Wolfe Tones singer Brian Warfield has said people who like a song should be able to sing it, amid new criticism of one of their hits.
A live report on BBC Newsline was cut short during the week due to some children in the background chanting ‘Oh ah up the Ra’.
The report was being broadcast to Northern Ireland from Dublin during the homecoming celebrations for Ireland's Olympic team.
The lines are from the song 'Celtic Symphony', which is one of the band’s most famous rebel songs and has come in for criticism before.
The lines refer to graffiti that Warfield saw in Glasgow back in the 1970s.
Warfield told Newstalk Breakfast trying to silence the song amounts to censorship.
"We've been campaigning for years to let the people sing," he said.
"It's one of the songs I wrote back in the early '70s and it's about the way people want to control what people sing and the way they sing it.
"Censorship has gone on in this country for years and years and it continued on with the music on the radio and The Wolfe Tones were the victims of that.
"For young children who like a song, to sing it is not a problem - they don't mean anything by it."
'Taylor Swift, The Wolfe Tones or Kylie Minogue'
Warfield said people should be able to sing what they want.
"They're not going to go up and injure anybody; if anything they were more injured by the Troubles than anybody else.
"I think they're expressing something that they like and something that they feel they want to sing.
"It doesn't matter whether it's Taylor Swift, The Wolfe Tones or Kylie Minogue: if you want to sing a song sing it.
"Nobody should stop you, there shouldn't be censorship in music".
'It doesn't matter whether it's Taylor Swift, The Wolfe Tones or Kylie Minogue, if you want to sing a song, sing it, and nobody should stop you.'
Brian Warfield reacts to complaints made to the BBC regarding young people heard singing 'Oh ah up the 'RA' during the Olympic… pic.twitter.com/sBjRGgeXau
— NewstalkFM (@NewstalkFM) August 16, 2024
Asked if the band would ever remove or change the lyrics, he said: "We move on but I don't think the people that complain about The Wolfe Tones have ever moved on".
The Wolfe Tones will play the main stage at Electric Picnic on Sunday following record crowds at their show there last year.
Warfield said no one foresaw the popularity of their set in 2023.
"I think everybody was knocked out with the whole response," he said.
Crowds attend the Wolfe Tones at Electric Picnic in 2023. Image: Electric Picnic"People didn't realise that The Wolfe Tones were that popular but I think it was a wake-up call for a lot of people.
"[We're playing] the big stage this year and we're really looking forward to it".
'The Wolfe Tones were hidden away'
Warfield said he thinks the band has benefitted from trying to be silenced.
"Since [former Minister] Conor Cruise O'Brien brought in the Section 31 [broadcasting ban] when he mentioned the fact that he didn't want any Wolfe Tone songs on radio; he scared people away from playing The Wolfe Tones," he said.
"The Wolfe Tones were basically hidden away for years - we'd loads of new songs and records but people get a chance to really hear them.
"The difference was made when the internet came around and people could latch on to The Wolfe Tones and choose what they want to hear.
"I think from then on The Wolfe Tones built a huge following".
Warfield said he believes there's a lot behind their popularity.
"Still today I think the young people grab on to The Wolfe Tones, they like the story of Ireland, they like the way we tell it," he said.
"They like the melodies and they like the energy that's in our performance," he added.
The band will play the main stage at Electric Picnic on Sunday from 5.30pm.
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