Following the release of video showing players singing a sectarian song following a World Cup qualifying match, the Football Association of Ireland (FAI) issued an apology on Wednesday.
After a video of players performing the song in favor of the paramilitary Irish Republican Army surfaced on social media, the FAI and Republic of Ireland manager Vera Pauw apologized “from the bottom of our hearts” (IRA).
The video looked to show the women’s squad chanting “Ooh ah, up the ‘RA” as they appeared to be celebrating their 1-0 win against Scotland at Glasgow’s Hampden Park on Tuesday night.
The Republic’s first-ever trip to the Women’s World Cup was made possible by the play-off triumph.
Pauw stated, “We’ll go over this with the players and remind them of their obligations in this area.
“I met with the players this morning, and we are all sorry for any harm we may have caused. There is no justification for it.”
The cry was one of “100 songs last night and it was the one that got out,” according to veteran Ireland striker Aine O’Gorman, speaking to national network RTE.
She said, “We simply want to apologize to everyone who was upset.
At discussions with party leaders in Northern Ireland, which is governed by the UK, Ireland’s foreign minister Simon Coveney was questioned about the event.
A decades-long campaign of violence against British authority was orchestrated by the IRA and culminated in a 1998 peace agreement.
The footage was “a kick in the teeth for some of those who praised them & those supporters who lost loved ones at the hands of the IRA,” said Doug Beattie, head of the pro-UK Ulster Unionist Party, in a tweet.
Michelle O’Neill, the deputy head of Sinn Fein, a pro-Ireland nationalist party that was formerly the IRA’s political arm, claimed to not have seen the film but to have heard that the FAI had expressed regret.