Victims of Provisional IRA violence have condemned Gerry Adams for a Christmas comedy sketch in which he sings, “Tis the season to be jolly, tiocfaidh ar lá, lá, lá, lá”.
The video, which has been widely condemned, has also been turned into a Christmas card with the greeting on the front and the greeting “have a Gerry Christmas”.
In the video, Mr Adams visits a house as a carol singer and the houseowner repeats the slogan that Mr Adams first said in August 1995 in relation to the Provisional IRA: “They haven’t gone away you know”.
Ann Travers, whose sister Mary (22) was shot dead by IRA gunmen in 1984, said that anybody who “thinks this is funny lacks emotional intelligence”.
“She [Mary Travers] never got to celebrate any further Christmases and it was never the same for us just like thousands of other families,” she tweeted.
The sketch was created by online greeting cards company Ferry Clever to raise money for Foyle Search and Rescue.
Troubles victims’ campaigner Kenny Donaldson said it was not credible for the charity “to claim ignorance around the response this carefully choreographed video would have upon innocent victims of Provisional IRA terrorism”.
Mr Donaldson added: “Many know all too well that the Provisional IRA have not gone away, that they continue to have involvement in criminal-based activities ... they continue to exercise control upon Sinn Féin’s ‘political’ policy. (as confirmed by both the PSNI Chief Constable and Garda Commissioner)”.
He said the video attempts to “downplay terrorism and the evils to which the Provisional Republican Movement were responsible for.
“The rewrite campaign is in action at all levels of our society and people need to waken up and understand it for what it is.”
On his Twitter account Sinn Féin Senator Niall Ó Donnghaile posted a photograph of Mr Adams handing him a Christmas present from three years ago. He tweeted: “Listen. The man just loves an Nollaig. Sin é.”
On its Facebook page, Ferry Clever said: “Now ... That was sommmme craic ?????? Thanks again to Gerry Adams for taking part, all abita craic... Our mission will always stay the same ... Try our best to put smiles on faces and create LOL’s ??”
The Irish Times has sought responses from Mr Adams and from Ferry Clever.
