I don't usually watch "Who Do You Think You Are?", the show where celebrities climb their family tree to see where they came from, and who they really are, but recently came across actress Claire Foy's episode while channel hopping (something we did before streaming) and found it quite interesting.
Foy's 3x-Great Grandfather John Henry Martin, and his brother William, were two of many arrests made in Manchester following the murder of Manchester police officer Charles Brett, who was shot while escorting Thomas J. Kelly and Timothy Deasy, two leaders of the Irish Republican Brotherhood, to prison.
Both brothers were released after testimonies from friends and family established that they were not present when the attack took place.
The episode referred to the three men who were convicted of the crime - Allen, Larkin, and O'Brien - which triggered a memory of the folk song "Erin's Lovely Lee", which refers to the three men using their surnames as "the three Manchester Martyrs". Searching the term online led to the wikipedia entry for the trial, and this interesting piece of information - at the end of the trial, while addressing the court, Edward O'Meagher-Condon, another man convicted of the murder, whose sentence was overturned following the intervention of the US government(he was a US citizen), ended his speech with the cry "God Save Ireland!", a slogan echoed by his co-accused in the dock and supporters in the public gallery.
The slogan was used in the following days and weeks by supporters of the men appealing for their release, eventually inspiring the folk song "God Save Ireland", written by future Lord Mayor of Dublin Timothy Daniel Sullivan in December 1867. Many versions of the song have been released in the decades since the lyrics were first published, including the DublinersYou might wonder what this has to do with Irish football? Well, the song gained popularity across the Irish diaspora, to the point where it was the unofficial anthem of Ireland until Amhrán na bhFiann was officially adopted as the national anthem by the Executive Council of the Irish Free State in July 1926. God Save Ireland's popularity continued to grow, eventually becoming a terrace anthem at Celtic Park. The familiarity of the tune in Scotland was confirmed after its melody was used in Scotland's 1978 World Cup unofficial anthem "Ally's Army"
If any of the lyrics sound familiar to fans of the Irish national side, even those born long after Ally McLeod's men returned from Argentina, it's because when Ireland first qualified for the World Cup, they were reused, along with quotes from manager Jack Charlton, in Ireland team song Put 'Em Under Pressure!
So, there you have it, how Claire Foy's great-great-great-grandfather was involved in a case that led to two football anthems!
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