By 1917, according to Séumas Robinson, the song was being parodied by British soldiers in Ireland.[20] Éamon de Valera's platform at the June 1917 East Clare by-election featured a large banner with the opening two lines.[21] That October the Irish Volunteers allied with Sinn Féin under de Valera and during the Irish War of Independence (1919–21) the Volunteers evolved into the Irish Republican Army (IRA). The song's popularity led to its being called the "Sinn Féin anthem". Copies were confiscated by British security forces as seditious.[22] Carl Hardebeck played it unannounced on Low Sunday 1918 in St Peter's Cathedral, Belfast.[23] Victor Herbert's version was well known to Irish Americans by 1919, when de Valera arrived as President of Dáil Éireann of the self-proclaimed Irish Republic.[5] In the 1922–23 Civil War, the IRA split into the "National Army" of the nascent Irish Free State and the "Irregulars" loyal to the defunct Republic.