Sir, – The new Irish passport contains a puzzling error. Something doesn’t add up.
There is a dot missing in the music on page 16. Now some people may not care one iota. But given that the passport outlines the melody of Amhrán na bhFiann (displayed across pages 4-32), one could ask why there should be mistakes. As it turns out, the dot in question is somewhere further down the page.
Why is there a time signature in each of these pages? To any musically literate foreign national, this would seem absurd. And why is there no double barline in the final bar?
We are used to seeing the likes of this on teacups, but we should expect more when it comes to our passport and the national anthem.
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To me, this is yet another argument for quality music education – well-timed, perhaps, in a period when the Government could be seen to be more supportive of the important role played by the two RTÉ orchestras. – Yours, etc,
MICHEÁL McCARTHY,
Senior Lecturer in Music,
Western Australian
Academy of
Performing Arts,
Edith Cowan University,
Perth,
Australia.