I’ve come to the conclusion that this whole ‘Ooh Ah Up The RA’ issue is nothing more than a sideways swipe at people who may not actually care about what happened pre-GFA and in the era known as the Troubles. The same happens every year and it’s usually the same unimaginative, Unionist voices leading the charge to demonise an entire community that suffered terribly at the hands of the British security forces and Loyalist terrorists.
However, those same unimaginative voices changed tack this time around. None other than Jamie Bryson (wannabe KC) appeared on Nolan pontificating and actually approving of An Feile, saying it was a great series of events for “that community” meaning the West Belfast community but then went on to attack the chants, and I did laugh out loud at this part. This is a quote from the Nolan Show, Bryson went on to chant – “Oh Ah Up The …terrorist organisation known as the IRA”. No sooner had Bryson said this than social media was flooded with videos of Bryson himself commemorating and celebrating the UVF.
The problem in all of this is that Feile an Phobail is funded by charity and public organisations, from Belfast City Council to Tourism NI which fund and facilitate numerous events throughout Belfast. However, what isn’t being mentioned by the detractors of the Wolfe Tones and ‘Ooh Ah Up The RA’ is that the Council and other organisations are involved in the 12th of July which is a sectarian celebration of the oppression of the Catholic faith. The beacons delivered to sites on the 11th of July are funded by the government around which, songs detailing revellers being up to their knees in Fenian blood and telling Catholics to “surrender or you’ll die” are sung. Indeed the ballad ‘Dolly’s Brae’ which is sung regularly on the 11th and 12th of July includes the lines –
“It being on the twelfth day of July, in the year of ’49,
Five hundred loyal Orangemen, together they did join,
In honour of King William on that bright and glorious day,
To march around Lord Roden’s Park and over Dolly’s Brae.”
The ballad ‘Dolly’s Brae’ celebrates an affray that occurred on the 12th of July 1849. It broke out as Orangemen were returning by a circuitous route from a demonstration in the grounds of Lord Roden, grand master of the Grand Lodge of Ireland, at Bryansford, Co Down.
When requested by two priests to reroute, the Orangemen responded, according to the ballad: “Begone, begone you Papish dogs, you’ve hardly time to pray, before we throw your carcasses right over Dolly’s Brae”.
You see there seems to be a special focus placed on a chant about a paramilitary organisation that has ceased to be. The “RA” which the Wolfe Tones refer to is the Provisional IRA, a formation of people who laid down and dumped arms when the Good Friday Agreement was signed in 1998. In fact, there is televised documentation of PIRA weapons being chopped through the receiver and barrel and through the stock, weapons that were put beyond use. As such the PIRA no longer exists as an active element in NEI or in the South and as per intelligence briefings is “wedded to peace and peacebuilding.”
So what is the issue with the chants? These people in Falls Park, mostly kids, have for years fallen foul to dissident republicans coming up to the 15th of August and in bygone years collected for and gathered round a bonfire akin to that which we berate Loyalists and Unionists for. Now that West Belfast and Irish nationalism have shown leadership and directed kids and young adults away from the bonfires and into a safe and fun environment, people still aren’t happy. In fact, it seems that once again, there is one rule for them’uns and one rule for us. That being, Loyalists can chant what they want around their publicly funded beacons, their bands can march the roads and highways any day they please, chanting “U-U-UDA” and “U-U-UVF”, singing sectarian songs and kicking shopkeepers in Derry in the head for daring to ask them not to urinate against his shop…but those damned Fenians can’t chant ‘Ooh Ah Up The RA’.
This is a case of much ado about nothing. This is a chant by kids who know peace…THEY KNOW PEACE and they’re not stupid enough to act on the past! I would rather they know peace and know their proud history of rebellion and resistance and be allowed to throw a one-finger salute up to Feile an Phobail’s detractors than have this all taken away by people who still to this day feel Catholics, nationalists, and republicans aren’t permitted to show our culture and history in a shared society.
