ORGANISERS of Derry’s Gasyard Féile have invited Gregory Campbell to attend the event after he mocked a the community festival branding it a failure.
In a Facebook post on Tuesday the East Derry MP made a play on the Irish word Féile and poked fun saying: “The Gasyard failure should be a real bundle of laughs this year.”
He also ridiculed an exhibition of photographs focussing on the life of the late Sinn Féin politician Martin McGuinness who died in March and a discussion event featuring former MP George Galloway.
He posted: “First Marty’s photos (don’t know if there will be the obligatory warning at start in case those of a nervous disposition are viewing) then the serial election loser, George (the cat) Galloway.
“Roll up, roll up get your tickets please.”
The Féile takes place every Aguust in the Bogside and Brandywell areas features political, social and cultural discussion as well as musical and community events.
The Martin McGuinness exhibition has been curated by the McGuinness family and will feature photographs from his political activism, including some previously unseen pictures from the family’s private collection.
It is not the first time Mr Campbell has mocked the Irish language. In 2014 he was barred from addressing the Assembly for a day for failing to apologise for an Irish language parody.
A row developed after he began his address to the assembly with: "Curry my yoghurt can coca coalyer".
The Irish sentence "go raibh maith agat, Ceann Comhairle" translates as "thank you, Speaker" and is used by nationalist MLAs in the chamber.
Organisers of the Gasyard Féile said they were disappointed with Mr Campbell’s approach.
Manager of the Gasyard Centre, Linda McKinney described the comments as "immature".
“During Gregory’s time as culture minister, he very much supported us and, in fact, he has been one of our speakers in the past. I think Gregory needs to get over himself and he needs to get over his attitude in terms of Catholic, Protestant, republican, unionist,” she said.
Ms McKinney said the Féile was honoured that the McGuinness family had decided to curate the exhibition during their festival.
“If Gregory could look at Martin’s life and learn from it, it would go a long way to making him a more tolerant person,” she said.
Ms McKinney extended “an open invitation” to Mr Campbell to attend Féile events.
Sinn Fein assembly member, Raymond McCartney also hit out the remarks describing them as “crass, offensive and completely lacking in respect.”
“Sadly, this is not the first time Gregory Campbell has insulted the Irish language community with his offensive anti-Irish mockery," he said.
“His arrogant and ill-informed comments are ironic as the Féile also includes an event with Linda Ervine looking at the relationship between the Irish language and the Protestant, unionist and loyalist communities."
