{"id":261863,"date":"2025-07-13T15:12:11","date_gmt":"2025-07-13T15:12:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/261863\/"},"modified":"2025-07-13T15:12:11","modified_gmt":"2025-07-13T15:12:11","slug":"gb-news-hosts-admit-to-being-clueless-about-sectarian-twelfth-the-irish-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/261863\/","title":{"rendered":"GB News hosts admit to being clueless about \u2018sectarian\u2019 Twelfth \u2013 The Irish News"},"content":{"rendered":"

British TV hosts appeared baffled during the only remaining live coverage of the July 12th parades – with one commentator branding the annual event \u201csectarian\u201d.<\/p>\n

The comments came during the broadcaster\u2019s annual Twelfth coverage on Saturday, which it has covered for the last four years since the BBC axed the live event due to low viewer numbers.<\/p>\n

GB News<\/a> hosts Charlie Peters and Nana Akua were joined by former Labour Party advisor Scarlett McGwire and UK-based journalist Candice Holdsworth in the London studio while former First Minister Arlene Foster<\/a> covered the parades from Coleraine.<\/p>\n

Ms Foster\u2019s knowledge of events stood in stark contrast to her colleagues in London who appeared at times bewildered by the annual display of \u2018Britishness\u2019 – with former Labour advisor Scarlett McGwire describing the event as sectarian.<\/p>\n

\"Ardoyne<\/a>\"Heatwave<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI think we have to understand that it is a sectarian celebration. While the Protestants\u2014the majority in Northern Ireland\u2014are very, very happy with it, actually the celebrations have been used… I mean, it used to be the marching season and there was always\u2014there was terrible violence,\u201c she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow, a lot of the violence in Northern Ireland, because of the peace deal, thank goodness, has gone. But it\u2019s still sectarian. I mean, it\u2019s remembering, you know, a battle many years ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d like to say that my great-great-great whatever grandfather, who was head of the Maguire clan, was hung, drawn and quartered by Cromwell\u2019s people. And my dad always remembered it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I\u2019m saying is that we have to understand that while it\u2019s a celebration\u2014and it\u2019s really, really important that it goes on, right? I\u2019m not trying to ban it\u2014it is sectarian. And many people in Northern Ireland have found July the 12th<\/a> very frightening.”<\/p>\n

Her comments came before the show\u2019s host Nana Akua laughed while wearing a bright green dress, as she said she had been told she was \u201cwearing the wrong type of green\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cJust for anybody out there before I get stick for it, apologies for wearing the wrong kind of green. It\u2019s my favourite colour\u2014green, any shade\u2014but if this is the wrong one, apologies.\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Speaking about the The Troubles, she added: \u201cI remember that, because I was around at that time\u2014you know, I can remember when there was all the IRA and the Real IRA.<\/p>\n

Then you had\u2014uh, is it Gerry Adams?\u2014and there was a voice over his voice because he wasn\u2019t allowed to speak. It was all very, very odd.”<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, London-based journalist Candice Holdsworth admitted that many people in the UK have little understanding or interest in the 12th of July.<\/p>\n

When asked if she thought people in Britain understood what the Twelfth was about, she said: \u201cI don\u2019t. I think that this history, to a lot of people\u2014I mean, we just don\u2019t know it. So many of us here on the mainland know very little about it, and I think it\u2019s important to learn more.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"British TV hosts appeared baffled during the only remaining live coverage of the July 12th parades – with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":261864,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5011],"tags":[100164,42617,1144,100163,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-261863","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-northern-ireland","8":"tag-arlene-foster","9":"tag-gb-news","10":"tag-northern-ireland","11":"tag-twelfth","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261863","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=261863"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261863\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/261864"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=261863"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=261863"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=261863"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}