Readers' Blog: ‘IRA song’ inappropriate for hurlers’ celebration

The winning of the All-Ireland hurling final by Limerick was joyous. But it is likely that the occasion was spoiled by repeated singing of ‘Sean South of Garryowen’, a song associated with IRA violence. No thought was given to the feelings of those very many people, in all parts of Ireland, who have been victims of such violence, or whose family have. In Limerick especially, where Detective Garda Jerry McCabe was murdered by the IRA in 1996, the singing of this song was inappropriate.

Lest we forget, in addition to the 3,500 people killed in Northern Ireland during the Troubles, people were also killed in the Republic of Ireland, including Pte Patrick Kelly and Garda Gary Sheehan, during the Don Tidey kidnapping in 1983, and a Protestant member of the