Ahern says young people need to be taught about the Troubles after Wolfe Tones crowd chant

The Wolfe Tones drew thousands of concertgoers to the Electric Arena over the weekend — one of the biggest crowd ever seen at the arena in its 18-year history. Photo: Debbie Hickey/Getty Images

Former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern has said younger people need to be educated around the Troubles, the North and what people "lived through for 30 years" after thousands sang "Oh, ah, up the RA' at the Wolfe Tones concert at Electric Picnic.

The crowd sang the words while the band was performing its song Celtic Symphony. The Wolfe Tones drew thousands of concertgoers to the Electric Arena over the weekend — one of the biggest crowd ever seen at the arena in its 18-year history. 

Mr Ahern said he believes concerns around whether we should worry about younger generations singing "rebel songs" has been "overblown". He said younger people do need to be educated on the events that happened from the late 1960s until 1998, when the Good Friday Agreement was signed. 

"If you tell young people at a concert to not do something, well you can be fairly sure that they will do the opposite — they will only rebel," Mr Ahern told the Claire Byrne Show on RTÉ.  "I think the way of handling this is to try and educate the rising population and I say that in a kind way.

"They were not around, so how would they know. But educating what the Troubles were about, about the huge amount of killings, bombings and murder and mayhem, economic damage, people having to emigrate, that families broke up, that's what people need to understand."

Mr Ahern added that it can be "glorifying" to sing those songs, but that there are "horrendous" songs on both sides. "So I think, let us try and educate the rising population of what we just lived through for 30 years in this country," he said. 

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Mr Ahern also said it is important to "talk about informing people instead of banning things".

The Wolfe Tones have come under criticism in the past for pro-IRA chants from fans attending their gigs. Earlier in August, unionists condemned the singing of the chant during a Wolfe Tones performance on the final night of the Féile An Phobail festival that took place in Belfast. 

Democratic Unionist Party MLA, Emma Little-Pengelly, said the chanting at the event was the “shame of Belfast”.