James McClean is a professional footballer.
That means that a football stadium is his place of work.
It is a basic human right that wherever your employment requires you to be it should be a safe place.
I know from my role as a lay official in the NUJ that awareness of harassment at work as a health and safety issue has grown in recent years.
This is a development to be welcomed.
Therefore, I was encouraged to learn that the FA in England were charging Barnsley over the abuse that their fans had directed at the Irishman.
My immediate reaction on Twitter will give a clue as to what is about to follow.
Before a problem can be solved it has first to be identified.
That means calling it by what it is.
McClean has been in the public eye because of his consistent refusal to wear an RBL Poppy.
Moreover, he has not been silent about his reasons for not doing so.
His club, Stoke City, has been understanding and supportive.
McClean is from Derry.
They get it.
The idea of him wearing an emblem that honours the Crown Forces is anathema to him.
Here is British Prime Minister David Cameron giving some content.
I have read in the scientific literature that the folk memory of an atrocity is around 90 years-three generations or so.
The cultural wound of Bloody Sunday is still raw in the town that James McClean loves so well.
For the avoidance of doubt, the young Irishman should not be suffering from racist abuse at his place of work.
No one should.
Thankfully the governing body of the game in England agrees with that assertion.
Sadly, if the winger got his dream and was signed for the Hoops he would be plying his trade in a very different set of rules.
I cannot imagine the Scottish Football Association taking the same action as the FA.
Here is a selection of my articles from the Irish Post ( the weekly newspaper for the Irish community in Britain).
Several of them deal with this issue.
The football authorities in Fair Caledonia have certainly had ample opportunities over the years with Aidan McGeady, James McCarthy and Neil Lennon to address the issue of anti-Irish racism.
The latter even schooled the Stenography Corps in 2018 on their sloppy use of language on the issue
“You call it sectarianism here in Scotland I call it racism”.
Despite that tutorial in 2018, the Stenography Corps continues with the “sectarian” narrative.
By excising the ethnic from the analysis it renders it inexplicable.
It is just another piece of Orwellian obfuscation from a press hack that should be sick with shame over what happens on their watch.
I can only imagine the reaction of the Fitba Fourth estate if McClean was a Celtic player and stated that he was “a proud Fenian”.
James McClean might not be feeling lucky in life as he is subjected to racist abuse at his place of work.
However, if he was employed in Scotland he would not have the support of the governing body.
Moreover, no one on the sports desks would feel moved to mention it.
Hat tip to the FA.
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Jimmy Rabbitte:
The Irish are the blacks of Europe. And Dubliners are the blacks of Ireland. And the Northside Dubliners are the blacks of Dublin. So say it once and say it loud, I’m black and I’m proud.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=8XnRF5zyIKE
Lol. Some won’t be happy until the Irish are legally classified as a different race to all other Caucasian Europeans. Young Irish to grow up in the world racially different, not equal and the same, striding forth with confidence.
Clearly the bollocks in here has not been thought through.
Thankfully Ireland has lots of intelligent folks who do think things through and don’t mess up. Instead of trying to score sectarian points by attempting to think for yourselves, let Michael D. Higgins do all the thinking for you. He’s much better at it.
Just go along with Mr Higgins from now on and don’t come up with your own dunce shite. He has worked on anti sectarian and anti racism initiatives for decades.
Up until 1994 the black heart of the poppy carried the name “Haig Fund” in reference to Field Marshal Lord Haig, aka “The Butcher of the Somme” but was renamed to the more appealing “Poppy Appeal”. Revisionist historians would have us believe that ” The master of the Field” learned from that “mistake” and went on to win many battles and contributed greatly to the ultimate victory. I guess it was also a way of tying his name to something positive.
The disapproval of not wearing one is nothing short of “Poppy fascism” according Channel 4 newsreader Jon Snow. Columnist Dan O’Neill suggested that it had become a race among politicians and presenters to see who can be seen to be sporting it first, some starting in mid-October. He went further and stated that “the absence of a poppy is interpreted as absence of concern for the war dead and almost as an unpatriotic act of treachery.”
Journalist Jon Frisk claiming it was now a “seasonal fashion accessory”.
In 2010 a group of veterans wrote a letter to the Guardian claiming it was now used to garner support for current military actions, allowing us to forget the “true horror and futility of war”.
