Enjoy this version of “A Nation Once Again,” voted the world’s most popular song by BBC listeners.
This great and timeless song fills me with joy about nations such as Ireland, Israel, and the United States, which have won their independence, and with hope for Taiwan, which seeks to perfect its independence. May the great example of the Irish freedom fighters of 1916-21 (and in the centuries before) give strength to the all the opppressed people around the world–in Tibet, Darfur, and many other places–who still seek their right of self-determination, and to live in peace in the community of nations.
The Irish revolution was inspired by the American Revolution, and, as “A Nation Once Again” illustrates, by the brave Spartans at Thermopylae (“three hundred men”) and by the Roman story of Horatio at the Bridge (“and three men”). “A Nation Once Again” was written by an Irish Protestant, showing that Irish nationalism at its best, is non-sectarian and inclusive, as the Proclamation of the Republic affirmed. The great liberation, from the Exodus to the present, is the common heritage and the common hope of all freedom-loving peoples. God Save Ireland, and God Bless America, “For, Freedom comes from God’s right hand, And needs a Godly train.”
