ON THIS DAY: 20 OCTOBER 1933: The Irish Free State government purchases the copyright of Peadar Kearney’s “The Soldiers Song” – Amhrán na bhFiann – which becomes the national anthem It was composed “early in 1910 or late in 1909”, words by Peadar Kearney, and music by his childhood friend and neighbour Patrick Heeney on […]