James McClean is a young Irish footballer. They pick their victims.
I am very proud to wear my poppy each year. I’m proud of my family’s numerous military contributions.
I have never seen in the media or heard anyone criticise anyone who chooses not to wear a poppy. This poppy fascist idea is a myth. Name the poppy fascists and provide links to them if you can.
I do come across posts like yours and people who are vocally anti poppy. Very opinionated sorts who should buy one or don’t and leave it at that. These are the real raging poppy fascists.
No poppies on our hoops type fascism. Bully boy brown shirt behaviours.
Why should CELTIC be the only club in the entire UK not to wear a poppy on the shirt just because a vocal minority of head turned underclass agitate for it?
Indeed it’s the same lot who have cost the club over £500k in UEFA fines for dangerous, offensive and unsafe behaviours. Why should anyone listen to them and their preferences?
I think you are being extremely “unreasonable”. I do not have access to the names and addresses of the Barnsley miscreants but since you have asked for names, you could start there.
As the saying goes, ” In the land of the foolish it is foolish to be wise”.
What in heaven’s name is a ” vocal minority of head turned underclass”?
I would also like to add that I find it abhorrent that people like Blair, Bush and Trump etc. can send young men and women off to war to be killed and maimed and expect charities like the “Poppy Appeal” to top up what financial help they or the families of the deceased may need when they return. Maybe they should pencil this in when calculating if they can afford it or not.
Off topic rumours have it that morelos will be punted at a reduced rate of the £75 million quoted for him with the excuse being he was hounded out of Scotland by hate and racism. Apparently fatman Traynor has Gary Ralston on speed dial to run with ASAP .
Racism is the vogue, clickbait term of the day. It is far more sexy than sectarianism, a word that has lost its very serious meaning through casual overuse during the last 4 decades. Sectarianism is the apt definition and it is every bit as unacceptable as racism, which is essentially a subset of the former.
Racism is a divisive, self-defeating term in the context of the battle against the irrational Irishphobic (my term) mindset of the Scottish underclass. It reinforces a psychological apartheid that achieves exactly what the Kirk set out to do at the behest of its ruling classes from the 1800s onwards. We are the same people. There is nothing wrong with accepting that. To cry racism does nothing in the long term but perpetuate the divide and conquer mantra of the Anglo.
Let’s not become racebaiters. It might be fun getting to swing the big stick for once but, in truth, it does us no credit.
Legally speaking, race discrimination does not just apply to a person’s race but also to their ethnicity, which would certainly apply to the abuse that James McClean receives, and indeed to any person abused or discriminated against because of their Irish ethnicity.
UEFA also recognises this, hence the action taken against sevco.
It is an offence in law and should be dealt with accordingly by the authorities, which, if they did their job in Scotland, would mean that the sevs would be getting sanctioned/charged on a weekly basis.
It’s not difficult, but for various reasons, the will to act isn’t there.
Irish ethnicity? Go back to sleep!
ethnic minorities in uk include Indians, Pakistanis, Chinese, Turks, …
The Irish are ethnically the same British Isles people as all the rest sharing common DNA and common ancestors.
Like all people in the British Isles they have different cultures, there are cultural differences all over the British Isles: art, poetry, clothing, language, accents, local alcohol, food, music,….. but this is not race nor is it ethnicity.
Must try harder!
You fail to understand the difference between ethnicity and race and thus expose yourself as an ignoramus.
Look it up.
Must do better.
To coin a phrase of Phil’s………. for the avoidance of doubt, and in an attempt to educate simpletons like Let’s be, ethnicity and race are different but are treated equally in terms of the law when it comes to abuse of an individual or group due to their ethnicity/race.
I don’t know where Let’s be is coming from here,but I suspect he/she is pursuing an agenda which most reasonable people would abhor and indeed be ashamed of.
The agenda is perfectly simple, the Irish are not of differing ethnicity nor of different race to the rest of the British Isles. This has been judged in court.
Your law on ethnicity/race applies to some (Pakistanis, Indians, etc…) but not the Irish in mainland uk.
I think I’ve clearly stated this a few times now but clearly a third was necessary for the Grand Simpleton Anthony Brannan.
