.

Ireland’s Call is a first attempt, but it needs to go deeper and not just be an add-on to the Soldiers’ Song.

Mike Garde

69 Whitworth Road

Drumcondra

Dublin 9.