{"id":564407,"date":"2026-07-23T15:01:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-23T15:01:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/564407\/"},"modified":"2026-07-23T15:01:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T15:01:11","slug":"orange-order-silent-on-bands-playing-of-controversial-tune-in-rossnowlagh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/564407\/","title":{"rendered":"Orange Order silent on band&#8217;s playing of controversial tune in Rossnowlagh"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Orange Order has refused to comment on suggestions that a band at the recent annual demonstration in Rossnowlagh played a tune that has been banned due to its racist associations.<\/p>\n<p>Footage seen by Donegal Daily shows a flute band, not from this county, playing the tune commonly known as &#8216;The Famine Song&#8217; during the annual parade in south Donegal, on July 11.<\/p>\n<p>Lyrics associated with &#8216;The Famine Song&#8217;, to the tune of the Beach Boys\u2019 Sloop John B, were previously ruled to be racist by a Scottish court.<\/p>\n<p>In 2015, 13 members of a loyalist band were convicted of provocative playing of The Famine Song outside a Catholic Church in Belfast with three defendants receiving five-month suspended sentences and the other 10 bound to the peace.<\/p>\n<p>Controversial lyrics include \u201cwell the famine is over, why don\u2019t they go home?\u201d and \u201cthey\u2019ve all their Papists in Rome\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>In 2024, the Grand Orange Lodge of Scotland banned the playing of both The Famine Song and The Billy Boys by bands.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Donegal Daily emailed the Orange Order, asking if it was aware of the footage, whether it had reviewed it and whether it considered the playing of the tune to be consistent with its standards and expectations for bands participating in the Rossnowlagh parade.<\/p>\n<p>We also asked whether the Orange Order on the island of Ireland has issued any guidance regarding the playing of tunes that have been criticised as sectarian or offensive, including &#8220;The Famine Song&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-sans font-semibold text-xl md:text-[30px] leading-9 text-primary w-full\">\n        You may also be interested in\n    <\/p>\n<p>            <a href=\"https:\/\/www.donegaldaily.com\/news\/dry-spell-to-end-on-saturday-as-rain-set-to-return-642935\" class=\"block w-2\/5 shrink-0\" aria-label=\"Dry spell to end on Saturday as rain set to return\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><\/p>\n<p>        <img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/dry-spell-to-end-on-saturday-as-rain-set-to-return.jpg\" class=\"max-w-full w-full h-full object-contain relative z-10\" width=\"150\" height=\"84\"  alt=\"Dry spell to end on Saturday as rain set to return\" \/><\/p>\n<p>            <\/a><\/p>\n<p>            <a href=\"https:\/\/www.donegaldaily.com\/news\/rory-gallagher-festival-rocks-on-with-major-rescue-gig-642927\" class=\"block w-2\/5 shrink-0\" aria-label=\"Rory Gallagher Festival rocks on with major rescue gig\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><\/p>\n<p>        <img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/rory-gallagher-festival-rocks-on-with-major-rescue-gig.jpg\" class=\"max-w-full w-full h-full object-contain relative z-10\" width=\"150\" height=\"84\"  alt=\"Rory Gallagher Festival rocks on with major rescue gig\" \/><\/p>\n<p>            <\/a><\/p>\n<p>We asked if the Orange Order intended to make any enquiries of the band or take any action in relation to the incident.<\/p>\n<p>The Orange Order did not respond to our queries.<\/p>\n<p>Thousands of people, including around 50 lodges attended the parade in Rossnowlagh. Orange lodges from Donegal, Cavan, Leitrim and Monaghan, as well as visiting Orangemen from Northern Ireland and further afield, took part.<\/p>\n<p>The Grand Master in Donegal, David Mahon, said there was a &#8216;carnival&#8217; type atmosphere on the day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Orange Order has refused to comment on suggestions that a band at the recent annual demonstration in&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":564408,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[93,61,60,238422],"class_list":["post-564407","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-orange-order-the-famine-song-in-rossnowlagh"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564407","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=564407"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564407\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/564408"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=564407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=564407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=564407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}