EVERTON AND IRELAND defender Shane Duffy has denied and apologised in equal measure for a St Patrick’s Day IRA tweet was retweeted from his account.

A follower of Duffy tweeted “Up the Ra #COYBIG” at the Derry man at 1.43am last night.

The message was retweeted from Duffy’s Twitter account and – at the time of writing – remains in his timeline.

This morning, Duffy issued a frank apology for the offence caused by the message broadcast to his 49,000 followers.

“Sorry everyone,” he tweeted before 9am this morning. “Some little paddy had my phone. Last night’s tweets weren’t me… sorry if it offended anyone!! can’t leave your phone anywhere now!!”

He added: “Wow, so much hate on something I didn’t do. Fair enough, gotta take it because it’s my Twitter. And again it was not me who tweeted and retweeted loads last night. Really am sorry if it offended anyone. Sorry guys!”

Minutes later, the 21-year-old continued the protestation. “Can’t do much more. I know it’s offended a lot of people. Getting a lot of hate for something I didn’t do. Far too much to lose for tweeting something like that.”

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