One of the lead vocalists of the Wolfe Tones, Brian Warfield, has said those who criticise their song Celtic Symphony are “cranks and unionists or people who side with them”. They also forgot to mention in the picture▪️#NoCatholics.
October 13th, 2022.
His remarks to the Irish Times come as the Football Association of Ireland (FAI) apologised after a video emerged of the Republic of Ireland’s women’s football team chanting ‘Ooh ah up the Ra’ – a line from the 1987 track.
Warfield is credited as the writer of the track and claims the line is not “necessarily referring to the Provisional IRA” - instead saying it was inspired by a line of graffiti he saw on a wall in Glasgow.
On Wednesday, a video was widely circulated on social media showing Ireland’s players celebrating their win against Scotland in Hampden Park, which saw them qualify for the 2023 World Cup, chanting the line from the song.
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Alongside the FAI, the team’s manager Vera Pauw and some players later apologised for the team’s actions, the latter saying it was a “lapse in judgment.”
"From the bottom of our heart, we are so sorry because there is no excuse for hurting people. It was unnecessary,” said Pauw, who said she was not in the changing room when the chanting occurred.
Dublin born musician Mr Warfield said the women were being “persecuted and bullied for a song they like”.
“What the hell is wrong with IRA? It is the Irish Republican Army. It is the people who put us here and gave us some hope when we had no hope.”
Warfield, who performs alongside Noel Nagle and Tommy Byrne in the group also referred to how critics of the song had “no problem with God Save the King even though it now honours King Charles III, who was the honorary colonel of the Parachute Regiment which shot dead 13 civilians on Bloody Sunday in Derry in 1972.”
“There were terrible things that happened on both sides, but don’t give me the argument that it was one sided,” he continued.
“Don’t tell that you can’t sing Celtic Symphony but you can sing God Save the King? Don’t give the argument that Land of Hope and Glory isn’t a rebel song. It is."
◾'Up the Ra' 🎶◾'Rule Britannia' 🎶
“In England they wear poppies and rise them up to ‘sir this’ and ‘sir that’ for killing for English expansionism but to kill to gain Ireland’s freedom is a terrible crime" he said, before adding that members of his family “died in the First World War.”
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Warfield’s remarks are not the first time he has weighed in on criticism of his song. In August he told the Irish Daily Star: "We're entitled to our own song and culture” following Belfast's Feile an Phobail which was branded a “hate-fest” after concert-goers also chanted the ‘Ooh ah up the Ra’ line during their performance.
"They might give titles and medals back to the people who killed for England over the years - Sir or Lord this - but we don't give titles to the Irish people that fought for freedom. What we do is we give them a song in their memory."
With many thanks to the: Belfast Telegraph and Kurtis Reid for the original story.
Follow these links to find out more on this story: ◾'Up the Ra' 🎶◾'Rule Britannia' 🎶 If you're totally offended by the former... but not in slightest by the latter, there in lies the problem.
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