A SINN FÉIN TD has said that an apology from former leader Gerry Adams over a controversial Christmas sketch “would be helpful”.
There has been condemnation of the video by victims of the Provisional IRA, after Adams took part in a Christmas sketch where he visits a household as a Christmas carol singer, with the homeowner repeating a slogan first used by Adams in relation to the Provisional IRA in 1995.
“They haven’t gone away you know,” said the homeowner in the sketch, which has since been taken down.
The company that created the sketch, Ferry Clever, as part of a fundraising campaign for Foyle Search and Rescue have apologised and said that they had no intention to offend anyone. They have also stopped selling Christmas cards that accompanied the sketch.
Speaking to WLR FM in Waterford, Sinn Féin’s Eoin Ó Broin said that he doesn’t believe Adams intended to cause hurt or offence, but that an apology would be helpful.
“I don’t believe for a second that Gerry either intended to cause hurt or offence to anybody, I really don’t. Given the fact that offence has been caused, I think for him to apologise for the offence that has been caused would be helpful,” said Ó Broin.
“I think if any of us say anything, even if unintentionally it causes hurt, I think we should apologise for it.”
Ó Broin said that he understood the trauma of the past and that Sinn Féin would work towards ensuring a better future.
“I’m acutely aware that the past happened. There is nothing that I can do t0 undo the hurt, pain, trauma, that Republicans – including people that I have worked with directly, very closely for years – have caused.
“What I can do and David Cullinane and our generation of republicans can is, one, make sure that we never have a return to conflict ever again, and two, we all do everything we can to build as peaceful and as united a future as possible.
“Will we make mistakes along the way, yes we will. I’m a long-standing believer, if you make a mistake, hold your hands up, apologise and learn from the mistake.”
Previously, Cullinane had been at the centre of a controversy following his election in 2020, where he shouted “up the Ra” during an address to supporters.
In a tweet after the video was first published, Ann Travers, the sister of Provisional IRA victim Mary Travers said that “anybody who thinks this [the sketch] is funny lacks emotional intelligence”.
Within the sketch, Adams also sings “Tis’ the season to be jolly, tiocfaidh ar lá, lá, lá, lá”. Asked about that part of the sketch, Ó Broin said that while Republicans must be careful with their language, they do not have to completely stop using language from the past.
“Tiocfaidh ar la is a political slogan. It means our day will come. For republicans like me, when that phrase is said, it means our day will come in terms of a United Ireland,” said Ó Broin.
“I don’t have a problem with it being used, but what I am saying to you is as we are navigating our way out of conflict – through conflict resolution – hopefully to a united and agreed Ireland, all of us have to be very mindful of the language that we use.
“That doesn’t mean that we have to stop using all of the language of the past.”
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