James McClean: 'Wearing the poppy was just never going to happen' as death threats and police guard scar 14-year English career

'A madman'? McClean sets the record straight

"The perception of me is that, basically, I am a madman," James McClean says calmly. "I'm outspoken. I'm a loudmouth. I'm very opinionated and I hate all things British. That's from people who don't know me. The reality is quite the opposite. I'm pretty boring. I go training, go home and switch off. A lot of my days are quite bland, quite basic."

McClean sounds as sane as he looks gaunt on a bleak Monday in Derry. He spent 14 years in English football, and the fact that he is now at war with his own club, Derry City, cannot obscure the fact that he is the fifth-most-capped Republic of Ireland international, having played 103 times. "People define success in different ways," he says, "but I'm the only footballer from the north of Ireland to win over 100 caps for Ireland. I played 150 Premier League games over five seasons, 800 professional games and won a lot of individual accolades. I count that as success and don't look back with regrets."

The stance that 'completely changed me'

But there is sadness, too, in the way his life and career were scarred by his refusal to wear the poppy when playing games around Remembrance Sunday in England. "It's completely changed me as a person," McClean says. "It's made me a bit of a recluse because I don't trust a lot of people now. I've been stung bad."

McClean's autobiography, The Walls, is described as one of the best sports books of the year — a powerful and sometimes disturbing read elevated by his willingness to show himself in an unflattering light. To understand his position, the context of Derry is essential. McClean comes from Creggan, the estate affected most on Bloody Sunday in 1972, when 14 unarmed civilians were killed by the British army in Derry; six of the fatalities were from Creggan. In 2010, after the Saville report finally concluded that all the victims posed no threat, then British prime minister David Cameron apologised for the "unjustified and unjustifiable" massacre.

McClean was born in Derry in 1989 and writes that "learning how to make a petrol bomb was one of my first life lessons. I was 11 before I'd properly mastered it." He pauses when asked how he would feel if any of his three daughters or his 11-year-old son ended up making petrol bombs. "I'm very thankful they don't have to. It's a different era now. I just want them to be proud to be Irish."

The 37-year-old spells out the contrast with his youth. "I grew up in a very Republican community still dealing with the effects of the Troubles. You would see gunmen on the street. People got shot, kneecapped. To get access to my street you had to go through a lane where you sometimes saw masked men doing punishment beatings. But you weren't scared. You knew you'd done nothing wrong. That was the norm … but it's not normal."

'Wearing the poppy was just never going to happen'

McClean was 22 when Steve Bruce signed him for Sunderland in August 2011. He made his Premier League debut that December after Bruce was replaced by Martin O'Neill, and soon became a regular starter. That first season was full of joy — until November 2012, when the poppy issue began.

Everything changed when he told Sunderland he would not wear the poppy because it also represented the British army that had occupied Derry for so long. "There was never a decision for me to make," he says. "Wearing the poppy was just never going to happen. It was a very difficult year and I felt a lot of that could have been handled better by the club. But Sunderland came out with a statement before the game which drew all eyes on me. It was there to protect the club. They basically said this is James's personal decision but we, as a club, wholeheartedly support the poppy appeal.

"I wanted to make my own statement but I was constantly told by the club that: 'No, no, it'll die over. Just leave it.' I'd just turned 23 and I thought the club had a duty of care to look after me and that's what they were doing. I'd won the player of the year the previous season but I felt they hung me out to dry."

Death threats and a police guard

McClean recalls that the next game — away to Fulham on a Sunday, live on Sky — brought a threat that he would be shot if he came on to the pitch. "I remember [his wife] Erin panicking. It sounds extreme and people might say: 'Oh, wise up, you're not going to be shot on TV.' But the night before the game I was assigned two police officers to stand outside my door. So the Met police took it seriously and that made it more real." O'Neill brought him on in the second half and his every touch was booed — by both the Fulham and Sunderland supporters.

The vitriol poisoned his world. McClean kept searching for his name on Twitter and became furious whenever, after a respectful encounter with a member of the public, that person would go online to abuse him. Sometimes he would track the person down and demand an apology. "Maybe that madness was always there, but it got stronger," he notes.

From Wigan to Wrexham — and the cost

McClean moved to Wigan before joining West Brom, where in "the best kind of madness" he earned £42,000 a week during his best spell in the Premier League. But as one poppy season blurred into another, the death threats kept coming, as did warnings that Erin would be raped. "My reaction was always to fight fire with fire. I went into some games in the wrong frame of mind. It wasn't: 'Can I help the team?' It was: 'I hope I score today so I can shush them up.'"

He admits: "There were days where I went looking for the conflict." He posted a photograph of himself listening to his favourite Wolfe Tones song, The Broad Black Brimmer. "I knew exactly what I was doing," McClean writes. "It was an IRA song – and I was sure it would rile a certain type of person up."

By the time he reached Stoke — for whom he played 111 games between 2018 and 2021 — his problems in English football reached a new low. "Brexit made the idiots louder" and "the poppy season seemed to be getting longer every year". He also made a mistake during lockdown when he posted a photograph of himself, wearing a balaclava, with his two eldest children below a caption which read: 'Today's school lesson – History.' McClean thought he was being funny, but his choice not to wear the poppy, in contrast, was heartfelt. "I thought others might have followed suit but it never turned out to be the case."

Did he feel a more rounded understanding of his stance had emerged by the time he enjoyed his happiest seasons in English football at a Hollywood-tinged Wrexham from 2023 to earlier this year? "A wee bit, aye. When you explain it to footballers you've played with, and to people on a personal level, it opens their eyes and they say: 'Oh, I understand that.' But the overall British population? I don't think so."

Reflecting on the elite

Reflecting on his Premier League years, McClean marvels at the brilliance of Kevin De Bruyne and Eden Hazard. "You had to accept there were lads capable of doing things that were beyond you," McClean writes. "But there were also games where I thought I was coming up against a physical strength that I found suspicious. Coming back into the Premier League after a break convinced me that some players had to be benefiting from some kind of performance-enhancing support."