A Hibernian fan: the club was founded in Scotland by a Limerick-born priest more than 150 years ago. Photograph: Jane Barlow/PA Wire

A minor hit when first released in 1988, the Proclaimers’ Sunshine on Leith has grown to become one of the world’s great football anthems in recent years, even though – like many football anthems – it doesn’t mention the game.

As now played regularly at Easter Road, Edinburgh, with the fans of Hibernian FC on live backing vocals, it starts on a note of despair: “My heart was broken/My heart was broken/Sorrow, sorrow/Sorrow, sorrow.”

Then it turns into a song of redemptive love: “My heart was broken/My heart was broken/You saw it, you claimed it/You touched it, you saved it”.

Charlie Reid of The Proclaimers durin

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