Crowe apologises over ‘off the cuff’ remarks about British Army in Ireland

By Cillian Sherlock, PA

A Fianna Fáil TD has apologised for saying the British armed forces never shot civilians in Ireland.

Cathal Crowe said he the remarks were “off the cuff” and that he would use better prepared speaking notes in the future.

He apologised to victims of British State atrocities and those who cared about Irish history.

Mr Crowe, who studied history in college and taught the subject in school, initially made the remarks during a session in the Dail that was focused on the conflict in Gaza.

He was drawing a comparison to Israel’s response to the October 7th attack by Hamas with the actions of the British state in Ireland.

Speaking on Wednesday, he said: “The October 7th terror attacks on Israel are to be condemned outright but the eye-for-an-eye approach adopted by the Israeli state since has been indefensible.

“The bombing of hospitals, schools, tents and the killing of children and babies, including newborn babies in hospitals, is reprehensible.

“It is the worst we have seen in our lifetime. What is happening is not a war anymore; it is ethnic cleansing, genocide and more recently, there has been the weaponising of food.

“The British Army were bad actors on this island for many centuries but even in the worst of days, when their cities were being bombed by the terror organisations of the IRA, they never retaliated by bombing and shooting the civilian population of Ireland.”

On Thursday, he apologised for the remarks and said he was speaking without a scripted speech.

“I wish to clarify a speech I made yesterday in the Dail, correct the Dail record and also apologise profusely to anyone who may have been offended by my comments.

“The speech I made was during the debate this House had on Gaza. I was speaking without a scripted speech and instead using a series of bullet points.”

He added: “I then wanted to make the point that brutal, bad and all as the British armed forces have been on this island for a very long time, they never resorted to sending over the Royal Air Force, tanks and missiles to pummel Irish cities.

“I wanted to convey the magnitude and the visceral hatred which has been behind the Israel Defence Forces’ actions in Gaza. I also wanted to convey the huge disproportionality the Israeli state adopted following the reprehensible Hamas attack on October 7th, 2023.

“Regrettably, speaking largely off the cuff, I clumsily and wrongly stated, they ‘never retaliated by bombing or shooting the civilian population of Ireland’.

Mr Crowe said it was not his intention to have said that.

He said: “I did not realise how woeful all of that sounded until late last night when I received the transcript of what I actually said.

“It was a genuine slip-up on my part but it was wrong. I wish to unequivocally and profusely apologise today.”

He added: “I know that the British armed forces have been involved in many heinous attacks on Irish people historically: Bloody Sunday in Croke Park in 1920, the massacre of 26 civilians in Derry’s Bogside in 1972 and the countless other actions in recent history and further back for which they are responsible.”

He said his own family “suffered at the hands of British military” in the past.