'What future would there be for unionists in a united Ireland when we still have children chanting Up The Ra?'
A survivor of one of the IRA’s most infamous atrocities has asked how unionists would be expected to live in a united Ireland when ‘up the Ra’ is still used as a celebratory chant.
Stephen Gault, 54, said the sight of children in Dublin chanting those lyrics on the evening news this week had been “pathetic".
Meanwhile a survivor of a different IRA atrocity, Philip Gault, said for him the IRA only spells suffering.
They were reacting to Monday night’s BBC Newsline evening news broadcast, when a correspondent went out to the streets of north Dublin for a homecoming celebration for Irish Olympic athletes.
The children around the presenter began chanting “ooh ahh up the Ra” mid-way through the live broadcast.
The BBC have said that “we dealt quickly and effectively with this live broadcast situation” by cutting back to the studio.
The next evening’s news bulletin made no mention of the event. Asked if there would be an apology for showing the chant (as happens if someone swears during a live broadcast), the BBC said “we have nothing further to add”.
Stephen Gault was present at the IRA’s 1987 Enniskillen Remembrance Day bombing, which killed 12 people including his father.
He was a child at the time. Though he survived, he still lives in chronic pain to this day.
He told the News Letter that while “you can't blame Team Ireland” for the chanting, “Team Ireland had people from north and south, Catholic and Protestant – can you imagine a Protestant who was representing Team Ireland had to witness that? Certainly, if it was me personally, it'd make me think twice about representing Team Ireland.”
He added: “I'm disgusted to be quite honest. It's well and good these people chanting 'ooh ahh up the Ra', but think about the victims, the thousands of victims of the IRA, what they must be feeling – both Catholic and Protestant.
"I just think it's absolutely pathetic that people, to this day and age, are still chanting 'ooh ahh up the Ra'.
"Sinn Fein have said we have to move forward together in a unified Ireland. What hope is there for unionists in a unified Ireland when factions of young people from way down south are chanting 'ooh ahh up the Ra'?
"We thought these days were gone. It really is pathetic."
Meanwhile another survivor, Philip Gault, said: “The kids don't even know what they're singing. I don't believe there's any vindictiveness in them. [They just] have no understanding of it.
"They're a product of their environment. They're living in an environment which hasn't educated them as to what that's about... they don't get the relevance of the words they sing.
He was a nine-year-old schoolboy when he survived the IRA’s 1972 ‘Bloody Friday’ bomb blitz, which killed nine people.
What does the IRA mean to him?
"To me, in the past context, it means nothing but pain and suffering,” he said. “That's it. They caused so much harm to me personally.”
The TUV councillor David Clarke wrote to the BBC to complain on Monday, saying: “The question for the BBC to answer is this – do they believe that the chanting was acceptable or not? If they don't believe it was acceptable then an apology should have been broadcast… if someone had sworn during a live broadcast that would have happened.”
The DUP’s victims spokesman Tom Buchanan told the News Letter: “It's absolutely disgraceful we've people of such a young age singing this republican song.
"It's an insult to innocent victims who over the years have lost lives, families who are left with an empty chair and silenced voice because their loved one has been brutally murdered by the IRA.
"There's a responsibility here for community leaders, political representatives, to step in and to put an end to this.
"We've seen this time and time again with these young people coming out and singing this, which really opens up old wounds. I really do think it is time to bring this to an end.”