Pro-IRA chant video 'wrong', says Sinn Féin

The footage was taken at the Local Women Business Awards held in a Belfast hotel

Sinn Féin vice-president Michelle O'Neill has criticised a video in which a woman shouted a pro-IRA chant while posing for a selfie alongside Dame Arlene Foster.

The footage, which emerged over the weekend, was taken at the Local Women Business Awards on Saturday.

In the video, the woman poses for a selfie with the former first minister before starting to chant "Up the Ra!"

"Whenever things are wrong, we say they're wrong," Ms O'Neill said.

Dame Arlene is a former first minister and ex-leader of the Democratic Unionist Party.

She reacted to say such incidents had "become normalised because republican leaders here in Northern Ireland said over the summer that there was no alternative to killing people during the Troubles".

This referred to Ms O'Neill's previous comments that there had been "no alternative" to IRA violence during Northern Ireland's Troubles.

Ms O'Neill said on Tuesday: "We all have to be careful, sensitive, mature and civil in all of our public discourse.

"In everything we say, because things do have implications and impact on people.

"We need to be very mature about the political leadership we provide."

Arlene Foster and Michelle O'Neill worked together as first and deputy first minister

Speaking on GB News about the video, Dame Arlene said: "This lady came up to me and shouts 'ooh aah up the Ra' as if it's some culturally cool thing to do. It's not."

She was eight when the IRA attempted to kill her father, a reserve police officer, outside the family home.

As as teenager in 1988, the IRA set off a bomb on the school bus she was on.

"The worry for me is that it's so disappointing that a young person should think that's acceptable in society," she explained.

Kim Kelly, editor of Local Women Magazine, said she was appalled by the conduct of the woman responsible for the video and the matter would be investigated.

The event was held at a Belfast hotel.

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

"We 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."

Other Stormont parties have also criticised the chant in the video.

30 November 2022: This story was amended to more accurately reflect Michelle O'Neill's comments.