Football Association of Ireland CEO keeps job despite singing nationalist song in pub
DUBLIN – The Football Association of Ireland has cleared John Delaney to stay as chief executive despite being filmed singing an Irish nationalist song in a pub.
A video posted on YouTube showed Delaney last week singing “The Ballad of Joe McDonnell” about a member of the Provisional Irish Republican Army who died in a 1981 prison hunger strike.
Delaney issued an apology on Tuesday “if I have upset anybody.”
FAI President Tony Fitzgerald said Wednesday that given Delaney “has publicly apologized if he offended anyone for singing the nationalist song in question, we are happy to bring the matter to a close.”
On the FAI website, Fitzgerald stressed that “the board is more than pleased with the way John Delaney is running the association,” having recently extended his contract through 2020.
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