Non-British readers may never have heard of Wigan, so I’ll start by saying it’s a town in north-western England, and if non-Brits have heard of it, likely it’s because of Orwell’s Road to Wigan Pier.
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I’ve never been there, but have seen road signs pointing off the M6 motor-way, so can confirm it’s part of the UK, which, I’m sure you know, means the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. That’s important with regard to the topic this morning.
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. http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/football-league/james-mcclean-wigan-midfielder-explains-his-refusal-to-wear-a-remembrance-poppy-on-his-shirt-9848447.html
That’s an extract from a letter sent by somebody called James McLean, who plays for the town’s football (soccer) team.
He’s been booed (good!) for his refusal to wear a Remembrance Poppy on his jersey, and his letter is his attempt at self-exculpation.
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Turns out this specimen has a history, but even before we look at that, the very language he uses gives him away for what he is.
The ‘North of Ireland…’ ‘Derry.’
The treason talk of Ulster’s disloyal minority.
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Vandal traitors at work
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You can spot them by their usage of those terms, which are their way of dissing Ulster’s British identity. They can’t bring themselves to use the proper name for the Province, which is Northern Ireland. The city he hails from is famed for the heroic Seige. Loyal British Ulsterfolk have no hesitation about invoking its memory. Those whose allegiance is to a foreign state will not utter the name of Londonderry.
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County Londonderry, Northern Ireland
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Mere linguistic quibbling on my part to damage McLean’s image? Hardly – here’s an extract from another report on his treacherous stance.
.. he signed for Sunderland from Derry City and stated his ‘dream’ was to play for the Republic of Ireland. ..
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2508906/James-McClean-Twitter-row-online-rant-newspaper.html
Yet he comes from a British city in a Province of the UK? No dream of playing for Northern Ireland? No, he has made it plain he prefers to play for a foreign side rather than the place he was born in!
That same Daily Mail report mentions that he has declared his enthusiasm for an IRA song. No surprise there.
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When he made his disloyal choice public, he was rightly named a ‘turncoat’ in the Belfast Telegraph, 8th August 2011. He himself told The Score that he only ever viewed a previous move to join Northern Ireland’s squad as purely to help his career. (1oth May, 2012)
McLean’s no man of principle, indisputably, but his response was to accuse the newspaper of being ‘sectarian’ and staffed by ‘bigots.’
Bigots? Because they drew the obvious conclusion from his own stated preference for another country over his own?
No wonder he won’t sport a poppy.
He stands exposed as a rabid republican, no better than those Sudeten-Germans in 1938 who cheered on Hitler not only for his annexation of the border lands where they predominated, but also in his subjugation of the entire Czech nation.
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An identical ambition to that of McLean and his ilk, who share Sinn Fein’s evil dream of all Ulsterfolk being subjected to Dublin rule.
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