Veterans and victims have reacted with outrage and dismay after former Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams featured in an allegedly “light-hearted” video singing a slogan associated with the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) terror organisation.
In the advert commissioned by card company ‘Ferry Clever’, Adams sings “tiocfaidh ár lá” to the tune of Christmas carol Deck the Halls.
Tiocfaidh ár lá is Irish for “our day will come” and was a slogan associated with the Irish Republican Army, a proscribed terrorist organisation in both the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland, where it was known to murder Gardai (Irish police officers).
In the video, a man Adams sings to hands him money and ends the clip saying “they haven’t gone away, you know,” winking at the camera.
The Provisional IRA killed more than 1,700 people, including women and children, during a 25-year terror campaign.
Speaking exclusively to Breitbart London, Jim Verner — who said he had friends killed by the IRA and was a witness to a major bombing — branded Adams’ video “disgusting”.
“These phrases are steeped in the traditions of Provisional IRA terrorism that murdered men, women and children from both Protestant and Roman Catholic communities. To use Christmas as a gimmick with the PIRA’s war cry is totally sick and is not a joke because they [the IRA] have not gone away, there has still been over four hundred murders in so-called peacetime.”
Gerry Adams has repeatedly denied that he was in the IRA, contrary to claims from alleged former colleagues.
IRA victim Mr Verner said in his remarks to Breitbart London: “I feel physically sick by these disrespectful videos, having been on the receiving end of PIRA terror when they murdered nine innocent people on the Shankill Road in what is known throughout the World as the Shankill Bomb.”
Reflecting on Adams’ ‘joke’ Christmas video, Verner remarked: “What might be funny to him is not funny to all the families of the dead, the man has no humanity whatsoever.”
In response to calls for an apology for the clip, Michelle O’Neill — a vice president of Sinn Féin — has said the advert was a “light-hearted” skit to support charity and “enough” had been said about it.
Speaking to the BBC, troubles victim Ann Travers, whose sister was murdered by the IRA, said of the video: “Anybody who thinks this is funny lacks emotional intelligence.”
IRA victim and military veteran John Radley also spoke to Breitbart about the Adams video, saying: “Raising money for charity is a laudable cause, however making fun of people who have been murdered maimed and injured and making fun of families who have lost loved ones at the hands of the IRA is not laudable, it’s laughable.
“As a member of the British Forces that has had his life ruined by the IRA, it is a matter of great pity to me that the leader of Sinn Féin feels it appropriate to strike at the very heart of the dead and wounded.”
Radley was blown up and maimed by the IRA in 1981 when he was just 21-years-old outside of Chelsea Barracks when a bus full of British soldiers was targeted by the IRA.
Two civilians, John Breslin, 18, and Nora Field, 59 were killed in the Barracks blast, and 40 others were injured including 23 soldiers.
Former soldier Mr Radley suffered devastating injuries from the attack. One six-inch nail from the bomb passed through his neck down into his back, and a second struck him in the forehead. He has lost the sight in one eye, the hearing in one ear and sustained serious injuries to his left hand.
Forty years later Radley has PTSD from the attack and is receiving ongoing medical treatment.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.