What a moronic historically ignorant little jerk and a spoiled brat with it.
Wrexham footballer James McClean is facing a furious backlash for his Remembrance Day protest but has doubled down insisting he will ‘never bend the knee’ or wear the poppy as it ‘honours British soldiers who committed brutal crimes’ in Ireland.
The 35-year-old Irishman posted a statement on his Instagram account this morning after a clip resurfaced of the Wrexham captain comparing British soldiers to ‘terrorists’.
Okay, Internment was a bad idea as it ultimately led to an increase in IRA recruitment, but to claim that British soldiers were terrorists is ahistorical nonsense. British soldiers didn’t kidnap, torture or kneecap people. British soldiers did not target civilians when carrying out bombing as the IRA did. The IRA was a disgusting terror group similar to Hamas in its pure evil.
And he claimed the poppy is ‘now forced on everyone in the UK ‘and god forbid someone doesn’t wear it, the abuse they have to endure’.
I don’t wear one and no one has abused me.
But it has sparked a furious backlash on X as McClean was lambasted and accused of being ‘ignorant’.
He is, but he is not alone. The last time I was in Ireland, I was aware that the famine was being reframed as some sort of British genocide against the Irish. It was not.
McClean’s interview with Kielty in September 2023 was posted on X this morning in which he said there is ‘an arrogance and ignorance [in England] where they’re taught one side of their history’.
Pot meet kettle. The Irish attitude that I have seen – not least for cretins like this one, is of a one-sided and bitter understanding of a complex history. None of what happened in the centuries preceding independence justifies the way the IRA deliberately targeted civilians during what is euphemistically referred to as ‘the troubles.’ That these vile terrorists were rehabilitated as part of the deal was a disgrace – especially as they are now coming after army veterans. McClean is an example of a particular type of Irishman who give that wonderful place and people a bad name. A nasty, bitter little man who should be sent home and never allowed back.
‘They speak about the IRA and this and that as terrorists , and you know we look at the British Army as terrorists as well because of what they inflicted in my home city and throughout the north of Ireland,’ he said.
They were sent there to stop you fuckers killing each other you stupid prick. None of them wanted to be there and were a target once they arrived.
All of this said, no one should be expected to wear a poppy and I’ll defend anyone’s right to decline, whatever reasons they have including pricks like McClean.
I write here as one of Irish heritage – every single member of my family up until me was born in Ireland! – and I am a sympathiser with the idea of a single united island of Ireland. Indeed some of my family had the Black and Tans running up and down the stairs back in the day, and I could tell you a few tales that have been handed down. But the misty-eyed singing of rebel songs and the constant revisionist blather gets a bit wearing. And history is complicated and nobody, no nation, is wholly good or bad. No violent event allows anyone away with clean hands.
For instance, lets look at the Easter Rising. (That it happened at Easter BTW was a masterstroke in such a heavily Catholic country.) Anyway, an armed revolt occurs. It is fails and the leaders are executed – in a rather heavy-handed and charmless way. One of them so heavily wounded that he is carried to the firing squad on a chair. One could sensibly criticise the folks that did that last bit. It was piss-poor politics at the very least.
From the other side of the fence, a nation is involved in the bloodiest war ever to stain the surface of the world. Many Irishmen are fighting and dying “for King and Country”. And then two years in, some jumped up, indecently disloyal bastards take the opportunity to start a ruck in Dublin. Quite rightly, this is given short shrift, is crushed, and a few very of the worst of the bastards are shot. Almost all of the rest are set free within a few years. One could say that the Tommies acted with remarkable restraint given the provocation.
One can present the same “facts” from many viewpoints. Idiots in Wrexham should understand that Remembrance Sunday is a secular few minutes every year for intelligent reflection. It is not for narcissistic posturing by overpaid, overprivileged footie parasites.
It was precisely because the British were tied up with the war that those indecent disloyal bastards did a deal with Germany to raise a rebellion.
Being a Wrexham fan, I will defend McClean slightly – this isn’t a new thing, it’s been a recurring theme over the best part of a decade (and his playing for several clubs) since he first got asked about not wearing a Poppy. He was honest and forthright in his reasons, which is fair enough (regardless of how one-sided/ill informed they might be). It is however the source of an easy story and rage clicks for the media every year, so it’s brought up like clockwork every year.
That said, he is notorious for winding people up about it (as well as flashing various sectarian tattoos around opposing fans), so he fuels it himself too. We had another Irishman in the team yesterday that didn’t wear a poppy, but there are no stories about that because he didn’t/doesn’t make a thing about it.
There is a bit of a Nationalist section to the Wrexham fan base that thinks it’s the best thing ever that he does all this, but ultimately those of us that disagree kind of have the last laugh – the club crest incorporates the Prince of Wales feathers, with the usual inscription of “Ich Dien” (I Serve) 😀
As I said, he should be free to do so. What annoys me is this revisionism that seems to be occurring in Ireland. For someone to be proclaiming a one-sided view on the part of others while epitomising it himself is rank hypocrisy and a lack of self-awareness, so he deserves all the opprobrium he gets.
Oh, I know. The only misstep the Brits made was taking the buggers prisoner in the first place and then marching them to prison so the people could see them alive and orderly. An SAS-style assault would have been a much better idea. No tales. No heroes.
Once they were prisoners, however, it was daft to set them up as martyrs.
I wonder if this fuckface took the knee for BLM. Cunt.
An awful lot of irishmen died in the wars, and second time round this included quite a few who could have passed the opportunity by as Ireland was neutral.
A few years ago wasn’t there some issue the Irish government had with pensions for these latter?
And I believe that in the Irish civil war, a disproportionate number of those the IRA killed were Irishmen who had served in the British army (and whatever you think of it, Ireland was part of Britain at the time) often simply shot after answering a knock on the door.
I have no problem with sincerely held beliefs, or the obnoxiousness of those that may hold them, it’s the insincere that sticks in the craw!
I thought that knowing your history was about learning from the mistakes of the past and, hopefully, trying not to make the same mistakes again. Seems as though I was wrong and what’s really important is holding grudges for several generations on.
I was a student in Edinburgh. The Scots occasionally gave ribbing forb being English, but it was mostly good natured.
However I was assaulted on three separate occasions by Irish people for being English. And there was the time on a bus when a group were singing the lovely song:
We hate the fucking English
We hate the fucking English
And we want them all to die
I got off that bus sharpish.
I will never go to Ireland.
Build a fucking wall around the place.
Cut all ties.
They hate us. Fuck em.
The home rule for Ireland bill was going through parliament when WW1 broke out. It was put on hold for the duration, more important stuff to do. Without the Easter uprising, it would have been restarted once the war was over. Ireland would have been united and in a similar situation as Canada fairly quickly, blame the IRA for the partition, it was their actions that lead to it.