Rebels urged to ditch Confederate flag at matches

An African-American singer who has lived in Cork for more than 17 years has urged the Rebel County’s GAA fans to stop flying the Confederate flag at football and hurling matches.

Karen Underwood’s appeal comes as debate continues in the US over the use of the flag.

Dylann Roof, a 21-year-old white man charged with murdering nine black people at a shooting in a South Carolina church, had posed online with a Confederate flag.

At home, GAA president Aogán Ó Fearghail said he is not comfortable with Cork fans flying the flag.

Ms Underwood told 96fm’s Opinion Line programme that she does not believe the Cork fans who fly the flag are racist, but that it still has connotations with the US Civil War and racism in America since the civil rights era of the 1960s.

“The people who are carrying that flag, no doubt, are not carrying it for the same reason,” Ms Underwood told 96fm presenter PJ Coogan.

“But it still does not take away from the meaning that a white supremacist walked into a church just last month, never mind what it meant after the Civil War, never mind what it meant in 1964 and the bringing down of Jim Crow laws in America, but on the 18th of June in America, there was nine black people killed in a church of worship because they are black. That’s what it means today.”

Ms Underwood said use of the Confederate flag reminded her of her own childhood experiences of racism.

“When I see that flag going up it means, once again, I’m wiping the spit off my face at 13,” she said.

“The flag of the swastika, which supported the annihilation of over 6m Jews, is a Hindu flag. So can I put that up outside my house because I really believe in Hindu values?”

“Because although the flag represents so many wonderful things for the Rebel County, for the southern states of America, for a lot of good people of the southern states of America, it also is inclusive of slavery, of King Cotton, of Jim Crow laws, of nine people being killed in South Carolina, and of four little black girls going to church in Birmingham, Alabama, being killed because someone believes black is inferior.

“If you want to fly a flag, make up a beautiful red and white flag to represent the beauty of Cork City, because Cork City has accepted me 100% since the day I arrived here in 1997,” she said.