British media outlets are aghast today after some small children, quite innocently, chanted ‘ooh ah up the Ra’ during the homecoming of the Irish Olympic Team.
The Belfast Newsletter comments on the use of a ‘pro IRA chant’ in their headline, not acknowledging that the video clearly shows children singing it because they like the melody.
The story has sparked outrage with many Irish journalists who are antithetical to Irishness, completely oblivious to the spirit in which the video shows their singing.
It is in stark contrast to their coverage, or lack thereof, of anti Catholic singing in Coleraine last weekend.
In footage, Loyalists are heard shouting ‘F*ck the Pope and the Virgin Mary’.
And then:
‘No, no Pope of Rome, no chapels to sadden my eyes, no nuns and no priests, no Rosary beads, every day is the Twelfth of July’.
The chanting is a reminder to those who naively offer a seamless and unproblematic ‘United Ireland’ as a political inevitability.
It is also a wake up call to those who think opposition to Islam is a sign of one’s Christianity, you would struggle to find comments about Our Lady that are as antagonistic as these from the mouths of Muslims.
