A popular U.S Tiktoker has apologised after posting a video describing an Orange Order march as an “Irish parade”.
Lizwizdom, who has over 80,000 followers on the social media platform, was in Co Donegal on Saturday when her vehicle was forced to wait at the side of the road as the annual Rossnowlagh Orange parade took place.
She posted a short video of herself smiling and bopping her head to the music as bandsmen in sashes passed, and captioned the clip “when you’re just trying to take a shortcut on your Ireland roadtrip but you end up in the middle of an Irish parade”.
TikToker tells Irish News: “It’s been a learning experience..”
If you can’t see the video below, click here.
@lizwizdom Can someone please tell me what kept me stuck here for 45 mins 🇮🇪
♬ original sound - LizWizdom
The Florida-based blogger, who posts travel videos and content about singer Taylor Swift, also asked in a post under the clip, which attracted over 800,000 views: “Can someone please tell me what kept me stuck here for 45 mins?”
In a follow-up video on Sunday, the influencer, whose real name is Liz White, referred to a deluge of comments her previous clip attracted, as users highlighted the political sensitivities around marching season.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t know this was a controversial thing,” she said.
“I thought I just stumbled upon a parade out in the Irish countryside. Turns out - major politically divisive situation going on. How was I to know?”
She explained she had been in Ireland to attend the recent Taylor Swift concert in Dublin and had been travelling from Sligo to Donegal when she “all of a sudden got stuck in stand-still traffic for 45 minutes because all of these shuttle buses are lined up on the side of the road and people just start pouring out by the hundreds.
@lizwizdom Replying to @Aidan Scott I just started watching Derry Girls in my defense
♬ original sound - LizWizdom
“And they’re playing their flutes, their whistles, their drums - they’re having a grand old time and I’m thinking, this is a quaint little parade, just like, you know, Americans, we had July 4th last week, we had parades - maybe they have something like that going on here.”
She added that Facebook groups on travelling in Ireland she was a member of “did not cover this”.
“So sorry about that. I’m going to do some googling, some research, some learning,” she said.
Thousands attended Saturday’s Rossnowlagh parade, which takes place annually on the Saturday before July 12 and is the biggest Orange parade in the Republic.
