OUR story this week on BBCNI’s response to our questions about sectarian singing at a live match it broadcast on Saturday is not primarily a criticism of the Linfield fans guilty of the singing, although it is of course that too. It is first and foremost a criticism of the BBC, who annually set the dogs loose on Féile an Phobail over a Wolfe Tones song in the Falls Park, but turn a Nelsonian eye to a similarly divisive and contentious song it put out on its own platforms.
The BBC has refused to apologise for viewers being subjected to the notorious loyalist anthem The Billy Boys during its live coverage of the Linfield-Glentoran match at lunchtime on Saturday. It says, in classically non-committal words, that it regrets any offence that might have been caused but – weirdly – claims that no-one was aware that the song was being sung. Those who take the trouble to watch and listen back to the game might find themselves as puzzled as we are by the BBC’s failure to notice a great deal of people simultaneously singing “We’re up to our knees in Fenian blood, surrender or you’ll die.”
As mentioned in our story, dedicated sports broadcasters routinely apologise to viewers when vulgar or offensive language from fans comes over the microphones into their living rooms. The BBC, however, was conveniently spared the micro inconvenience of issuing an apology – contemporaneous or subsequent – by the fact of the corporation being possessed not only of the aforementioned Nelsonian eye, but of what we might now call a Van Goghian ear.
Nobody is naive enough to think that offensive words and songs won’t be heard during live transmissions of football matches. It goes with the territory. And in the normal run of things we’d be sympathetic to the BBC trying to balance coverage of local sport with the unpredictable behaviour of football fans – from both sides of the terrace aisle. But the BBC extends no such slack in August when the last night of Féile rolls around. Far from it. The phone-in feeding frenzy is brutal and it is lengthy, featuring coverage that presents an existential threat to Féile in terms of its funding and sponsorship, both of which are thrown into the mix by journalists, presenters, contributors, pundits and callers. One wonders how the BBC’s excitable phone-ins might react if Féile simply banged out a statement saying that they were “unaware” of the Wolfe Tones and their fans singing “Ooh, ah, up the Ra.” With incredulity, one suspects – but of course that incredulity will be absent from the airwaves because the BBC has decided that a song in West Belfast is an outrage while a song they themselves broadcast isn’t worth the slightest bit of attention.
It’s thought that last year’s Féile was the swansong of the Wolfe Tones in the Falls Park, although their West Belfast finale has been predicted on a few occasions now. But if they do play, we can be sure that BBCNI’s sight and hearing will be back in fine working order by August.
