National Anthem – cearta.ie

The Seanad Public Consultation Committee was established “to facilitate direct engagement and consultation between members of the public and Seanad Éireann” (pdf).

It has just undertaken a Consultation on the Status, Treatment and Use of the National Anthem (pdf):

The purpose of this consultation is to invite submissions from interested parties or citizens to consider the most appropriate way the State should treat the National Anthem. This consultation process is being considered in the context of the music and English and Irish lyrics of the National Anthem no longer being in copyright. Legislative proposals have been made to address this issue. Seanad Éireann would like to consult with citizens on their views on this issue.

I have already commented at length on this blog about the issue, so I made a short submission to the Committee in which I referred to those posts, and answered some of the questions posed in the Consultation. In my view, the anthem should be treated with respect and dignity, and there is a good case to be made for legislation to protect it from inappropriate commercialisation. However, I do not think that copyright is a suitable means to this end. Instead, I think that it is a matter for a specialist piece of legislation, specifically directed to the issue.…

Notes on the Irish passport (and the National Anthem, again)

8 November, 20169 October, 2017

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| National Anthem

No, this post isn’t about the notes on the forms to be filled in to apply for a passport, or even about explanatory notes that might appear on the passport itself.

Instead, it’s a musical post, (about the National Anthem – the most recent in a series, earlier posts are here, here, here, here and here), based on a letter in today’s Irish Times:

Notes on Irish passport

Sir,

In a queue at Dublin Airport last week, my daughter Alex was curious about music notation on successive pages of her passport and asked me to read the music.

To our surprise and delight, it was the music of our National Anthem. Whoever imagined this subtle celebration of Irish musicality should be congratulated.

Yours, etc,

Keith Donald,
Chair of the Irish Music Rights Organisation,
Lower Baggot Street,
Dublin 2.

The image, above left, via TheJournal.ie, shows some of those notes. I saw this letter in the paper version of the Irish Times, and whilst searching online for the letter on the Irish Times site, and for an appropriate image, I also found the following post on the website of Absolute Graphics – a marketing, design and print company based in Bray, Co.…

National Anthems and Political Dissent

28 September, 20169 October, 2017

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| Freedom of Expression, National Anthem, US Supreme Court

For various reasons (set out here, here, here, and here), I have been musing recently about what should and should not be in a National Anthem Bill. In the US, legislation provides that, when the national anthem (since 1931, “The Star-Spangled Banner“) is being played, “persons present should … stand at attention with their right hand over the heart” (emphasis added). Although the photograph left shows Barak Obama doing so as President in 2009, there was a minor controversy during the 2008 election when he neglected to do so at a campaign event. More recently, US gymnastics gold medalist Gabby Douglas apologized in the face of criticism when she neglected to do so during the playing of national anthem at an olympics medal ceremony. Neither Obama nor Douglas meant anything by it. Obama said his grandfather taught him to put his hand on his heart only during the pledge of allegiance, and only to sing during the national anthem. And Douglas was just overcome by the emotion of the moment.

But some people do take advantage of the anthem to make a political point. At the 1968 Olympics, US 200-metre medallists Tommie Smith (gold) and John Carlos (bronze) raised their own gloved hands during the national anthem while looking down as a way of opposing US state-sanctioned racism.…

What should, and should not, be in a National Anthem Bill?

25 July, 201614 September, 2020

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| Copyright, National Anthem

Harp via wikipedia and music notes via pixabay This is a call for help. I would like suggestions as to what should, and should not, be in a National Anthem Bill – either in the comments below, via the contact form on this blog, by email, on a postcard, or even by means of carrier pigeon (or messenger raven) …

In four recent posts (here, here, here, and here) I’ve been looking at various issues around the national anthem. The context has been Senator Mark Daly‘s National Anthem (Protection of Copyright and Related Rights) (Amendment) (No 2) Bill 2016, but the analysis has ranged much more widely than that. And it has become clear to me that there are lots of gaps in the story of our national anthem. Some of those gaps could be filled by legislation, and so I am trying to work out what that legislation might provide.

I am conscious that, to a man with a hammer, every problem looks like a nail; and to a lawyer, every problem looks like it can be solved with legislation. A hammer isn’t always the solution to DIY problems, and legislation isn’t always the solution to social problems. So, I want to identify not only the issues around the anthem that could admit of a legislative solution, but also the issues where legislation would be unsuitable or ill-advised.…

Copyright and the National Anthem – Bonus Links

19 July, 201624 September, 2016

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| Cinema, television and theatre, Copyright, National Anthem

My last three posts (here, here, here) have looked at some copyright issues around the national anthem. Their immediate context was Senator Mark Daly‘s National Anthem (Protection of Copyright and Related Rights) (Amendment) (No 2) Bill 2016 (effectively reviving a Bill that he had introduced into the last Seanad earlier in the year). To provide a little lighter reading on the topic, here are 4 sets of bonus links about the copyright, the anthem, or both.

