Why were there two Irish anthems played before today's match?

Question

After the English anthem was played (and well done to the crowd at Croke Park for treating it with respect, given the historical circumstances) the band played both "The Soldiers Song" and also that one about "answering Ireland's call" (sorry, dont know the name)..is that because the Irish team is supposed to represent all of Ireland and not just Eire, or what? Why do they get two tunes?

Answer 1

raymond m has it spot on, cant wait for the local to open have one h**l of a hangover,

Answer 2

Not sure if it's about representing the whole country as oppoed to the 26 counties.What i do know is that at home rugby matches the Irish team sing both the traditional Irish anthem and the Rugby anthem 'Ireland's call'.At away games they just sing 'Ireland's call'.

Answer 3

Why do we have two anthems? Because we are *still* two nations instead of one. Our national anthem is not accepted by part of our country, however, in sports, we can overlook political and historical differences.

Answer 4

The national anthem of the Republic of Ireland is "the soldiers song" or to give it its correct title "Amháin na Fhiann" but when Ireland play rugby we play it with the republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland as a united team, " the soldiers song" is not the norths anthem consequenty we play another anthem (Irelands call)  to represent the whole island. As an aside many of the northern players would be of the unionist tradition and would not even know the words of the republics anthem , its in irish.

Answer 5

In case you missed the first one.