Video has emerged showing Irish soccer fans openly mocking the death of Queen Elizabeth II by chanting “Lizzy’s in a box” during a game in Dublin on Thursday.
The crude ditty, set to the tune of KC & The Sunshine Band’s hit “Baby Give It Up,” rang out at Tallaght Stadium just hours after it was announced that Britain’s longest-reigning monarch has died at Balmoral Castle at the age of 96.
In clips from the match that have been making the rounds on Twitter, Irish soccer fans are heard singing in unison “Lizzy’s in a box, in a box!” while enthusiastically pumping their fists and clapping.
The stadium was hosting a UEFA Europa Conference League match between Irish Shamrock Rovers and Swedish Djurgårdens IF Fotboll, reported Fox Sports.
After facing backlash over the crowd’s outrageous conduct, Tallaght Stadium’s home team, the Shamrock Rovers, issued a statement condemning their fans’ celebratory chanting, according to the site the42.ie.
“Shamrock Rovers FC has been made aware of chants by a group of individuals at last night’s game,” it reads. “Such highly insensitive and callous chanting is not acceptable at our club and is against the values that Shamrock Rovers FC stands for.”
Similar scenes of public jubilation were also reported in Derry, Northern Ireland, where people were seen honking their horns, whistling and waving Irish flags.
The Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland and the UK have a shared but troubled history dating back to the 1600s.
Ireland won its independence from Britain in 1922, but the Crown retained control of Northern Ireland, causing religious friction between the region’s Protestant majority and Catholic minority.
Long-simmering tensions escalated to violence in the late 1960s, marking the beginning of a decades-long nationalist conflict known as The Troubles, which came to an end in 1998 after leaving some 3,000 people dead.
Irish President Michael D. Higgins was among dozens of world leaders who expressed their condolences to the royal family on the occasion of the Queen’s death on Thursday.
“Her Majesty served the British people with exceptional dignity,” he said. “Her personal commitment to her role and extraordinary sense of duty were the hallmarks of her period as Queen, which will hold a unique place in British history.”
Ireland’s prime minister, Taoiseach Michael Micheál Martin, released a separate statement, calling the Queen’s visit to Ireland in 2011 “a crucial step” in the normalization of relations between the two neighboring nations.
“That visit was a great success, largely because of the many gracious gestures and warm remarks made by the Queen during her time in Ireland,” Martin stated. “Her popularity with the Irish people was also very evident and clearly made a very positive impact on the Queen.”
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