The producers of the hit BBC Television soap “Eastenders” has come under fire for allowing one of the leading characters in the series to wear a sports jersey made by Strabane-based sportswear firm O’Neills.
Outspoken loyalist Willie Frazer took to social media to blast the programme’s producers for permitting Queen Vic barmaid Nancy Carter to wear a PE jersey which he wrongly claimed was a “GAA top.”
In fact, the top featured in last Friday night’s episode was a sports top from St Patrick’s College in Ballymena and made by O’Neills which produces a wide variety of sports gear, including jerseys for the GAA.
Mr Frazer took to Facebook to accuse the GAA of glorifying terrorism and compared the use of the shirt by the show’s producers to promoting the National Front, Ku Klux Klan and Nazism.
He posted: “I’m sure many of you watched EastEnders in horror when Nancy Carter, who works behind the bar in the Queen Victoria, was clad in the shirt of an organisation which glorified IRA terrorists, the GAA.
“This surely must have been a mistake by the costume people, any shirt supporting the NF, KKK or indeed Nazism would never be allowed on a family show so why a shirt belonging to an organisation who name clubs after IRA terrorists, give out medals with IRA terrorists on them and who hold IRA events (on) their premises.”
Mr Frazer has lodged an official complaint with the BBC regarding the shirt and refused to withdraw his accusations.
St Patrick’s College past pupils include Hollywood star Liam Neeson and Liverpool FC manager Brendan Rogers.
Two years ago, Mr Frazer described St Patrick’s Primary School in Donaghmore as “the junior headquarters of IRA youth” when he wrongly accused the school of flying an Irish Tricolour when it fact it was the Italian flagged that had been raised alongside Turkish and Polish flags in honour of 11 teachers from Poland, Italy and Turkey who visited the Tyrone school for a European integration project.
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