Master of deflection Donald Trump, in Ireland to watch a tournament at another of his money-losing golf courses, threw the assembled media into a stenographic frenzy yesterday simply by saying he thought a united Ireland would be “a very cool thing.”
Anyone with a grain of sense would recognize this as the sort of thing Donald Trump says without thinking, but quite the kerfuffle erupted at the simple mention of the idea in the Republic of Ireland (for it), Northern Ireland (against it) and England (also against it).
Ireland has never been unified under a single government, and the cultural divide between the Catholic south and Protestant north makes the prospect unlikely, but that’s never stopped people like Thomas Osborne Davis from dreaming.
Davis was part of what’s known as the Young Ireland movement of the mid-19th century. He was a protestant, but he thought only a united Ireland could rid itself of domination by England. In 1844 he wrote “A Nation Once Again,” declaring “Music is the first faculty of the Irish” and that “a song is worth a thousand harangues.” He died the next year, at 30, of scarlet fever.
The lyrics have been set to a succession of tunes through the years, but most modern versions use the melody composed by James J. Johnson in 1887. You can find versions by just about any Irish vocal group. This one was recorded by the Dubliners in 1967.
