Séamas O'Reilly: 'Celtic Symphony' detractors could do with thinking harder about their outrage

"The ‘Up The RA’ bit makes me cringe, mainly because it’s a tuneless football chant stuck in the middle of a song — a big shout, in every sense — which, to my ears, sounds awful."

Brian Warfield, Noel Nagle and Tommy Byrne of The Wolfe Tones perform at Electric Picnic Festival 2023 at Stradbally Estate on September 03, 2023, in Stradbally, Ireland. Pic: Debbie Hickey/Getty

It seems like only last year that we were doing Wolfe Tones discourse, because it was. 

This time it’s the record-breaking turnout for the band at Electric Picnic, but last Autumn it was the Irish Women’s Football squad, who sang the band’s 1987 song ‘Celtic Symphony’ in the team dressing room, unleashing a din of condemnation that almost overshadowed their achievement in qualifying for their first ever world cup.