Cliftonville FC stonewalls questions after Ronan Hale pictured with arm around player wearing republican rifle slogan

John Herron, a Scottish-born player with Larne FC, was the man wearing the shirt.

Beside him was Ronan Hale, a Cliftonville player.

The two had their arms around one another, and the picture was reportedly taken at the West Belfast Festival.

According to a number of social media users, the image was posted by Mr Hale himself (though his Twitter account is currently listed as “protected” – meaning his tweets are invisible to the general public – and his Facebook account has not been updated since last October).

Mr Herron has now been suspended by Larne FC while it conducts what it described as an “investigation” into the shirt, which bears the words ‘tiochfiadh ar la’ in the shape of an assault rifle (the phrase, meaning something akin to ‘our day will come’, is often credited to IRA man Bobby Sands).

TWO PLAYERS WERE ONCE CLUB-MATES:

Mr Hale used to play alongside Mr Herron at Larne.

Before that, the 23-year-old Mr Hale had been with Crusaders, Derry City, and various Birmingham youth squads, according to www.transfermarkt.co.uk .

The News Letter made enquiries with David Begley, the chief operating officer at Cliftonville, about Mr Hale’s appearance in the photograph.

“I’m gonna stop you there, I’ve no time for this,” he said.

“The News Letter never have written anything except absolutely totally derogatory stuff about our club, so thanks, goodbye.”

The line then went dead.

A moment later he called back and asked what the question for the club was.

The News Letter asked what was happening regarding Mr Hale and the photograph, given that he had his arm around a man with a gun-shaped republican slogan on his chest.

“Yes, you are correct. He has his arm round John Herron,” said Mr Begley.

“Is Cliftonville planning on having a word with him?” Mr Begley was asked. “What’s going to happen?”

“As I said, you are correct. Ronan Hale has his arm around John Herron... You’ve had the response from Cliftonville.”

Mr Begley was further asked: “Is there going to be any kind of disciplinary process?”

Again, the answer came: “You are correct. He has his arm round John Herron.”

The News Letter tried a couple more times to elicit a different answer from Mr Begley, such as by asking about the club’s cross-community credentials.

“You are correct in saying that Ronan Hale has his arm around John Herron,” he replied.

“That’s a fact. And that’s the only fact that there is. That’s the only fact... I only deal in facts.”

Soon after the line went dead once again.

Since then, the News Letter has emailed the club to see if there is any update to its position, and messaged Mr Hale directly.

At time of writing, no response had been received.

Nothing about the affair has been posted on the club’s website or its social media.

More from this reporter:

• Cleric rejects Dee Stitt’s suggestion that UDA/UFF part of ‘Protestant culture’ as Jamie Bryson announces north Down loyalist is ‘a client’

• ‘UDA could not have picked worse target’: remembering the murder of primary school teacher Cyril Murray in east Belfast exactly three decades ago

• Elim church remembers 17-year-old Belfast Christian shot dead randomly 30 years ago by socialist republican faction

• Orange clergyman invokes gunrunners and Ulster Covenant as he denounces Protocol ‘cancer’