A chara, – In "Amhráán na bhFiann author had to sue State for royalties" (May 11th), you state that Peadar Kearney "had penned The Soldier's Song, with arrangements by his friend Patrick Heeney". This is not quite a full picture of the genesis of the national anthem. The front page of the published 1917 first edition of The Soldier's Song credits the words to Peadar Ó Cearnaigh, music to Pádraig Ó hAonaigh and the arrangement to Cathal MacDubhghaill. In a 1926 letter to the Irish Independent, MacDubghaill stated that he "arranged the air and words, in partnership with Peadar Kearney" and that he wished to "resurrect the name of the actual composer, the late Patrick Heaney, from utter oblivion".
MacDubghaill (also known as Cathal or Cecil MacDowell) had been organist and choirmaster in St John's Church in Sandymount in Dublin before taking part in the Rising, and would later marry the Labour poet Maeve Cavanagh. There is a brief biography on his remarkable life (along with those of at least 144 other Easter Rising veterans with "Corpo" service) in an extensive appendix to the recently published Dublin City Council and the 1916 Rising (Four Courts Press), which I had the honour to write. – Is mise,
DAVID FLOOD,
Drumcondra,
Dublin 9.