James McClean is slowly winning around those who begrudge his principles.
It’s that time of the year again where the Republic of Ireland international doesn’t so much make a stand, he just tries to mind his own business but people can’t help going out of their way to actively take offence to someone else’s personal decision.
English clubs sport poppies on their jerseys at this time of year to remember military personnel who have died in war. Unfortunately for a large number in the north of Ireland and for men like James McClean and his Derry natives, those wars saw their own people fall.
The remembrance of British soldiers carries sad memories for nationalists in the north of Bloody Sunday in Derry or horrific stories from the H-Block or the struggles against the British army – The Troubles, as we all know them. McClean has already explained all this in his open letter about not wearing a poppy and he does not need to go through it every single year.
“I have complete respect for those who fought and died in both World Wars,” he wrote back in 2014.
“I mourn their deaths like every other decent person and if the Poppy was a symbol only for the lost souls of World War I and II I would wear one.
“I want to make that 100% clear. You must understand this.
“But the Poppy is used to remember victims of other conflicts since 1945 and this is where the problem starts for me.
“For people from the North of Ireland such as myself, and specifically those in Derry, scene of the 1972 Bloody Sunday massacre, the poppy has come to mean something very different. Please understand that when you come from Creggan like myself or the Bogside, Brandywell or the majority of places in Derry, every person still lives in the shadow of one of the darkest days in Ireland’s history – even if like me you were born nearly 20 years after the event. It is just a part of who we are, ingrained into us from birth.
“For me to wear a poppy would be as much a gesture of disrespect for the innocent people who lost their lives in the Troubles – and Bloody Sunday especially – as I have in the past been accused of disrespecting the victims of WWI and WWII.
“It would be seen as an act of disrespect to those people; to my people.”
Still it comes up. People fishing for retweets on Twitter urge you to share their post if you think James McClean is a “disgrace”. Fueling the anger and then some.
But you see the support emerge.
https://twitter.com/OnTheTerraces_/status/792696930845466624
On the same week that FIFA has moved to ban both England and Scotland from wearing poppies in an international game because it is deemed as political, James McClean is yet again subject to scrutiny because he won’t allow himself to be forced into sharing and supporting someone else’s political views.
I often wonder that if James McClean was from Iraq or Afghanistan – or any other place that has recently and directly lost people in conflict with Britain – would he still be forced to show his support by wearing a poppy?
His beliefs, his traditions, and his people are no less significant than anyone else’s – they should be respected. All he’s trying to do is mind his own business. Everyone else should do the same.
He’s got his own principles and he’s his own man with his own history – why would anyone want to pretend otherwise?
All this will soon blow over once more and it will come back again next year. The outrage, the offence, the disgrace of it all. When all is said and done – and that’s a method James McClean has had to live by – he can rest easy in his own knowledge that he’s a decent person.
This is the 8th known time in 10 months that James McClean has sought out Derry people just to help https://t.co/CQKwRisoNl @sportsjoedotie
— Conán Doherty (@ConanDoherty) July 29, 2016
But more importantly, he’s still his own person.
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