Dame Arlene Foster aghast at 'up the Ra' selfie request

A video of the incident was posted online following the Local Women Magazine’s annual awards ceremony held at the Europa hotel on Saturday and has been widely circulated.

It shows the former DUP leader being filmed alongside a female who sings ‘ooh ah, up the Ra,’ before Mrs Foster is seen showing her disappointment.

In a statement, the event organisers said: “At Local Women Magazine’s annual awards ceremony held at the Europa a person orchestrated a selfie on Social media with the intention of causing embarrassment to Dame Arlene Foster.

“Local Women wishes to make it clear that it is appalled at the conduct of the person who did this and does not condone it in any way.

“There were 540 guests at the event from all sections of the community and we are horrified at any distress this incident has caused.

“Sadly such abuses of social media are commonplace and very difficult to monitor and prevent but we will be investigating the matter and can say with certainty that the guest or guests responsible (if indeed they were guests ) will no longer be welcome at any of our events.

“Local Women has no political or religious agenda and provides a valuable and essential service to all sections of the community and will continue to do so."

Dame Arlene told the News Letter that the woman came up to her at the start of the ceremony and claimed to be from republican Crossmaglen but said that she was an admirer of the former first minister and asked to pose with her. Then she began the chant.

Dame Arlene also made reference to the attempted murder of her father, who was shot and seriously wounded at their Rosslea home in 1979.

"I’d like to bring her to Aghadrumsee graveyard where my father is buried. There she could hear what the ‘Ra’ was doing in Fermanagh before she was even born,” she told the Belfast Telegraph.

“It’s so sad that at an event to celebrate the success of local women that someone would try to celebrate the IRA while standing beside a victim of the IRA. It’s very disappointing,” Mrs Foster added.