John Kells Ingram and "The Memory of the Dead" ("Ninety Eight")
The Memory of the Dead, better known as Ninety Eight, one of the best-known of Irish Republican songs, was first published in Thomas Davis’ paper, The Nation in 1842. It was written overnight after its author John Kells Ingram had spent an evening arguing Irish politics and history with a group of fellow Protestant students at Trinity College Dublin. Ingrams dared to speak of 98! In 1842, the movement for “repeal” of the Act of Union between Ireland and Great Britain (1801) was, under the leadership of Daniel O’Connell, a mass movement. The Nation was the publication of its radical, or...