A strange cup final. Basically Arsenal won through their world class striker - where would they be without him. And Chelsea suffered with injuries and the wrong end of a few calls.
I wonder if anyone noticed Arsenal's Kieran Tierney risk the ire of English football fans by refusing to sing GSTQ?
This stupid song should be outlawed ! In any case, can't the singing of such tripe be regarded as bringing politics into sport ?
At the risk of offending others, I tend to agree with the first part - but am not sure about the second. You should probably be glad that you don't live in Australia - the national anthem is played before virtually every sports match there is. Nothing wrong with national pride - but that is taking it to annoying extremes.
I've got nothing against a bit of national pride BB, but the British anthem is only relevant for royalists and has no meaning for anyone else.
True - but they are actually English. Non-English players who don't pay homage to the flag or anthem tend to cop abuse from fans and media - as James McClean knows only too well.
As a musician, it's an awful dirge of a tune. As an Englishman it's not even exclusively "ours". As a Brit it's not representative of the whole nation. As an atheist I have no empathy with the lyrics. As a sports fan it's all a bit embarrassing. I stand for the anthem out of politeness, but I have long since stopped singing it as I neither believe in god nor the divine right of kings. "Jerusalem", paradoxically, has more meaning and the historicity behind it is poignant, though it is of England and not Great Britain. "Rule Britannia" might be more relevant, if dated. Like I really care... I am ethnically mostly Celtic with mainly Welsh and Irish antecedents and an English lineage from my maternal grandmother directly back to, illegitimately apparently, the Duke of Wellington. Yes, that Duke of Wellington. Who was Irish!
James McClean is seen as a traitor and a rebel. Given my heritage and family military service over each generation I've managed to trace it is difficult not to have some sympathy for that position.
To clarify: I'll boo him everytime I see him stepping onto a pitch. Otherwise he will see my back. I fully respect his right to live and work in England however big a hypocrite that makes him I my book. He has the right and I have the right to dissent, to voice my opinion of him here. I don't have the right to hound him, much less his family, there is a distinct difference between banter and abuse.
There are quite a few in Glasgow who seem to imbue both the anthem and the flag with oragasmic qualities. They are mostly of Irish (the northern variety) Protestant descent - the Orange Order, who can be found marching through Glasgow every July, spitting hatred at Catholics, suspected or otherwise. I've never been able to understand their worldview - they claim allegiance to the English royal family by paying homage to a Dutch king who was a homosexual Catholic. Is that typically Irish?
I think that that simply confirms that there is a divide - probably an unsurmountable one. You both have valid points of view shaped by your experiences and there's no answer to that. Being both Scottish and Australian, like many from both countries I have developed a certain level of dislike for the British 'Establishment', whose attitude towards, and treatment of, both has been questionable to say the least - both historically and recently. What really gets my goat is the oft-repeated claim that Scots are anti-English - it's simply not true. Anti-English Establishment, yes - but the English people, certainly not. For those reasons, I probably sympathise with James McClean.
The difference is that James McClean isn't your average "Scot". The wounds of Ulster are fresher on both sides of the divide. Needs more time, I consider him to be... unhelpful.
I agree that bringing either God or the royals into a national anthem is misplaced and is likely to exclude millions of atheists and republicans (I own to being one but not the other). Heaven forbid that 'Rule Britannia' was ever chosen - I do not want to rule any waves and hold in contempt anyone that ever wanted to. I feel we need an anthem which people in the UK can really relate to like eg. 'Dead End Street' by the Kinks or 'Eat the rich' by Motorhead .
He was good for us - just could never last a game. Mind you least he did play unlike Success and now Gray.
