Sean Collier
BA Modern
and Contemporary History
‘Tiocfaidh ár lá, sing up the ‘Ra’ was a chant I often heard
in a pub in Bangor, that will go unnamed in an attempt to not write an
advert/smear for the pub, depending on your possible love or hate of the
occasional rebel song. For the many who are not familiar with the opening
phrase, ‘tiocfaidh ár lá’ translates to ‘our day will come’ (or so I’ve read, I
am unsurprisingly not fluent in Irish) - a term very much associated with the
Irish Republican Army (IRA), referring to a future united Ireland. This is
taken from an Irish rebel song named The
SAM Song, with the lyrics detailing a Provisional IRA (the ‘Ra’) member and
his fight against the British. Ranging from the use of petrol bombs and SAMs
(surface-to-air missiles) to the internment of 1971 and hunger strikes, the
song is clearly propaganda glorifying the Provisional IRA. However, if songs like
this are commonplace in even a small pub in north Wales, their use begs the
question of what these songs actually mean. To most it may just be good craic to sing along, but the stories
behind the songs are fascinating. As examples, I will talk about two other
songs alongside The SAM Song: The Men Behind the Wire and Roll of Honour.
