Songwriter Phil Coulter has revealed that he still receives hate mail after penning 'Ireland's Call' for the Ireland rugby team back in 1995.
The song is the national anthem for the Ireland Rugby team , and was written to represent all 32 counties of the island.
Speaking in an interview on the Pat Kenny Show on Newstalk , Coulter said: “I still get hate mail about it.
"People still think it’s a load of rubbish, piece of s**t. That’s fair enough.”
Coulter predicted that there would be resistance to the song, adding: “I said 'you have to be prepared, there’s going to be opposition to this, people do not like to be told what to sing.'
“They’re happily singing Molly Malone for all these years, but you can’t beat people over the head and say you will sing this song.
“It took a long time before it was accepted.”
He admits that the lyricism may be a bit trite, but explained why he wrote the song the way that he did, saying: “I was never going to get a Pulitzer award for the lyric on Ireland’s Call.
“I agonised a long time over, how do you say a united Ireland or 32 counties without trampling on the sensibilities of our northern friends?
“The key into that was the four proud provinces, once I got that, that was my way in.
“It had a job to do and it had to be easily remembered, easily sung.
“There’s a kind of kick you get that could never be quantified in terms of records sold or royalties earned or whatever it might be when you hear a full house in Lansdowne Road singing Ireland’s call.
"Or when I hear The Town I Loved So Well being sung in a protest march in the North, or a peace march, these songs have now become part of the public domain.
"They're not just pop songs, but songs that have become part of the culture.”
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