Bonus 1: Alex Marshall (blog | twitter), author of Republic or Death!: Travels in Search of National Anthems (Penguin | Amazon), writing in the Irish Times (h/t Alex’s blog), put “The Soldier’s Song” into the context of other national anthems. It’s a very entertaining piece. While he bemoans the relative obscurity of Peader Kearney and Patrick Heeney, he consigns Liam Ó Rinn to oblivion – he finishes the piece with the first line of “Amhrán na bhFiann”, but he doesn’t name-check Ó Rinn at all!

Bonus 2: I was on the the Marian Finucane show on RTE Radio 1 the Sunday morning before last (listen here), on The Last Word with Matt Cooper on TodayFM the following Monday evening (listen here), and on the Shaun Doherty Show on Highland Radio the following Wednesday morning (listen here until the end of the week).…

Copyright and the National Anthem – preventing a tangled future, avoiding another gap of danger

13 July, 201614 October, 2017

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| Censorship, Copyright, National Anthem

A national anthem is a hymn or song expressing patriotic sentiment, from prayers for a monarch, to allusions to nationally important uprisings, to expressions of national feeling. It is usually recognised by a nation’s government as the official national song, though it often emerges by convention through use by the people. “Kimigayo” is the Japanese national anthem, and its lyrics are the oldest text of a national anthem in the world, dating from an anonymous ninth century poem (though the anthem was not formally legislatively established until 1999). The oldest musical setting of an anthem still in use is the “Wilhelmus“, the Dutch national anthem (an early version of which is pictured above left). It was written between 1568 and 1572 during the Dutch Revolt against Spanish rule; and, although it was the de facto Dutch anthem for almost four centuries thereafter, it was only officially adopted in 1932.

Given their antiquity, there can be no copyright issues with the Japanese or Dutch anthems. The Irish national anthem, on the other hand, is a different story. In my previous two posts (here and here), I sought to unravel the fascinating but tangled story of its copyright, some of which I discussed on the Marian Finucane show on RTE Radio 1 last Sunday morning (listen here) and on The Last Word with Matt Cooper on TodayFM on Monday evening (listen here).…

Copyright and the National Anthem; unravelling a tangled past, avoiding a gap of danger – II – Amhrán na bhFiann

12 July, 201624 September, 2016

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| Copyright, National Anthem

Most states have national anthems. Just as states come in all shapes and sizes, so there is a great variety in anthems. Some (such as Spain) have no words at all; others, (in states with multiple national languages, such as South Africa) are multi-lingual.

Given that Article 8 of the Irish Constitution provides that the Irish language is the first official language of the State, and that the English language is recognised as a second official language, it is unsurprising that the national anthem comes in both official languages. However, the story of the emergence of both versions is not straightforward. In my previous post, I discussed “The Soldier’s Song”, the music and English language version of the national anthem. In this post, I want to discuss “Amhrán na bhFiann”, the Irish language version of the anthem. The stories are fascinating but tangled; and, as I said in my previous post, I discussed some of them on the Marian Finucane show on RTE Radio 1 last Sunday morning (listen here). Since then, I was also The Last Word with Matt Cooper on TodayFM yesterday evening (listen here). In both cases, I was discussing Senator Mark Daly‘s National Anthem (Protection of Copyright and Related Rights) (Amendment) Bill 2016 (reviving a Bill that he had introduced into the last Seanad earlier in the year).…

Copyright and the National Anthem; unravelling a tangled past, avoiding a gap of danger – I – The Soldier’s Song

11 July, 20162 November, 2017

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| Copyright, National Anthem

I was on the Marian Finucane show on RTE Radio 1 yesterday morning (listen here), discussing copyright in the National Anthem. The immediate context of the discussion was Senator Mark Daly‘s National Anthem (Protection of Copyright and Related Rights) (Amendment) Bill 2016 (reviving a Bill that he had introduced into the last Seanad earlier in the year). The story of the copyright in the national anthem is a fascinating one, with many legal twists and turns, which I will discuss in this post and the next (update: this post and the next were originally one post; but I have divided that post into two; in this post I discuss the copyright issues around the music and the English language version of the words of the anthem; in the next post, I will discuss the issues around the Irish language version). Once I have brought that story of these various versions of the anthem up to date, I will discuss the possible impact of Senator Daly’s Bill in a further post.