Ireland player sings with IRA supporter in Belfast
THIS IS Republic of Ireland and Celtic striker Anthony Stokes singing with a well-known IRA supporter in The Rock Bar, a republican pub on the Falls Road in Belfast, recently.
The image shows Stokes enjoying a night out at the Rebel Sunday event, which takes place every Sunday at the pub.
The photograph was taken on April 6 – just one day after he scored Celtic’s second goal in a 2-0 win over Dundee United.
He is joined on stage by IRA supporter Alan Quinn, who has been charged with breach of the peace in the UK after he led an IRA chant at the Foggy Dew pub in Glasgow last year.
In Glasgow, Quinn sang a chorus of ‘Up the IRA’ and ‘F*** Thatcher and f*** the British government’ as pubgoers raised their glasses.
The shocking video appeared on YouTube within hours of Margaret Thatcher’s death.
It is less than two years since the MoS exclusively revealed that Anthony Stokes attended the memorial for murdered Real IRA terrorist Alan Ryan.
The dad-of-two, who was notorious for extorting money from Dublin drug dealers for IRA chiefs in the North, was shot in the head near his home in Donaghmede in September 2012.
At the time, Stokes was given a warning by Celtic boss Neil Lennon, who confirmed: ‘Yes we have [spoken to Stokes]. We spoke to him internally. I am not going to moralise to him but you cannot damage the reputation of the club. He is aware of that now.’
Stokes rejoined the Ireland squad last year after Giovanni Trapattoni refused to play him.
The FAI announced that Stokes was called back to the squad under the new management of Roy Keane and Martin O’Neill.
When asked if the FAI thought it was appropriate for Stokes to be playing for Ireland after his attendance at a Real IRA funeral, a spokesman said: ‘The association is satisfied, like his club, that he has learned from this serious mistake.’