John Delaney singing Joe McDonnell

[theticklemister]

let the people sing the stories and their songs
and the music of their native land
Their lullabies and battle cry and songs of hope and joy,
join us hand and hand

[ballinaman]

If we were all to be sacked for drinking too much and murdering a song.....

As I alluded to earlier, this is exactly the audience Delaney is trying to get on his side by the poor me attitude...

what did he do that was wrong?

Acting the complete gobshite when he's the CEO of one of 3 biggest sporting organisations in Ireland. If your a CEO on that much money you should never be off the clock. It's not about the song FFS, it's the context of the whole situation and his history of ineptness...le's look at the LOI, I presume you as a football supporter in Ireland know what's going on? Ya?

Ticketing fiasco for Scotland, 700 of the 3,200 allocation distributed how he wanted them to be...
Prize money less for winning the league than his yearly salary
Clubs on a yearly basis having to withdraw from the league due to financial constraints
Only 7 teams in the first division next year...7 TEAMS!
Calling it the problem child...and that's a quote
Clubs being fined for fans singing anything negative about what's going on
Very poor advertisement promotion of the league
Failing national underage teams and not rectifying the problem
Relying on England and the North to produce players ect....

I could go on....The song is just the tip of the ice berg lads...

Better for the GAA, give me a Tiocfaidh ar la

haha...a valid point, I'm a GAA man first and foremost but Mr. Delaney seriously grinds my gears.....as you might have guessed.

You hide it well! The fact the yella bastid tried to deny it was him. If he's going to apologise he shouldn't be singing Republican songs.

Boom. Great point

[charlieTully]

If we were all to be sacked for drinking too much and murdering a song.....

As I alluded to earlier, this is exactly the audience Delaney is trying to get on his side by the poor me attitude...

what did he do that was wrong?

Acting the complete gobshite when he's the CEO of one of 3 biggest sporting organisations in Ireland. If your a CEO on that much money you should never be off the clock. It's not about the song FFS, it's the context of the whole situation and his history of ineptness...le's look at the LOI, I presume you as a football supporter in Ireland know what's going on? Ya?

Ticketing fiasco for Scotland, 700 of the 3,200 allocation distributed how he wanted them to be...
Prize money less for winning the league than his yearly salary
Clubs on a yearly basis having to withdraw from the league due to financial constraints
Only 7 teams in the first division next year...7 TEAMS!
Calling it the problem child...and that's a quote
Clubs being fined for fans singing anything negative about what's going on
Very poor advertisement promotion of the league
Failing national underage teams and not rectifying the problem
Relying on England and the North to produce players ect....

I could go on....The song is just the tip of the ice berg lads...

ok, i accept your points especially that one in bold, im not au fait with soccer in the south, i just couldnt understand the fuss about the particular song.

[deiseach]

Only 7 teams in the first division next year...7 TEAMS!

Waterford United managed managed to finish behind Shamrock Rovers. Twice

[balladmaker]

Firstly, John Delaney is entitled to sing 'Joe McDonnell' if he so wishes.  It's a commemorative song about someone who gave his life for his beliefs.  Whether you agree with those beliefs or not is irrelevant, you cannot deny someone else the right to sing it.  If you don't agree with the sentiments of the song, then don't listen to the song and move on.

Secondly, JD must be spineless, firstly to have his people deny it was him, then to admit it was him and apologise, absolutely ridiculous.  Those who took offence at the song had the problem, not JD, so no apology was required.

Thirdly, agreed, he hasn't a note, if I'd a voice like that, I wouldn't be singing anything in public.

Finally, what annoys me the most is the default position in Ireland that it is considered wrong to sing an Irish song, or promote a view that is republican in nature.  We should not have to justify such actions as a default.  We live in a society of free speech, or I thought we did, so lets move on and get over non-stories like this.  I see two benefits from the recent coverage 1: Jim Boyce was annoyed 2: A great song got great coverage and airplay across numerous radio stations that wouldn't otherwise touch a so called 'rebel' song.

[rodney trotter]

Few gas clips of Delaney down the years http://www.independent.ie/sport/soccer/

[gallsman]

People attempting to turn this into "everyone's out to get John Delaney for being a republican, he should stand up for himself" are the real embarrassment here.

[trueblue1234]

People attempting to turn this into "everyone's out to get John Delaney for being a republican, he should stand up for himself" are the real embarrassment here.

Why?

[gallsman]

People attempting to turn this into "everyone's out to get John Delaney for being a republican, he should stand up for himself" are the real embarrassment here.

Why?

Because nobody's doing that. Attempting to construe this as an attack on, or shame over, whatever republican beliefs Delaney has misses the real point - he is a buffoon and a liability.

[trueblue1234]

You think the following articles aren't focusing on the content of the song?

https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/soccer/international/fai-silent-on-legal-threat-over-john-delaney-s-ira-ballad-1.2015054

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/nov/25/fai-john-delaney-apologises-singing-pro-republic-ballad

[gallsman]

Jesus Christ, neither article is about the content of the song. It's basically described as a republican ballad, which it is, albeit a f**king dreadful one, in both pieces and left at that.

The focus of the IT article is clearly about Delaney's legal improprieties and the second is about the embarrassment for Delaney given the context - English FA immediately condemning the songs at Celtic Park and England common coming to play in Dublin in June.

Not once, in either of those articles, is there an opinion that Delaney should be embarrassed or ashamed, simply for being a republican.

[trueblue1234]

We'll leave it at that then, because I don't see how you could read either article and think that the content of the song was not part of the problem. Even the headlines imply it.

[gallsman]

We'll leave it at that then, because I don't see how you could read either article and think that the content of the song was not part of the problem. Even the headlines imply it.

.

Of course they mention it - that's what provides the context. They haven't lambasted him for singing republican songs. They've lambasted him for singing republican songs while attempting to head up one of the largest sporting organisations on the island which is supposed to be playing host to England in six months and contrasted it with the reaction of the English FA in condemning their own fans.

The same ones on here with the "good on ye John boy" attitudes are the same ones who will (rightly) cry foul over the politicisation and militarisation of soccer and rugby in the UK, e.g. servicemen carrying flags, poppy observance etc. Hypocrisy.

[trueblue1234]

I agree that he's an idiot and would love to see him gone. But it's the nature of the song that is causing the problem here. Had he stood up and sang Taylor Swift's "Shake it out", then I doubt there would have been a paragraph in the article detailing the lyrics and the background of that song.
Therefore it becomes obvious that it is the song itself which is a problem. So if someone had strong republican leanings then I can understand why they would view an apology for singing the song as uncalled for. I certainly wouldn't be calling them an embarrassment for holding that view.

[gallsman]

I agree that he's an idiot and would love to see him gone. But it's the nature of the song that is causing the problem here. Had he stood up and sang Taylor Swift's "Shake it out", then I doubt there would have been a paragraph in the article detailing the lyrics and the background of that song.
Therefore it becomes obvious that it is the song itself which is a problem. So if someone had strong republican leanings then I can understand why they would view an apology for singing the song as uncalled for. I certainly wouldn't be calling them an embarrassment for holding that view.

I'd call them an embarrassment for failing to look beyond what they see through their republican tinted specs and look at it in the wider context.