A member of a loyalist flute band that marched through the grounds of Liverpool Football Club while playing sectarian music has called the incident “an absolute disgrace”.
Last Friday the Glendermott Valley Flute Band, from the Tullyally area near Derry, marched through the gates of Anfield while playing an instrumental version of ‘The Billy Boys.’
The song has been banned at Scottish football matches and at Linfield games in Northern Ireland, being widely known for a version with the lyrics “up to our knees in fenian blood”.
Sources at Liverpool Football Club have confirmed that no permission was sought for the march and that the club continues to look into the matter.
While identifying himself to the Irish News, the band member asked to remain anonymous and said he was deeply embarrassed by the sectarian nature of the incident.
“I was with the band on Friday night and it never even crossed my mind that we weren’t invited,” he said.
“Whenever we were in the area, I pulled out and sat down because I thought ‘there’s something funny about this’.
“They were playing the Billy Boys and I was disgusted by the whole thing.
“Not everyone in the band is responsible for that. It’s scandalous, it’s an absolute disgrace what they did.”
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While the Apprentice Boys of Derry host events in Liverpool, the organisation had previously confirmed they were not formally associated with the Glendermott band and had nothing to do with the decision to parade through Anfield.
He continued: “You don’t walk into somebody’s living room if you’re not invited or don’t ask. I know it’s a public area, but Anfield is like the colosseum in Rome, that’s what it felt like to me.
“It was done for one reason and one reason only and that was to put it to the Catholics of Liverpool.”
Part of the band for several years, he said online suggestions that the band was linked to paramilitaries was not true.
“If you want to know a terrorist-linked band there’ll be flags at the front with things like UVF, UFF or Red Hand Commando,” he said.
“Then you’ll know they’re linked, because they have to ask for permission to carry them.
“If you look at the Glendermott flags it’s just a union flag and the banner.”
He said the group mainly plays tunes associated with the Ulster Volunteer Force during World War One, but admitted there were offensive elements.
“There’s only one modern UVF song played in the band. It’s actually known, and you’ll have to excuse my expression here, as a ‘Kick the Pope band.’
“Blood and thunder, that’s what it’s known as. It’s called that for a bit of craic to be honest with you even though I know it’s very derogatory towards the Pope.
“But it’s always been called that, those type of bands.”
Wanting to speak out as an “ordinary loyalist in Glendermott and Tullyvally area,” he said: “They definitely need called out. I just want to be clear that (it’s) not everyone in the band ... the Apprentice Boys did not sanction it in any way, shape or form.”
Earlier this week, a Catholic member of an official Liverpool supporters club in Derry told the Irish News the march felt like a deliberate attempt to antagonise the club’s large Irish fanbase.
Addressing him, the Glendermott member said: “I’d like him to know that my late father was a lifelong Liverpool supporter and he’d be turning in his grave if he knew that we were marching on what he would have seen as sacred ground.
“He loved that team. This is why it’s so embarrassing for me.
“The police have been involved as well as there was a bit of hate sent to us via email.
“I’m very well known in loyalist circles here. It’s very dangerous for me to be speaking like this but I had to say something.”
By Thursday morning, he added that he had just been informed by police that a credible threat had been made against him by a paramilitary organisation but that he was still determined to speak out.
A police spokesperson said that a report was received on Wednesday “in relation to abusive messages” and that enquiries were ongoing.
Regarding the complaint of a paramilitary threat, they added: “We do not discuss the security of individuals and no inference should be drawn from this. However, we want to reassure the public that we will take the appropriate action when made aware of anything that may put an individual at risk.”
Glendermott Valley Flute Band has been contacted for a response.
