You do wonder about the mentality of anyone who decides to sit down to write a song mocking the murder of a young school teacher on her Honeymoon. You do also wonder about the mentality of a crowd who consider it worthy material for a sing-song.
Here are the lyrics, sung to the tune of Mickey Marleys Roundabout:
“She went to her room to get a wee treat
Something **** strangers she did meet
They hammered & they hammered & they bate her about
John mcarevey never gave her a shout.
Roun &round&up&down
Through the streets of ballygawley town”
Charming eh? Just when you think people can not sink any lower they go and take the bar down a few notches more.
Thankfully the video has been met with universal condemnation from all sides and the Orange Order has said they are investigating it.
Sectarianism is the cancer in our society that does not seem to be going away anytime soon. While there are structural changes we need to make in our society I think at an individual level we could all be doing more to call out these things when we see them. Was there really no one in that hall who might have thought this was really not on? And at the next party or football match will good people call out songs like this?
I help to manage Slugger by taking care of the site as well as running our live events. My background is in business, marketing and IT. My politics tend towards middle-of-the-road pragmatism, I am not a member of any political party. Oddly for a member of the Slugger team, I am not that interested in daily politics, preferring to write about big ideas in society. When not stuck in front of a screen, I am a parkrun Run Director.
