“The Memory of the Dead” is an Irish rebel song. It was written by John Kells Ingram and was first published anonymously in April of 1843 in the “Nation” poetry anthology. The song is sometimes called ''Who Fears to Speak of '98.”
Ingram wrote the song when he was 20 years old. Two years after it was originally published,
it appeared in “The Spirit of the Nation.” The reprint included the melody that
the lyrics were already being sung to.
Many view this song as a song that best personifies the
importance of Irish rebel music in Irish history. While the song makes martyrs of
those who fell in the Rebellion of 1798, it also uses the memory of those lives
lost to encourage others to take a stand for freedom.
The song was meant to invoke the memory of those who fell at
Vinegar Hill and Ballinahinch in 1798. Today, people who sing the song remember
the lives lost at the Dublin G.P.O. and Brookeborough Barracks.