People divided as Wolfe Tone revellers chant 'Up The Ra' at Electric Picnic

Revellers chanting 'Ooh, Ah, Up The Ra' during the Wolfe Tones gig at Electric Picnic at the weekend has divided the nation with some suggesting they were 'romanticising' the IRA and the Troubles.

The Irish rebel band attracted the largest crowd ever at the Electric Arena at the festival in Co Laois with many saying the venue wasn't big enough.

Thousands of mostly young revellers wedged into the tent to sing along with the band's Irish rebel anthems, including Celtic Symphony which contains the infamous 'Ooh, Ah, Up The Ra' chant. The large crowd loudly belted out the chant along with Wolfe Tones frontman and writer of the track, Brian Warfield.

Clips of the performances have now gone viral on social media but have attracted some backlash with Newstalk Breakfast hosts Shane Coleman and Ciara Kelly suggesting the song and revellers run the risk of 'romanticising' the IRA and the Troubles.

"I think there is now a mythology about the Troubles and the 25 years from 1969 to 1994 that it was a kind of a glorious war," Coleman said.

"I think people who were at that gig yesterday are too young – they weren't even born when it happened, and they're too young to remember that it was horrible and it was ugly."

"You can say it's harmless singing these songs, but it makes me nervous," he added.

Ciara Kelly added: "It has become sort of folk legend or something and there is a romanticised notion of rebels and rebellions.

"I'm not sure that they differentiate between the provisional IRA and the old IRA and all the things that maybe we did because that was where we were from."

"I grew up as a small child in the 70s, and everything on TV was about World War Two," she said.

"I thought it was ancient history. It could have been the 1700s for all I realised.

"It had ended 26 years before I was born, so it ended in the equivalent of 1997. That's what it is for kids now."

In reply to the Newstalk hosts, Irish Times reporter Conor Lally offered a different view and said: "Not sure people are "romanticising the Troubles" by singing 'Up the Ra' with the Wolfe Tones. It's an anti-establishment thing at this stage, a backlash against the tut-tutting about the lyrics."

Another user on X, formerly Twitter, said it was "embarrassing stuff to have this in Ireland."

He added: The Wolfe Tones on the ticket turned a lot of people off @electricpicnic this year.

A second person said: "These disgraceful old codgers still belting out sectarian lines is one thing. The enthusiasm of the young crowd singing ‘Up the ‘Ra’ is incredibly depressing."

Another said: "Twitter is really over analysing the Wolfe Tones performance at EP. The vast majority of people I know who went to see them didn’t have some hidden political agenda, they went for the Craic… Most of them wouldn’t vote SF in a month of Sundays."

While a fourth pondered: "Seriously??? We were singing to the Wolfe Tones years ago and no panic, get over yourselves, its only music!"