I’ve come to the conclusion that this whole ‘Ooh Ah Up The RA’ issue is nothing more than a sideways swipe at people who may not actually care about what happened pre-GFA and in the era known as the Troubles. The same happens every year and it’s usually the same unimaginative, Unionist voices leading the charge to demonise an entire community that suffered terribly at the hands of the British security forces and Loyalist terrorists.
However, those same unimaginative voices changed tack this time around. None other than Jamie Bryson (wannabe KC) appeared on Nolan pontificating and actually approving of an Feile, saying it was a great series of events for “that community” meaning the West Belfast community but then went on to attack the chants, and I did laugh out loud at this part. This is a quote from the Nolan Show, Bryson went on to chant – “Oh Ah Up The …terrorist organisation known as the IRA”. No sooner had Bryson said this than social media was flooded with videos of Bryson himself commemorating and celebrating the UVF.
The problem in all of this is that Feile an Phobail is funded by charity and public organisations, from Belfast City Council to Tourism NI which fund and facilitate numerous events throughout Belfast. However, what isn’t being mentioned by the detractors of the Wolfetones and ‘Ooh Ah Up The RA’ is that the Council and other organisations are involved in the 12th of July which is a sectarian celebration of the oppression of the Catholic faith. The beacons delivered to sites on the 11th of July are funded by the government around which, songs detailing revellers being up to their knees in Fenian blood and telling Catholics to “surrender or you’ll die” are sung. Indeed the ballad ‘Dolly’s Brae’ which is sung regularly on the 11th and 12th of July includes the lines –
“It being on the twelfth day of July, in the year of ’49,
Five hundred loyal Orangemen, together they did join,
In honour of King William on that bright and glorious day,
To march around Lord Roden’s Park and over Dolly’s Brae.”
The ballad ‘Dolly’s Brae’ celebrates an affray that occurred on the 12th of July 1849. It broke out as Orangemen were returning by a circuitous route from a demonstration in the grounds of Lord Roden, grand master of the Grand Lodge of Ireland, at Bryansford, Co Down.
When requested by two priests to reroute, the Orangemen responded, according to the ballad: “Begone, begone you Papish dogs, you’ve hardly time to pray, before we throw your carcasses right over Dolly’s Brae”.
You see there seems to be a special focus placed on a chant about a paramilitary organisation that has ceased to be. The “RA” which the Wolfetones refer to is the Provisional IRA, a formation of people who laid down and dumped arms when the Good Friday Agreement was signed in 1998. In fact, there is televised documentation of PIRA weapons being chopped through the receiver and barrel and through the stock, weapons that were put beyond use. As such the PIRA no longer exists as an active element in NEI or in the South and as per intelligence briefings is “wedded to peace and peacebuilding.”
So what is the issue with the chants? These people in Falls Park, mostly kids, have for years fallen foul to dissident republicans coming up to the 15th of August and in bygone years collected for and gathered round a bonfire akin to that which we berate Loyalists and Unionists for. Now that West Belfast and Irish nationalism have shown leadership and directed kids and young adults away from the bonfires and into a safe and fun environment, people still aren’t happy. In fact, it seems that once again, there is one rule for them’uns and one rule for us. That being, Loyalists can chant what they want around their publicly funded beacons, their bands can march the roads and highways any day they please, chanting “U-U-UDA” and “U-U-UVF”, singing sectarian songs and kicking shopkeepers in Derry in the head for daring to ask them not to urinate against his shop…but those damned Fenians can’t chant ‘Ooh Ah Up The RA’.
This is a case of much ado about nothing. This is a chant by kids who know peace…THEY KNOW PEACE and they’re not stupid enough to act on the past! I would rather they know peace and know their proud history of rebellion and resistance and be allowed to throw a one-finger salute up to Feile an Phobail’s detractors than have this all taken away by people who still to this day feel Catholics, nationalists, and republicans aren’t permitted to show our culture and history in a shared society.
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