James McClean is the same ethnicity and race as Prince William under the law.
Let’s be. Your stupidity is staggering. I’ll say it again; race and ethnicity are not the same thing. Why don’t you understand this, unless of course it doesn’t fit your agenda? The Irish are not of a different race to the “rest of the British Isles” whatever that means, but they are certainly ethnically different to for example the English.
I can only conclude that your agenda is to try and make the hun behaviour seem acceptable,and as such you are not only a simpleton but a fascist.
BTW. I call you a simpleton and your response is to call me a Grand simpleton.
Do try and get some patter of your own rather than shamelessly copying someone else’s, or risk being deemed a unimaginative fud.
Truly, the huns are the dumbest peepul on earth.
No they’re not.
Complete fud Anthony Brannan.
The Irish are the same ethnicity as the English. The same people period.
You are trying desperately to divide the world up into differing races and ethnicities when the rest of us are identifying as one and breaking down these barriers.
You are like Nazi racists. Your policy certainly is in kilter with naziism. Ultra Nationalism, us and them. The othering of people you are the same as. SNP and the English come to mind too.
You would divide up Spain and France and Italy and Germany into different racist States whereby a Prussian from Berlin throwing insults at a Bavarian from Munich would be racism.
You would have fourth generation Irish in Liverpool, London, Glasgow, Cardiff, Newcastle, Manchester, millions of them walking around identifying as a different race/ethnicity to their neighbours. Because it suits you. You vile abhorrent racist.
What next getting out your ruler to measure foreheads and nose breadths?
We are all the same people and I include my local fourth generation Pakistani shop owner with his local accent and kids at the local school in that. His different ethnicity is invisible to me. You wish to categorise him as different.
You have already attempted to “other” me as a Hun. There you show your sectarian racist hand, all cards face up.
You vile divider of people.
Ooh. Touched a nerve there you imbecile. And I note that you still haven’t developed your own patter but are still copying mine. Wit a fanny!
I’ll say it again in capitals for you you hun fud ………………………………………………………………………………………………….
ETHNICITY AND RACE ARE DIFFERENT THINGS.
Got it?
Jeezo the huns are truly the dumbest peepul on the planet.
So I call Lets be a simpleton and he calls me a Grand simpleton, I call him a fud and he calls me a Complete fud, I call him a fascist and he calls me a Nazi. No imagination or originality whatsoever. Sooo feckin funny!
This eejit is clearly struggling, but it doesn’t hide his agenda of racist apology for which he should be ashamed but I suspect he is incapable of such a human response since he is clearly a racist himself.
Wit a fanny!
I’ve had a swatch at the definition of Race and then Racism. There’s several definitions of race. Apparently you can be among the race of journalists! And everyone is in the human race!
You could be Liverpudlian race, Aberdonian race or Kentish race. You could be Man Utd race or rangers race or borrussia Dortmund race……. belonging to a self identifying group, if you wish to take that view. Physical features, skin colour, eye colour, become non important in your race.
Looking at Mr McClean, I’m sure Adolf Hitler would have him categorised as an Aryan Master Race. White, Athletic, blond, blue/green eyed, he would not look out of place in a black SS uniform on tv.
A Chinese guy, a Pakistani, a black african, an Eskimo, an arab, a Mexican, a chilean, a Native American, an aborigine, would all look not quite right in a black SS uniform on tv.
James McClean is a man of principle. He is also somewhat brave, going against the traditional view in England of marking Remembrance Sunday by wearing a poppy. His view isn’t religious. He knew it wouldn’t be popular. Most of the 70 million Brits respect his right to have his views. A minority have responded with anti irish, religious and political slurs.
It’s illegal, definitely sectarian, but is it racism? Well yes it is if you use some of the slack definitions of race. It is therefore racism to verbally attack the DUP Irish Scots or Rangers supporters, using the same rule base.
Let’s call it what it legally is, Sectarian bigotry and abuse.
SRtRC should add Sectarianism to their brief and become SR&StRC.
https://www.uefa.com/MultimediaFiles/Download/uefa/KeyTopics/448328_DOWNLOAD.pdf
UEFA’s working definition is contained in this document.
The abuse of Irish players in Britain clearly falls within this category.
You are grasping for an out.
