Stoke midfielder James McClean
The Derry-born internatinoal shared a direct message on his Instagram story sent to him from a user that said: “Don’t make me set your house on fire and burn everyone inside it”.
James has been suffering sectarian abuse both on and off the pitch in England from both football and non-football supporters.
Most of the abuse is directed at him because he stands by his principle not to wear a poppy on his shirt during Remembrance weekend.
The 31-year-old had posted a statement on his Instagram page on Friday:
“Banging my head against a brick wall here but look i have been doing that anyways for a long time so one more wont make a difference
“Soo much coverage this past couple weeks about discrimination and the condemnation of it across media outlets, players, ex players etc which is great to see because its wrong and idiots should be held responsible for their actions and words as no body should be subjected to that.
“Make no mistake about it or to take anything away from that but just to pose the question really, racism, gender, ethnic..the list of discrimination that goes on is unacceptable right.
“My question is here… does being abused for being irish and anti irish abuse acceptable ? Is it not popular enough to be seen to be knowledged or spoke out about too?
“I have highlighted the abuse publicly on social media recently and the silence from everyone is deafening!
“If you are offended by me saying that then maybe that tells you something
“We are not criminals, we are irishmen! This the crime we stand accused.”
On Sunday, two days after James posted the public statement, McClean again took to Instagram to share some of the abuse he and his family had received, sharing a screenshot of private messages he had been sent by one man.
The messages included the person stating he hoped “for everyone’s sake you just f*** off outta this world,” followed by union flag emojis.
“F*** the IRA and f*** Ireland you c****,” one message read, while another demanded “Answer me you stupid ginger pr***.”
The man then wrote “Don’t make me set your house on fire and burn everyone inside it.”
Sharing the image, McClean wrote on his Instagram story that “the above abuse is fine, that’s water [off] a ducks back”.
But “you mention stuff like [the] last message there and anything involving my kids, that’s crossing the line”.
He went on to say that if “this wee pr***” wanted to repeat the message to his face “I’d happily slap the head off him”.
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