Minnesota United Football Club issues grovelling apology after using 'divisive expression' linked to the IRA in a tweet about an upcoming match

The Minnesota United FC has issued a grovelling apology after using a 'divisive expression' linked to the IRA in a tweet about an upcoming match.

The American football club posted about an upcoming match against St Patrick's Athletic FC, including the phrase 'tiocfaidh ár lá' which is Irish for 'our day will come'.

The Twin Cities in which Minnesota FC is based have a long history of Irish heritage - which is why the upcoming friendly game was scheduled to mark St Patrick's Day.

But the football club's social media team made a blunder when promoting the game by using an expression of support for the IRA.

It was both the headline of the article promoting the game and the tagline of the accompanying tweet - which have now been deleted after the resulting backlash.

The club has now posted a grovelling apology on social media for 'unknowingly' using the phrase in a 'careless mistake'.

The Minnesota United FC has issued a grovelling apology after using a 'divisive expression' linked to the IRA in a tweet about an upcoming match

The American football club posted about an upcoming match against St Patrick's Athletic FC, including the phrase 'tiocfaidh ár lá' which is Irish for 'our day will come'

A wall painting supporting the Irish Republican Army, seen in the Catholic area of Belfast, Northern Ireland in 1985. Our Day Will Come translates into Tiocfaidh ár lá

It posted on X this afternoon: 'Earlier today, an article appeared on MNUFC.com which unknowingly included a divisive expression. 

'We deeply regret this error and apologise to those we have offended with our careless mistake.'

The original tweet read: 'Tiocfaidh ár lá: Our Day Will Come. Get to know St Pats FC ahead of next week's international friendly.'

The FC was criticised on Twitter/X for posting the expression in a tweet

The phrase Tiocfaidh ár lá is a slogan of Irish Republicanism, with 'our day' meaning the date on which Irish nationalists hopes a united Ireland would be achieved.

It was coined in the 70s during the Troubles in Northern Ireland and has often appeared on political murals and graffiti.

It has also been shouted by IRA defendants being convicted in courts. 

Although its origin is debated, the expression was used by Provisional IRA prisoners Bobby Sands and is the last sentence of the diary he kept of the 1981 hunger strike in which he died.

In 1986, Patrick Magee said the phrase after being sentenced for the 1984 Brighton hotel bombing which was intended to target then-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and her Cabinet. The bomb killed five people.

Mary Lou McDonald was forced to defend her use of the expression after she used it to conclude her first speech in 2018 and she assumed leadership of Sinn Féín.

Speaking to Newstalk radio, she said at the time: 'Well let me tell you that the war and the conflict has gone away you know.

'The IRA has gone away you know and Sinn Féin is led now by woman from the city of Dublin who has had no involvement in the conflict, with the IRA or anything else'

She said that when she said 'up the rebels' in her speech 'I'm as much making a reference back to the 1920s and indeed beyond as anything else.'

Ms McDonald said her responsibility as a leader is to 'ensure that never, ever, again do we go back to those circumstances'.