Two University of Notre Dame seniors will premiere a new song celebrating the spirit of the Fighting Irish at 2:30 p.m. Friday (Sept. 13) at the Eck Visitors Center.
“The Fighting Irish (of Notre Dame y’all)” was composed by Jorge “Jay” Rivera-Herrans, a student from Dorado, Puerto Rico. He and classmate Teagan Earley from Wheaton, IL will perform the song live at the Alumni Association’s Football Fridays event.
Rivera-Herrans, a film, television and theater major who wrote the play "Stupid Humans," was commissioned last fall to write a song that tells how Notre Dame adopted the nickname Fighting Irish. He created the lyrics and music, and he and Earley combine on the vocals.
Immediately following their performance, Rivera-Herrans and Earley will sign CDs of the single at Hammes Notre Dame Bookstore from 2:45 to 3:45 p.m. They will also perform the song during the Notre Dame Pep Rally on South Quad beginning at 6 p.m.
The new song honors the history of how the Notre Dame community embraced the “Fighting Irish” label, originally intended as a slur, and today wears it as a badge of honor.
Christina Edmonds, a 2016 graduate, created the cover art for the CD release. Its graffiti lettering, which is depicted on the yellow-white brick of Notre Dame’s Main Building, displays colors that represent each of the residence halls, and colors that appear on all the national flags of the world. The artwork speaks to the song’s lyrics: “every color, every face/underdogs of every race/we are the Fighting Irish.”
Digital downloads of “The Fighting Irish (of Notre Dame y’all)” can be purchased for 99 cents from Spotify and Amazon Music. It will be available from 32 additional outlets, including Apple Music, Google Play and YouTube, beginning next week.