Pro-IRA chants by Derry City fans slammed by MLA

Footage of last week's incident

A video of Derry City fans’ pro-IRA chants in a pub after the team’s European qualifier match last week is like “sticking two fingers up” at the families of the terror group’s victims, an MLA has said.

The footage shows fans celebrating after the team drew with HB Torshavn in the first leg of the Europa Conference League qualifier on Thursday evening.

Watch: Pro-IRA chants by Derry City fans slammed by MLA

Shared on social media, the clip shows fans singing in a pub in the city while towards the end of the footage, the tune changes into chants of “IRA”.

Ulster Unionist councillor Darren Guy hit out at the footage.

“I, like many other football fans across our city, wished Derry City Football Club well on this year’s European adventure, knowing that qualification just doesn’t mean a lift for Derry City fans but a lift for the city’s economy as a whole,” he said.

“However, last Thursday evening, after Derry City fans watched the match in a local bar, many fans can be seen in the video joining in on a song with chants of ‘IRA’.

“Such actions by those involved does nothing more than cause division by sticking two fingers up at those who have had family members brutally murdered and maimed by those criminals who cowardly hid their faces and executed their murderous sectarian campaign in our own city and beyond.”

Foyle MLA Gary Middleton said: “Those engaging in this type of sectarian chanting are a symptom of a wider problem of IRA glorification and continued attempts to sanitise their actions.

“It is also due to a failure of leadership, most notably when claiming that there was ‘no alternative’ to IRA terrorism.”

Mr Middleton appeared to be referring to comments by Sinn Fein’s Stormont leader