Wolfe Tones to perform to bigger audience at Electric Picnic one year after pro-IRA chanting at same festival

The band are in fact expected to perform before a bigger audience than in 2023: this year their venue is the open-air Main Arena, whereas last year it was the tented Electric Arena.

They are due on stage from 5.30pm to 6.30pm on Sunday.

During their set in 2023 they played Celtic Symphony – which culminates with the lyrics "ooh ah up the Ra".

Video footage from the festival showed a large number of the crowd chanting those particular lyrics led by singer Brian Warfield.

The regular performance of this same song, accompanied by the same crowd chanting, have helped make the annual Feile an Phobail (West Belfast Festival) an especially controversial event for non-republicans.

This last week saw the phrase in the headlines again whenever children started chanting it in celebration at an Olympic homecoming event in Dublin.

It was broadcast on Monday night’s BBC evening news.

The TUV councillor David Clarke has raised the issue with the BBC, calling for an apology to be issued (which so far has not happened).

Instead the BBC has said “we dealt quickly and effectively with this live broadcast situation” by cutting back to the studio.

Speaking about the Wolfe Tones’ 2023 Electric Picnic performance, DUP MLA David Brooks, the party’s spokesperson on cross-border relations, said at the time: “It is a sad incitement on modern-day Ireland that the Wolfe Tones, and chants of ‘ooh aah up the ra’ are part of a mainstream music festival.

“These are chants that attract fines from UEFA for ‘the violation of the basic rules of decent conduct’ when a football team engages in them.

"Such chants are a stark reminder that for many people, a so-called ‘new Ireland’ looks a lot like celebrating the worst aspects of the old Ireland.”

The organisers of the 2024 festival have been asked if they have ordered the Wolfe Tones not to play the song or engage in such chanting this year, and what the consequences are for anyone who does so.

A response is awaited.

The Wolfe Tones are now in their 60th year.

Their repertoire includes the rebel tunes The Helicopter Song (about a PIRA hijacking), Joe McDonnell (about a PIRA gunman), and The Men Behind the Wire (about internment).

Mr Warfield was recently quoted telling the Irish Mirror: “We've been saying it [Celtic Symphony] for years, and singing it for years, let the people sing. If they want to sing a song, let them sing it... I don't think anybody should object. It's stupid to object to a song.”

Electric Picnic begins this Thursday and closes on Sunday, in fields at Stradbally, Co Laois, some 40 miles south-west of Dublin and not far from the town of Portlaoise.

It is a huge affair, with multiple genres of music spanning multiple stages, and a capacity of roughly 70,000 people.

Last year's headliners included Billie Eilish, Paolo Nutini, and The Killers, and this year's include Calvin Harris, Kodaline, and Kylie Minogue.

Dating ack to 2004, nowadays it describes itself as "Ireland’s largest gathering of music & arts, and the ultimate rock n’ roll circus".

Also on the bill this year, as in 2022, is republican rap trio Kneecap, from Belfast; they are on from 7.15pm to 8pm at the Electric Arena on Saturday.