Patrick Heeney

[3] A 1975 memoir of Peadar Kearney states Heeney initially worked for the postal service before taking employment as a bagman at Hickey's Drapers in North Earl Street.

He is listed at the 31 Gulistan Cottages in the 1911 census (conducted in April, two months before the composer's death) along with a wife, Catherine, and a nine-month-old son, William.

[4] "The Soldier's Song" is generally believed to have been composed in 1907, though, in later years, the lyricist Peadar Kearney put the date at 1909 or 1910.

[7] The English lyrics were the work of Kearney who was a prominent member of the Irish Republican Brotherhood and had been Heeney's musical collaborator since 1903.

The unusual metre of Kearney's lyrics to "The Soldier's Song" initially gave Heeney considerable trouble in his attempt to fit music to them.