Help Israel protest song to top the charts

A Cork activist is attempting to get his song protesting the upcoming football fixtures between Ireland and Israel to the top of the Irish chart by tomorrow.

Local musician and human rights campaigner Martin Leahy released his song ‘Don’t Play’ during the summer amidst calls for the FAI to completely pull out of the Nations League fixtures.

However, the controversial games, which are scheduled for 27 September and 4 October, will instead be played on neutral ground as things stand.

“To go ahead with these games would be to normalise the brutality of the mass torture, the mass murder, and the collective punishment of the Palestinian people,” Leahy told the Cork Independent.

He is now calling on the people of Cork to help out by buying and downloading his song from any major platform to help it reach number one by tomorrow, Friday. All proceeds from any sales made will go directly to a Gaza charity which will be confirmed shortly.

‘Don’t Play’ features the voice of former Republic of Ireland football manager Brian Kerr, and Palestinian singer Leen Maarouf, and is a reimagining of the song ‘Put 'Em Under Pressure', the unofficial Irish anthem from the 1990 FIFA World Cup. In it, Leahy replaces the iconic chorus “Olé” with “Don’t play!”

The track has received much praise and has already been shared widely across social media with support from Amnesty International and Amnesty Secretary General and human rights activist, Dr Agnes Callamard.

Leading the call to have the games called off is the Stop The Game campaign, driven by Irish Sport for Palestine, which saw a number of protests happen across the country over the last few months, with protests reported in Belfast, Dublin, Clare, and Donegal last weekend.

Leahy said: “The nationwide Stop The Game protests at the weekend was a show of huge solidarity with the people of Palestine and it gave a real sense of how much the general public are opposed to these games being played.”

Today is the last chance to buy Martin Leahy’s ‘Don’t Play’, with the official weekly Irish charts to be announced tomorrow.