James McClean

Trap junior wrote: I agree with McClean not wearing it. He's from Derry.  But so is MON and Duffy and they wear it. MON would have been there during Bloody Sunday.  Is he an Uncle Tom?

Anything to have a go at MON
Martins from Kilrea, just under an hour from Derry city

Edited by Roberto Baggio - 29 Oct 2017 at 11:19am

Trap junior wrote: I agree with McClean not wearing it. He's from Derry.  But so is MON and Duffy and they wear it. MON would have been there during Bloody Sunday.  Is he an Uncle Tom?

Its hard to say for me and I am from Derry. My two grandas were on the bloody sunday march. Both dead now but when McClean said he wasnt wearing the poppy one granda said- good for him we kept our heads down up north for 50years, acquiesced to the state. Fair play to mcclean he knows a sh*t storm is coming but we wont lie down anymore. My other granda said ah I dont know he is bringing alot onto himself and if he just wore it for 2 hrs who would really care. He has a wife and children- they could get the brunt end of it. And those 2 were on the bloody sunday march. Such a difference of opinion.

Edited by Stickittotheman - 29 Oct 2017 at 11:43am

Watching the farce that was the pre-match memorial at Leicester, not to mention the annual debacle at Ibrox and the fest of neo-colonialism at Wembley last year, I just wonder how far we are from a full scale reenactment of the battle of Ypres before a football match? Or maybe the sinking of the Belgrano might be easier, given the time constraints.

The hype seems to get bigger and bigger. There is undoubtedly peace amongst the European nations, although the UK are trying to unsettle that I suppose. Nobody fromWW1 and few from WW2 are still alive.

It just seems that as mass war seems less and less relevant, the poppy types are getting more and more dogmatic about it.

Any soldier who has found themselves at the wrong end of an enemy’s bullet over the last 60 years has been due to a career choice. Not because you were conscripted and sent to run up a beach into certain death.

pre Madonna wrote: Watching the farce that was the pre-match memorial at Leicester, not to mention the annual debacle at Ibrox and the fest of neo-colonialism at Wembley last year, I just wonder how far we are from a full scale reenactment of the battle of Ypres before a football match? Or maybe the sinking of the Belgrano might be easier, given the time constraints.

Well they had the sinking ship that is Everton. 

inlikeflynn wrote: The hype seems to get bigger and bigger. There is undoubtedly peace amongst the European nations, although the UK are trying to unsettle that I suppose. Nobody fromWW1 and few from WW2 are still alive. It just seems that as mass war seems less and less relevant, the poppy types are getting more and more dogmatic about it. Any soldier who has found themselves at the wrong end of an enemy’s bullet over the last 60 years has been due to a career choice. Not because you were conscripted and sent to run up a beach into certain death.

Edited by pre Madonna - 30 Oct 2017 at 11:11am

Just on the subject of the poppy. I came across this, thought it was pretty good and some might enjoy reading it.

----------------------------

James McClean 💚💚🇮🇪🇮🇪

I see this hype that’s taking up the news
About a certain sportsman and his well-known views
Maybe now I could shed some light
On a certain country and it’s plight.
Well you burned all our churches but we’ll say no more
And cut to 1711, Donegal Shore.
A priest said Mass upon a soggy leafy Floor.

Red Coats came, his head chopped off
All because he was a man of the cloth.
Dander across that ancient bridge
Wolfe Tone was captured just over the ridge
The Forefather of republicanism who sliced his own throat, so the English soldiers couldn’t kill him and gloat.

The famine came, you did not help
A million starved, you assisted their death.
Up and down our ancient land “let them starve” was your command.
Penal laws with brutal force
Your ways and laws tried to endorse.
Rape and plunder was your deed
We lost a million to the seas.

Time ticked on like so it must
You thought that you had had us sussed.
Then came Easter 1916, the flag was hoisted, emerald green
We’d serve no Kaiser or foreign King.
Rebellion crushed, you shot our men
But you knew that we’d be back again.

Black and Tans and Auxies too
Burned our towns and raped a few.
English soldiers on Irish soil made life a chore, enslaved in toil.
The IRA then came about, with one objective
To get you out!

The Treaty came in 21’ some thought we lost and others won.
Divided our country, split in two
Freedom for them, but not us few.
Gerrymandering, Unionist rule, a Protestant state, the ridicule.
A Unionist police force, no Catholic vote.
Thousands again boarded the boats.

Dogs of war in the RUC, ran amok on sectarian sprees.
The summer of love in 69’
But not for Derry nor Ardoyne.
Catholic poverty, no rights or jobs
Bombay Street burned to the ground by loyalist mobs.

The RUC then had to retreat; the people of Derry had them beat.
They left the Bogside in throngs and swoops, and then came the boats carrying your troops.
A welcome at first was indeed rolled out, your intentions then well, we had our doubts.
Seamus Cusack, Dessie Beattie, you shot them dead, unarmed in our city.
Francy McCloskey, Sammy Devenney, shot and beaten, the first of many.
Civil Rights protesters attacked and killed
Internment came, new prisons built.
Bombay Street, Duke Street, Bloody Sunday.
‘No-go Zones’ and Robert Lundy.
Thirteen people in one day
Your army killed and then ran away.
Most of them were in their teens, their killers decorated and honoured by your queen.
Rubber bullets, C.S gas, petrol bombs and broken glass.
Hunger Strikes “defeat the croppy”
Tell me now if I’m getting too soppy
But this is why I’ll not wear your poppy.

British soldiers have long disgraced
Their nation’s reputation with the Irish race.
So pin that poppy to your breast
But don’t do it on Irish behest.
We’ll let you remember your ‘gallant’ dead
And we’ll remember what they done here instead.

Pete Cavanagh
Derry City, Ireland

Fair play to Marty and note no bleeding poppy (excuse the pun) needed 

Territorial wrote: Trap junior wrote: I agree with McClean not wearing it. He's from Derry.  But so is MON and Duffy and they wear it. MON would have been there during Bloody Sunday.  Is he an Uncle Tom? Agree that the likes of Martin O'Neill probably wear the Poppy just to avoid the usual fuss etc. But when he got the invitation to the Palace, he could have politely declined and no-one would have known a thing about it: <span ="_tgc="" _y9e"="">M.B.E. - Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire. </span>

An empire which no longer exists. So he’s a member of nothing.