There is none.
Slide 4 of 18 is the crux of it and the first paragraph defining racism is straight from the dictionary.
I fully disagree that white European Irish players in England meet any of the definition there.
The Irish were an intrinsic part of the uk and one racial people. They made a political decision to go independent. It didn’t change their race.
You’re way out on a limb trying to shoehorn the Irish into that. They are not Roma, they are not gypsies or a racial minority. They are not Pakistanis nor Indians in Britain. They are not ethnically different.
As it’s a working document it needs clarified and strengthened such that erroneous interpretation cannot be accomplished.
You’ll be telling us that the English, Scots and Welsh are different races next!
Phil,
I have and read in various media outlets (cough) when the various songbooks come out ‘We can’t arrest everyone’ and I have heard of replies being ‘one would be a start’ and rightly so ,
To me, there is a very simple and straightforward remedy to all of this ,
Have cameras, or body’s identifying the culprits (not difficult) once this has been confirmed, EMPTY the stand in question, everyone! Arrest the culprits on exiting , the police are paid handsomely to police grounds let them earn their money and not be Ornaments. If it happens again REPEAT and if it means 4 empty stands, so be it, the penny will soon drop when, the full impact of arrest and charge follows, there is no place in football grounds for such vile conduct.my post is very neutral in its context and covers all football grounds and supporters.
Also ,this is only my opinion.
Show Racism The Red Carpet (sorry, Card) Scotland haven’t reported on this, unlike the main SRtRC who called out the alleged racism of Morelos.
SRtRC is a serious anti-discrimnation body that will call out descrimination in all its form without prejudice.
SRtRC(Scotland) won’t; it will ignore the discrimination of James McLean (nb virulently on display in Scotland) whilst ignoring, minimising and deflecting from a certain club’s adherent’s misdemeanours.
It’s not racism therefore of no interest to SRtRC.
Since it’s about poppies and Remembrance Sunday, it’s probably not even about Sectarian bigotry. Unless sectarian slanders were made.
Since poppies and Remembrance Sunday is non political and supported by the whole British political establishment, all parties, protesting it isn’t political either!
It’s merely a preference to remember the war dead or a preference not to.
It’s a political border across Ireland. A division Originally made on religious numbers. If all Donegal had been included in the North it would have been a catholic majority. That would have defeated the purpose. It’s not a racist border, created to separate races.
The border has been in effect no border for twenty years. Long may it continue.
It is of interest to SRtRC who have called it out, rightly, as they’re a campaigning group against all forms of discrimination.
That’s been all over the news the past few days so why you would attempt to deny that says far more about your dubious motives than a credible anti-discrimination body.
The issue is with the Scotland “branch” alone, which has an, err, discriminatory definition of what constitutes discrimination.
Let’s be careful now,
You billy’s were definitely careful when it came to filling the cva pot…..some would say overly hesitant.
Why did you not save your club, none of you did anything, did you not care enough?
Stupid, Stupid Huns.
Timely, accurate and on the button Phil.
I do feel a little sorry for your commenter “Pat O” he seems a little addled and historically confused but hey, it takes all sorts.
Unsupported sources, equating, race, nationality and religion, if he’s stuck I could suggest a few history and psychology books.
To be clear – the abuse that has been endured by James is clearly racial in nature, motivated by racism and should be clearly called out as such, by EVERY responsible body and individual.
Exactly as you have done in this piece
It would be great if there was more content on here informing readers on how ‘Baby Doctor’ and the ‘Left Back’ are getting on, especially now that there is a hiatus with regard to football matters in Scotland.
I being a certified NUJ jorno would also like to hear more about ‘Baby doctor, and ‘Left Back’
perhaps an insight into what actually went on at ‘Davos for Geeks’ would illuminate us further in these grim times of no fitba.
If my old mentor Mecklen taught me one thing, mentioning your antecedents and their achievments was always high upon the list in the varied world of journalism.
#snigger
The tales of baby doctor and her automotive mishaps are indeed hilarious. As for the Korean left back, thigh slapping ribaldry.
Keep ’em comin’ Phil
The English FA and club call it Sectarian Abuse and Discriminatory behaviour, neither call it racism.
They are not calling it out as racism. You have made that up.
