IRISH FREE STATE: Soldier’s Song

Just as though the Free State’s squabbles with Britain had never arisen and Eamon de Valera had never been born, 884 of the finest horses in the world delicately chomped their oats in Dublin last week and tripped round & round the paddock in parti-colored flannel blankets. It was the opening of the Dublin Horse Show, greatest event in the Irish social season and an annual magnet for scores of U. S. sportsmen on their way north for Scotland, Aug. 12 and grouse.

More sensitive than the horses, Dubliners went to some lengths to avoid friction. Pale, plump, plutocratic H. H. the Aga Khan gave his usual trophy for international Army jumping. For years the only time that the strains of “God Save the King” have impinged in public on Free State air has been at the opening of the Dublin Horse Show when the British Army team rides into the ring. Not to abrade further the nerves already rubbed raw by President de Valera’s squabble over the land annuities (see col. 2), the British Army team withdrew last week before the show opened. There were other anthem troubles. Official anthem of the Irish Free State is a ballad entitled “The Soldier’s Song,” always played when the Governor General, King George’s representative, enters the ring. Just before His Excellency Governor General James McNeill entered his box, Frank Aiken, Minister of Defense in President de Valera’s Republican cabinet, issued orders to the army band not to play. Governor McNeill teetered nervously on the threshold, but an imported British ensemble known as St. Hilda’s Band saved the day. Shouldering their tubas, dragging the bass drum, they dashed across the field, blared “The Soldier’s Song” with a flourish.

Unassuming James McNeill is King George’s only Governor General who is a commoner. He is many times less imposing than any of his confreres. Offering him public insults has become almost a tradition of the de Valera government.