Sinead O'Connor records a whole new Irish national anthem

The "Nothing Compares 2 U" singer has become more vocal in recent weeks about the future of Ireland

Irish singer Sinead O'Connor. (Fred Tanneau | AFP | Getty Images)

Sinead O'Connor has written a new national anthem for Ireland, calling the lyrics of the current national tune "awful" and "very war-like".

The singer's rewriting comes after she announced that she had applied to be a member of Sinn Féin, calling on Gerry Adams and other key figures in the party to stand down because their faces "reminded people of violence".

She told The Independent that she would like to see the Irish republic disbanded and replaced with a wholly new country that unites greater Ireland and banishes its violent past to the history books.

In a Facebook post, O'Connor said that the current anthem, "Amhrán na bhFiann" or "The Soldiers' Song", was "very war-like and also all testosterone and not much oestrogen".

Read The Full Interview With Sinead O'Connor Here

O'Connor said she wrote to Taoiseach Enda Kenny this year about the possibility of staging a competition to change the anthem's lyrics. However, she claims that the Irish leader wrote back: "There are no plans to change it".

O'Connor said her inspiration came from the 1916 Easter Rising and that "99.8 percent" of her lyrics came from the 1916 Proclamation.

In her interview with The Independent, O Connor criticised the current state of Ireland and called for the creation of a new country.

"We can do better than having a new republic; we can have a new country," she said. "I think that's a good way of solving all of the problems of the past. The best thing would be to declare the entire thing a failure and dissociate ourselves from Ireland, England, Northern Ireland and Europe. I'm talking about a new country.

Explaining her decision to join Sinn Féin, O'Connor said she wanted to start a new and productive conversation about Ireland's future.

"If the loyalists and the republicans were to get together and fight on our side, we could create something much better than anything anyone’s ever dreamed of before, which would be a new country that is completely independent from anybody."

A response from Sinn Féin about O'Connor's comments on the leadership and her membership read: "The Sinn Féin membership elects its leadership every year at its Ard Fheis. Members are free to nominate and vote for the leader of their choice. As a member, Sinead would have an equal say in that process.

"Sinead O'Connor is not currently a member of Sinn Féin, though she has applied for membership of the party."

Sinead O'Connor's alternative national anthem:

We declare our right
to ownership of this land
to be sovereign
and indefeasible.
Nothing has extinguished that right
nor can it be extinguished
except by
the destruction of the people

We were promised civil liberty
equal rights and equal opportunity
All lies galore, all we ever got was war
Now we chant for a new country

And we place our cause
before The Most High God
whose blessings
we invoke upon our hearts
In this supreme hour
let us by our valour
prove worthy
of our august destiny

We were promised civil liberty
equal rights and equal opportunity
All lies galore, all we ever got was war.
Now we chant for a new country.