{"id":1096652,"date":"2026-07-18T10:07:30","date_gmt":"2026-07-18T10:07:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1096652\/"},"modified":"2026-07-18T10:07:30","modified_gmt":"2026-07-18T10:07:30","slug":"psni-accused-of-inconsistency-after-it-claimed-anti-catholic-anthem-is-not-a-hate-crime-the-irish-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1096652\/","title":{"rendered":"PSNI accused of \u2018inconsistency\u2019 after it claimed anti-Catholic anthem is not a \u2018hate crime\u2019 \u2013 The Irish News"},"content":{"rendered":"

The PSNI has been accused of \u201cinconsistency\u201d after it claimed the singing of an anti-Catholic anthem branded a \u2018hate crime\u2019 by a senior officer was not a criminal offence.<\/p>\n

Concerns have been raised after the sectarian \u2018No Pope of Rome\u2019 was sung during a loyal order parade earlier this week. <\/p>\n

The hate filled lyrics, which mock the Catholic faith, is often heard at loyalist and loyal order events.<\/p>\n

It is understood that at least two bands played the bigoted tune, which shares the same air as Home On The Range, during a Royal Black Institution parade in Scarva, Co Down<\/a>, on Tuesday. <\/p>\n

\"Criminal<\/a>\"PSNI<\/a><\/p>\n

A large crowd of loyalists can be heard singing along in footage circulated in social media<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The sectarian song includes the words \u201cNo, no Pope of Rome, no chapels to sadden my eyes, no nuns and no priests, no Rosary beads, every day is the Twelfth of July\u201d.<\/p>\n

It also includes the anti-Catholic lines: \u201cOh give me a home where there\u2019s no Pope of Rome, where there\u2019s nothing but Protestants stay, where seldom is heard a discouraging word and flute bands play The Sash every day.\u201d<\/p>\n

In an interview with the Irish News earlier this year Deputy Chief Constable Bobby Singleton branded the lyrics of the shameful chant a \u2018hate crime\u2019.<\/p>\n

Mr Singleton said he was not familiar with the song but branded it a \u201chate crime\u201d as it was described to him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wouldn\u2019t be tolerant of any singing of that nature, unfortunately it\u2019s still a feature of our society,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hesitate to call it culture, because I don\u2019t think it is.\u201d <\/p>\n

Despite Mr Singleton\u2019s view the PSNI said it is \u201care aware of a video online\u201d but has \u201cnot received any reports at this time\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cEnquiries have been conducted on whether any of the actions constituted a criminal offence,\u201d a spokeswoman said.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo offences were identified.\u201d<\/p>\n

SDLP<\/a> Policing Board member Colin McGrath, who had called on the PSNI to investigate the Scarva incident, has now branded the PSNI approach \u2018inconsistent\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt seems odd that the Deputy Chief Constable is saying one thing in media interviews and then in practice the service he is deputy in charge of does something different,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis inconsistency needs interrogated further.\u201d<\/p>\n

In recent weeks the PSNI<\/a> has taken direct action against other sectarian and racist displays linked to the Muslim community.<\/p>\n

A replica of a mosque placed on a loyalist bonfire in Moygashel<\/a>, Co Tyrone, was burned last week as police prepared to remove it. <\/p>\n

Prior to that a \u2018Muslims not welcome\u2019 banner was removed from a fence at a children\u2019s playground in the village.<\/p>\n

The Royal Black Institution was contacted.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The PSNI has been accused of \u201cinconsistency\u201d after it claimed the singing of an anti-Catholic anthem branded a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1096653,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5011],"tags":[88580,188,1144,1618,100163,16,15],"class_list":["post-1096652","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-northern-ireland","tag-co-down","tag-crime","tag-northern-ireland","tag-psni","tag-twelfth","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116940429843260643","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1096652","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1096652"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1096652\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1096653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1096652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1096652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1096652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}