A FORMER loyalist leader has described the sectarian Famine Song notoriously played by bandsmen outside a Catholic church in Belfast as "disgraceful".
Brian Ervine said there was "ignorance abounding" in unionist communities about the Famine, and those who sing the sectarian tune do not realise they are insulting "their own forebearers".
Loyalist bandsmen caused outrage in 2012 when they were filmed walking in circles while playing the tune outside St Patrick's Church in Belfast.
The Twelfth of July incident on Donegall Street involving the Shankill Road-based Young Conway Volunteers created a new flashpoint for trouble during the parading season.
Mr Ervine, pictured, a former Progressive Unionist Party (PUP) leader, spoke yesterday after attending the launch of Belfast's new cross-community project on the Great Famine.
The 63-year-old from east Belfast, who is married to Irish language advocate Linda Ervine, said he hoped the project would debunk the "myth" that only Catholic nationalists suffered during the Famine.
"There is ignorance abounding especially among unionist communities about the Famine - everyone suffered because of the Famine," he said. "People who sing the disgraceful Famine Song are really singing about their own forebearers. "The people who sing the Famine Song in order to goad their traditional enemies, the facts are they are singing about their forebearers. "It was a joint suffering and a shared history in the same way that the Irish language was a shared language before it was politicised." Mr Ervine, whose brother was former PUP leader David Ervine, said the famine had been used as a "political football" by both nationalists and unionists. "The myth is that it was mainly Roman Catholic people who were nationalist-minded who suffered due to the Famine - well that's nonsense," he said. "There were thousands of Protestants and Presbyterians who suffered."