I have read university papers that class the Irish and Great British Island populations as being of the same race. This was upheld in a court case whereby an Englishman accused his employers In Scotland of racism. The Judge explained it cannot be racism as all indigenous British Isles people are the same race.
What we have basically is religion and politics dividing the same race of people. It’s about catholic’s and Protestants and DUP and Sinn Fein and that stuff.
McClean is targeted for not wearing a poppy and speaking out against it. if it was racism, every Irish player in the EPL would be targeted.
Are you suggesting Irish diaspora around the world are not the same race as other north european immigrant locals? Australia, Canada,… or Scottish Catholic’s are not the same race as Scottish Protestants? That’s absurd!
Similarly, DUP supporting Protestants being a different race to Sinn Fein supporting catholic’s is nonsense.
Republic of Ireland Dublin Church of Ireland Protestants who wear their poppies alongside Republic of Ireland catholic’s are not different races, nor are they different to McClean.
The people who were unfortunately shot on Bloody Sunday and those paras pulling the triggers were the same race.
McClean’s problem isn’t racism. It’s religion, politics and cultural (without being racial cultural).
The McClean’s arrived on the Innishowen peninsula, Donegal in various waves from the Scottish Hebrides throughout history. As Gallowglass warriors and as Reformation refugees who did not convert to Protestantism. On Mull, Coll and Tiree their name is MacLean/ McLean and MacLaine/McLaine. Those clan cousins stayed behind and converted under reformation pressures.
His race for your information is British Hebridean. Before which the Irish (or Scots as the Romans knew them) settled on the Hebrides (St Columba and his travellers at the vanguard).
Put in your box there Phil HH
By your reckoning then Pat, if Nigeria was still under British rule, then we could call the Nigerians anything we wanted to without fear of being racist?
I must tell my Nigerian wife that tale, she will be somewhat amused.
Thanks for that dumb comment Johnny that speaks volumes to readers. Let’s let readers discern for themselves. Nigerians are black Africans. There’s dozens of different tribes in Nigeria with different cultures. They fought each other brutally in the past. Irish are White North European Caucasians. There’s clearly at least two different tribes, split on religious and political beliefs. But they are the same race as the rest of the continent.
Any numbskull who thinks the Irish are a unique race living on its own wee island are dafties. And if you think we’re Celts too then you’re deluded and a daftie.
There’s no such thing as a Celtic race. There were CELTIC tribes. They came out of southern Germany and populated lots of Europe. Hence the concept of Irish Celts being a unique race apart from Europe is daft.
The Irish Government in Dublin does not support the notion that the Irish are a different race.
Pat, the Nigerian analogy was a bit of flippancy on my part, not to be taken seriously.
However according to you then, it’s not to be called anti-Irish racism, so then is it merely anti-Irish sentiment? That’s convenient for some, for it sort of waters down the hatred a bit and makes it more acceptable to society as a whole. Sorry, but the Anti-Irish racism description is more credible and makes more sense to me as it correctly conveys the poisoned message being spread in the toxic manner that it is intended to do so. You may well be technically correct in your assertion that all North Europeans are the one race, but tell that to the haters, for there are many in the UK who have always treated the Irish as a separate second class race of people. Anti-Irish racism is rife in this country and it’s time that fact was recognised.
“Treated the Irish as a separate second class race”
You don’t beat that by declaring yourself a different race. They win.
You are the same race. Declare yourself as equal, not different.
Pat O
Genuine question:
What was Neil Lennon targeted for both in his homeland and in Scotland ?
I don’t think he ever had an issue whilst at Leicester, although I’m not sure ?
James
In my view NL suffered anti Irish abusiveness and sectarian abusiveness to the same levels as racism.
But it could not be racism. He’s the same race as the perpetrators.
I believe the perpetrators would wish him to be of a different race, and be racist towards him, but he’s the same race. They want to treat him as inferior and from a different race. But he is neither inferior nor of a different race. There are no inferior races or people anyway.
Deciding you are of a different race is not the answer. The courts should punish sectarianism and anti Irish abusiveness to the same standard as racism. It is perpetrated to the same standard.
It’s a hate crime.
Celtic could do with players with the same fire in their belly that James possesses.
First class post Phil,
Happy new year and power to your pen.