The Irish women’s football team has qualified for their first Fifa World Cup, beating Scotland 1-0. In the aftermath of the match, the team celebrated by cheering and chanting in the locker room, including the line “Ooh, ah, up the ‘Ra”, from The Celtic Symphony. Originally performed by The Wolfe Tones in a tribute to Glasgow Celtic Football Club, the song repeats the allegedly pro-IRA line throughout.
The response to the controversial chant has sadly overshadowed the team’s historic win. Manager Vera Pauw has apologised, and Uefa is now investigating “potential inappropriate behaviour”.
In my view, as a researcher of language and identity in Irish culture and politics, the words as a celebratory football chant are not meant to be taken literally. Those who repeat them are probably not consciously glorifying such inexcusable atrocities as the Enniskillen bombing, attacks on civilians out shopping and countless other horrors that occurred at the hands of the IRA.
