A clip from BBC Newsline, BBC Northern Ireland's TV news program, on Monday, August 13 is going viral - and has prompted a formal response from politician in Northern Ireland.
The clip shows BBC reporter Aoife Moore on Dublin's Portland Row for the homecoming celebrations for Kellie Harrington after her historic Gold medal win at the Olympics.
Moore was surrounded by excited children as she chatted with BBC journalist Declan Harvey, who was back in the studio.
However, as Moore was reporting, the children began to sing "ooh, ah, up the RA" from the often controversial Wolfe Tones' song "Celtic Symphony."
The singing looks to have caught Moore off guard.
“I can’t really hear you, Declan, we're going to have to go back to you,” Moore said after the children began singing. She proceeded to tuck her microphone under her chin.
“That’s what happens when you’re surrounded by excited kids, I suppose,” Harvey said from the studio, appearing to try to stifle a bit of laughter.
Lmao Aoife Moore and Declan Harvey trying to keep their shit together as the wee shits behind her in Portland Row start chanting ooh aah up the ra 😂 pic.twitter.com/O7EbrcgFr6
— porky queave (@workmansflopera) August 12, 2024
The incident has prompted Traditional Unionist Voice (TUV) Councillor David Clarke in Northern Ireland to pen letters to both Sarah Keane, the President of the Olympic Federation of Ireland, and Adam Smyth, the Director of BBC Northern Ireland.
Clarke, who said he was "shocked and appalled" by the incident, urged the Olympic Federation of Ireland to "publicly distance" itself from what was shown on BBC "and make clear that there is no place for the glorification of terrorism in sport."
Separately, Clarke invited BBC Northern Ireland to apologize for the incident on air on Tuesday night.
Jim Allister, head of the TUV, said on social media: "BBC Newsline excelled itself this evening in promoting the New Ireland anthem of ‘Up the RA’ while gleefully reporting on the return of the ROI Olympic team."
BBC Newsline excelled itself this evening in promoting the New Ireland anthem of ‘Up the RA’ while gleefully reporting on the return of the ROI Olympic team.
— Jim Allister (@JimAllister) August 12, 2024
Elsewhere, Kenny Donaldson, Director of the South East Fermanagh Foundation (SEFF), a charity in Northern Ireland that supports victims of the Troubles, said in a statement that the BBC report "was a timely illustration of the place to which Society has descended, north and south of our border.
"The normalisation agenda of terrorism, its supporters and apologists and the inactions of others has brought us to the place where kids celebrate sporting success by engaging in pro IRA trance like chanting.
"This isn’t a bit of crack or over excited kids as the BBC Reporter quipped, this is what happens when the structures of Society allows terrorism to infect the mainstream.
"This has been a policy of 30 and more years in the making. It is wrong and it constitutes a form of psychological child abuse.
"What will BBC N.I’s response be? Will they deal with this issue, not only with what happened tonight but the underlying messages with this behaviour and culture of acceptance?
"We await with baited breath."
A BBC spokesperson has reportedly responded to the incident saying: “We dealt quickly and effectively with this live broadcast situation.”
"Celtic Symphony," in particular its "ooh, ah, up the RA" lyrics, has courted controversy in recent years.
Wolfe Tones member Brian Warfield has previously said he penned "Celtic Symphony" in 1987 for the centenary of Scotland's Celtic Football Club, which occurred a year later. The song, he said, references graffiti he saw in Glasgow which read: "We're magic, up the Celts, ooh, ahh, up the 'RA."
Last year, after the band's performance of their song at Belfast's Feile an Phobail event sparked criticism, Warfield told the Irish Mirror: "That song ('Celtic Symphony') is about Glasgow Celtic and I don’t think they understand the song but there’s all euphemisms within that song ... you know 'That’s where the lions sleep' is the Lisburn Lions and 'the jungle' is where all the – before they knocked it down I used to go to the jungle – it was where all the poorer people went. It was a cheaper area and it was known as the jungle.
"Not many people know all the euphemisms that I put into that song, telling the story about Celtic and what they stand for and who they are and they always supported Ireland going back to the Troubles.
"People love it. It is a great song, I can’t stop people singing it and I don’t think anybody… people think they have the power to stop people singing that song.. it won’t happen."
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