The Shan Van Vocht

In the 1890s it was adopted as the title of a popular historical novel and of a nationalist magazine, both of which, in the face of the growing sectarian division over Irish Home rule, sought to vindicate the republican legacy of the United Irishmen.

[1] Written versions (in which it was sometimes spelt Shan van Vough) appeared first in the 1820, and were employed in the campaigns Daniel O'Connell led, first for Catholic Emancipation, and then, in the 1830s and '40s, for the restoration of an Irish parliament through a repeal of the 1800 Acts of Union.

The two-penny journal followed the formula that in the 1840s had launched Gavan Duffy's Young Ireland paper The Nation: a mixture of poetry, serialised fiction, Irish history, political analysis and announcements.

The cover page of the January 1896 inaugural issue, featured "a version of the song that clarified for the modern reader that the title alluded to the female personification of the nation: 'for old Ireland is the name of the Shan Van Vocht'."

[3] After forty issues, in 1899 Milligan and Johnston passed their subscription list to Arthur Griffith's new Dublin-based weekly, the United Irishman, organ of Cumann na nGaedheal, the forerunner of Sinn Féin.