Former world champion Carl Frampton has apologized for an offensive word used in a tweet he posted Wednesday about U.S. Congressman Richard Neal, claiming the Democrat “boils his blood.”
The retired Belfast boxer initially wrote: “Another Yankee, coming to another part of the world to light the fire. All right Ritchie Neal. D ***** d.”
An hour later, the Tigers Bay native posted, “I used a word I shouldn’t have in my last tweet. Sorry for any offense. But my blood boils like a guy who’s supposed to help to solve problems here does the opposite with the language you use “.
The BT Sports expert is likely referring to comments from the “planter” Neal made in Londonderry the same day, referring to unionist inheritance and ancestry, while speaking to RTE about the Good Friday Agreement.
The term was used as a name for English-speaking Protestants who came to Ireland in the 1600s during the planting of Ulster, and many consider it to be used as a sectarian insult.
However, Neal argued that he was using the word in a historical context.
“I also referred to the historical term gael, gael and planter, because they are completely accurate historical references,” he commented.
Frampton went on to say that “politics and politicians here can be divisive”, but also criticized the idea of an American coming to Northern Ireland to “help raise tensions”.
Ulster Unionist leader Doug Beattie also criticized Mr Neal’s statement, saying that “his comments about people as ‘planters’ are derogatory to many unionists. His thinking and terminology they are from a bygone era ”.
Writing in The Express on Wednesday, former DUP leader Arlene Foster claimed that “American interference is the real threat to peace in Northern Ireland.”
Mr Neal said: “In one of his latest bids, Neal boasted of demographic changes in Northern Ireland, as there will soon be more Roman Catholics than Protestants declared in the United States. church.
“In Neal’s view, this means that a united Ireland is inevitable because more Roman Catholics means more people wanting to abolish Northern Ireland.”
Ms. Foster called this “grassroots sectarianism” which was wrong in fact.
Richie Neal has been the powerful chairman of the Ways and Means Committee in Congress since 2019, after President Pelosi in office, but that doesn’t stop him from showing his bias.
He has also been criticized for claiming that the problems related to the Northern Ireland Protocol appear to be “fabricated” and that trade problems around him “could be resolved quickly”.
Neal is leading an eight-member US delegation to both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland this week, as the EU and the United Kingdom remain in a deadlock over the implementation of the post-Brexit agreement. of 2019 which is opposed by many unionists and loyalists.