Irish dancers are not celebrating queen’s death in viral Buckingham Palace video

Queen Elizabeth II, Britain’s longest reigning monarch, died on Sept. 8 at age 96. 

After the queen’s death was announced, people on social media shared a video of five Irish dancers performing a routine to Queen song “Another One Bites the Dust” outside Buckingham Palace. 

“The queen died and the Irish are already on it,” one tweet said. 

The video in the tweet had over 1 million views and over 12,000 retweets.

THE QUESTION

Were five Irish dancers filmed dancing outside Buckingham Palace celebrating the death of Queen Elizabeth II?

THE SOURCES

• Cairde, an Irish dancing group
• Department of the Taoiseach, the government of Ireland

THE ANSWER

No, the video was not taken recently. It was filmed in January, not in September after the queen’s death. 

WHAT WE FOUND

Cairde, an Irish dancing group from Galway, Ireland, posted the video on Jan. 18, 2022, not on Sept. 8 after Queen Elizabeth II died. 

“Dancing to ‘Queen’ for the Queen, Buckingham Palace, London,” a tweet from Cairde said. The video was also posted on TikTok.

The group has shared videos on TikTok recorded in front of a number of international landmarks, including Times Square and the Eiffel Tower.

VERIFY reached out to the group for a statement but didn’t hear back at the time of publication.

Posts that shared the video out of context implied the dancers were celebrating because of the fraught history between the two nations.  

The relationship between Ireland and Britain has been complicated. In 1920, British troops opened fire in Dublin and killed 14 civilians in retaliation for the Irish Republican Army (IRA) killing British agents. That day became known in Ireland as the first Bloody Sunday. 

In 1922, Ireland became independent from Great Britain. Northern Ireland remains part of the United Kingdom, which also includes Wales and Scotland. 

In 2011, the queen visited the site of Bloody Sunday and paid tribute, which local reports said was a move to reconcile the relationship between the monarchy and Ireland.

On Sept. 8, Taoiseach Micheál Martin, the head of the government of Ireland, conveyed his sympathy for the queen’s death to King Charles III, who automatically became king after her passing, and the rest of the British people. 

“The Queen’s passing is indeed the end of an era. Her State Visit to Ireland in 2011 marked a crucial step in the normalisation of relations with our nearest neighbour. 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 said in the statement. 

“To her grieving family and people, the Irish Government join with you in mourning the loss of an exceptional woman who led by quiet and dignified example and who touched so many lives over her exceptionally long reign. Our world is a poorer place for her passing but a far richer and better place as a result of her long life and enduring contribution,” he said.

More from VERIFY: Yes, Charles automatically became King of England after death of Queen Elizabeth II