A NON-OFFICIAL Facebook page for members of the US military has taken down a video of a US Army soldier singing an Irish rebel song because of its associations with the IRA.
The title of the video says it was filmed in Afghanistan and the footage shows the soldier singing Go On Home British Soldiers, a rebel song written by Tommy Skelly and recorded by the Wolfe Tones and Eire Óg.
The short clip shows the US soldier singing the opening verse of the song:
Go on home British soldiers, go on home. Have you got no f****g homes of your own. For 800 years we’ve fought you without fear. And we’ll fight you for 800 more.
Forces TV, a news channel for members of the UK armed forces, says the clip was posted to the Facebook page U.S Army W.T.F! Moments before it was later removed.
Forces TV says that it contacted both the Pentagon and the administrator of the Facebook page for a comment.
They received no comment from the Pentagon but Facebook page U.S Army W.T.F! Moments explained why they removed the video:
It was brought to our attention that this song was actually… in support of Irish rebel forces from the 1960s, specifically the Irish Republican Army. Our page refrains from political matters so we decided it was in the best interest of our Facebook community to remove the video.
Irish language news website Tuairisc.ie says that it has identified the soldier in the video as Brooklyn native Séamus Ó Fianghusa who is known to his friends ‘Séamus na Gaeilge’.
The soldier, who was born to an Irish father and Korean mother and has previously been on TG4, started learning Irish ten years ago online and has spent time in the Donegal Gaeltacht.
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