CELTIC FC has criticised an “irresponsible” joke by the DUP’s Gregory Campbell who likened the club’s match in Gibraltar on Tuesday with the killing of three IRA members in the British territory.
The East Derry MP compared the Glasgow club’s Champions League tie in Gibraltar with the controversial SAS killing of republicans Mairead Farrell (31), Sean Savage (23) and Daniel McCann (30) in 1988.
“Someone told me that Celtic are due to play on the 12th, in Gibraltar,” he wrote on Facebook.
“That info was OK but wasn’t sure what he meant when he hoped that it wouldn’t be like the last time Irish Republican sympathisers went to Gibraltar and lost.”
Celtic described the comments as “highly inappropriate and irresponsible and not worthy of further comment”.
As reported in The Irish News on Monday, Sinn Féin West Belfast MLA Pat Sheehan called for the DUP leadership to “rein in” the 63-year-old.
“He has a track record for making these sorts of comments and this one should be taken down immediately,” he said.
However, a DUP spokesman dismissed concerns about Mr Campbell’s comments.
The spokesman criticised The Irish News for not contacting the party or Mr Campbell to discuss the remarks he had made online.
“This story would appear to mark the start of ‘silly season’,” the spokesman said.
“It has been fuelled nearly entirely by manufactured outrage, compounded by the fact that the newspaper that initiated the story made no attempt to contact either Mr. Campbell or the party for comment.”
On Monday, Mr Campbell defended his comments and said he was making jokes about “dead terrorists”.
“The fact is an IRA gang went out to Gibraltar to kill members of the British army and when they were shot dead by the SAS, their devices, ammunitions and explosives were recovered,” he told The Nolan Show on BBC Radio Ulster.
“This was 28 years ago and you’d wonder why some would want to make an issue of it now then wouldn’t you?”
Mr Campbell has previously drawn criticism for describing Sinn Féin MLA Raymond McCartney as a “failed hunger striker” and for refusing to apologise for poking fun at the Irish language by saying “curry my yoghurt”.
