The O'Donnells were clan chiefs in Tirconnel, which once covered what is now County Donegal. The song's references to sixteenth-century heroes made it especially applicable as a rallying cry for many occasions and periods.
The words are the work of Michael Joseph McCann, a professor at St Jarleth College, Tuam, County Mayo, and first appeared under the title "The Clan Connell War Song" in "The Nation" in 1843. It is sung to music written by a military bandmaster from Carrick-on-Suir, County Tipperary.
When the first Irish Government was voting on a national anthem, "O'Donnell Abú" ran a close second to
"The Soldiers Song".
Abú means onward in Gaelic.
