A Sinn Féin TD who was succesfully re-elected following Ireland's General Election this weekend has had his victory marred after being caught on camera shouting 'tiocfaidh ár lá' and 'up the Ra'.
Waterford man David Cullinane, who has been a Teachta Dála since 2016, was celebrating the Sinn Féin Surge at a pub in Waterford on Sunday and was recorded making the comments at the end of his speech.
In the video, Mr Cullinane can be heard shouting "They'll never break us, they'll never break Sinn Féin, and what I'm saying is up the Republic, up the Ra and tiochfaidh ár lá (our day will come)".
The video caused controversy as it spread across social media and was reported in the news, and the next day David Cullinane appeared alongside Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald where he spoke to the press in defense of his comments.
He argued that the short clip did not include the context of his speech and what had happened in the lead-up to his use of the phrase.
He shouted the phrase, he said, because he was using it in the context of remembering the constituents who partook in the hunger strikes in the 1980s, and that he made the comment with reference to the past rather than celebrating the result at the weekend.
David Cullinane addresses media in Dublin after a video of him shouting “Up The Ra, tiochfaidh ár lá” emerged on social media. Says he was “emotional” at the time and was referring to the past not the future when he made the comments. #GE2020 pic.twitter.com/FTedhtQdPB
— Conor McCrave (@Conor_McCrave) February 10, 2020
"It was reflecting back on that time in Irish history that I'm proud of, and those hunger strikers," he said, adding that the excitement of the night in general may have had something to do with it.
The comments are not a reflection of the future, he said.
"The IRA is gone as everybody knows, and I celebrate that the same as anybody else."
Speaking at the same media briefing, Mary Lou McDonald said she had warned her party not to make "throwaway comments, or comments that could be misconstrued or distract us from the work ahead".
But, she said, "I'm not their mammy.
"I don't censor them either. We're all adutls and I do expect them to behave in an adult way."
