Politics

Jeffrey Donaldson asks Taoiseach to use influence to stop pro-IRA chants

DUP leader says those singing the songs were poking unionists and victims of terrorism in the eye

DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson addressed the media after Taoiseach Micheál Martin's meetings with the major Northern Irish parties amid the continued breakdown of powersharing. Photograph: Paul Faith/Getty Images
DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson addressed the media after Taoiseach Micheál Martin's meetings with the major Northern Irish parties amid the continued breakdown of powersharing. Photograph: Paul Faith/Getty Images
Mon Oct 17 2022 - 16:18

DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson has asked the Irish Government to use its influence to attempt to prevent further scenes of people singing pro-IRA songs.

Speaking following a meeting with Taoiseach Micheál Martin, Mr Donaldson said those responsible for singing the songs were poking unionists and victims of terrorism in the eye.

A video which was posted on social media at the weekend and appeared to show a group of passengers at Dublin Airport singing a song in support of the IRA was widely condemned.

The video features lyrics from Celtic Symphony by The Wolfe Tones.

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Last week, a video showed members of the Irish women’s football team singing the same pro-IRA chant.

The FAI apologised for the video, which circulated online after Ireland qualified for the Women’s World Cup for the first time.

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Speaking in Belfast, the DUP leader said: “We had the singing at the weekend and last week of songs that are deeply offensive to many people, including victims. And I recognise this isn’t just a problem on one side.

“But certainly when you have people who are role models in a community or society who are engaging in this kind of activity, it doesn’t do anything to create the kind of atmosphere that we need to make progress.

“And so we are asking the Irish Government to use their influence in their jurisdiction to ensure that people desist from this kind of behaviour.”

Mr Donaldson said the Taoiseach agreed with him that “creating a febrile atmosphere or polarising opinion is not the way forward”.

He added: “And I think he also recognises that it completely undermines the notion put about by some of building a shared future and a shared island and a united Ireland and having a border poll.

“The people who are doing this actually do more harm to their own cause than anything else.”

Mr Martin had used his speech at the annual commemoration of Irish patriot Theobald Wolfe Tone on Sunday to renew criticism of Sinn Féin’s “tribal nationalism”.

“There is something deeply wrong with a party which has built its entire existence on honouring a campaign of violence but now attacks and sues anyone who claims that they supported particular actions within that campaign,” he said at the graveside in Co Kildare.

[ Taoiseach renews criticism of Sinn Féin for use of legal actions ]

After the meeting of the DUP leader and the Taoiseach in Belfast, Mr Donaldson said Mr Martin agreed that there was “no quick fix” to the problems created by the Northern Ireland Protocol.

The DUP is blocking the functioning of the powersharing institutions in Belfast as part of its protest against the post-Brexit protocol that has created barriers on the movement of goods between Britain and Northern Ireland, with fresh elections threatened.

The UK government has vowed to secure changes to the protocol, either by way of a negotiated compromise with the EU or through proposed domestic legislation which could allow it to scrap parts of it unilaterally, a course which could lead to a wider trade dispute between London and Brussels.

Relations between the UK and EU appear to have improved since Liz Truss became Prime Minister, and both sides have talked up the potential for a deal through fresh negotiations. — PA