{"id":626576,"date":"2026-09-16T16:16:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-16T16:16:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/626576\/"},"modified":"2026-09-16T16:16:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-16T16:16:12","slug":"irish-footballers-should-follow-lead-of-musicians-who-withdrew-from-sheeran-tour-says-td-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/626576\/","title":{"rendered":"Irish footballers should \u2018follow lead\u2019 of musicians who withdrew from Sheeran tour, says TD \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Irish footballers should \u201cfollow the lead\u201d of musicians withdrawing from Ed Sheeran\u2019s<\/a> US tour amid a controversy over criticism of Israel, a People Before Profit-Solidarity<\/a> (PBPS) TD has said.<\/p>\n

Dublin West TD Ruth Coppinger<\/a> also said to those players who \u201ctoe the line\u201d that \u201cit will be noted\u201d.<\/p>\n

Coppinger and PBPS TDs paid tribute to several acts who have pulled out of Sheeran\u2019s tour<\/a>, including Irish acts Aaron Rowe and Beoga, and Irish-American artist Finneas, at Leinster House on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

She drew a direct line between what she said were \u201csmall acts of solidarity\u201d and a \u201cdecision time for the (Irish football) players\u201d, who face off against Israel in nations league matches later this month. <\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I really think if the Irish players, who we have to appeal to at this stage because the FAI and the Government have been ignoring all of the campaigns, that next week it is really decision time for the players \u2013 and the whole country will get behind you, like they\u2019ve got behind these artists,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Coppinger said that Sheehan\u2019s decision to allow rapper Macklemore to be removed from the tour for making pro-Palestinian statements, which has led to the other acts withdrawing, was a \u201cpolitical decision\u201d which has backfired \u2013 with the musician now facing being \u201ccancelled\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d say to the Irish players to look at that as an example, if you try to just toe the line, play within the rules and think you can escape it, it will be noted \u2013 and I really would ask them to come out and follow the lead of these artists,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

PBPS leader Richard Boyd-Barrett also paid tribute to the decision, singling out Rowe, who is from his D\u00fan Laoghaire constituency. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Irish acts Aaron Rowe and Beoga quit Ed Sheeran\u2019s US tour in protest over PalestineOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Earlier, Labour finance spokesman Ged Nash said the artistic community in Ireland \u201chas been at one on genocide that\u2019s been perpetrated\u201d, saying Sheeran\u2019s position was \u201cextremely disappointing\u201d while also paying tribute to the artists who have withdrawn from the tour. <\/p>\n

Sinn F\u00e9in TD for Dublin Fingal West Louise O\u2019Reilly said there was a \u201cvery important lesson for the FAI\u201d in the withdrawals. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re getting huge support from artists here, from people from the general public. There\u2019s a lesson for the FAI to listen to what it is that people want. They want to stand against genocide. They want to stand on the side of the oppressed people of Palestine,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Irish footballers should \u201cfollow the lead\u201d of musicians withdrawing from Ed Sheeran\u2019s US tour amid a controversy over…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":626577,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,7038,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-626576","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-irish-politics","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/626576","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=626576"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/626576\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/626577"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=626576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=626576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=626576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}