March 17 is a day to celebrate all things Irish.
With such a massive Irish population here in the UK, St Patrick’s Day is a chance for millions of us to celebrate our heritage.
It’s become the norm on days like these for various faceless brands and corporations to jump on the Paddybandwagon in an attempt to celebrate the day.
While most of these are perfectly harmless, if not downright boring, there’s always one group who manage to muck it up and cause offence.
This year that title goes to the Lewisham Metropolitan Police Service in south-east London, who shared this image to celebrate Paddy’s Day with their followers.
The tweet was soon deleted, but by that stage it had already clocked up a bit of attention.
People were quick to criticise the Lewisham police for an apparent insensitivity to the past struggles of Irish people with the police in the UK.
https://twitter.com/Durham_Mags/status/710405667782336512
https://twitter.com/Milly_Billy/status/710404539602628608
@MPSLewisham you locking up the Irish today? poor taste
— Simon Fraser (@RacingAbout) March 17, 2016
But others were more offended by the fact that they had not made a shamrock out of the handcuffs, but rather a clover…
@MPSLewisham a) is this a good use of resources or police time and b) that's a clover not a shamrock
— Lauren McEvatt (@LaurenMaeve) March 17, 2016
Good to see @MPSLewisham have taken down that tweet following the embarrassment of realising they'd made a clover not a shamrock.
— Andrea Mann (@AndreaMann) March 17, 2016
https://twitter.com/Roxy_Hart/status/710408661403885568
Three hours after posting the original tweet, the Lewisham MPS account removed the post and shared an apology.
Apologies for any offence caused by our earlier tweet, that was not our intention at all – hope everyone has a great #StPatricksDay
— Lewisham MPS (@MPSLewisham) March 17, 2016
