Let’s Hope Celtic’s Irish Winger Does Not Face The Same Bile As Those Before Him Did.

Mikey Johnston has made the decision to represent the Republic of Ireland.

He is to be applauded for taking a decision that he s comfortable with and which offers him peace of mind. He will be a fine representative for their national team, because he is a hugely talented boy.

He has done no different than dozens, if not hundreds, of players on this island before him; selected his “second nation” for which he is eligible as his footballing country.

But in Scotland, of course, that is not a choice that a lot of people would prefer that players had, and when you go from representing Scotland to representing Ireland that is particularly problematic because, to be blunt, much of this country is a racist and sectarian sewer which has no love whatsoever for the Irish and sees it as some form of treason.

Bad enough for these Peepul that you should be a Celtic player, but to “renounce” your country for the one across the water? Awful beyond compare. Some of these people have huge platforms from which to grandstand and spread their bile.

When Aiden McGeady and James McCarthy did this former Scottish international Gordon McQueen called them traitors and said that Scotland fans should boo them. He was far from being alone in expressing his outrage.

And of course, had some psychopath in the stands gone beyond a bit of booing, you would have heard the outrage from these same people lamenting the standard of debate and the state of the world and washing their hands of all responsibility.

The thing I hate more than their conduct is their shamelessness.

Young Mikey has made his choice and we live in a country where people talk about respecting individual choices but where a handful pour their hatreds out on anyone who does, and mark my words there are enough of us now watching who will not tolerate for one second anyone who uses a national platform to attack him for that.

We’ve had too much of this in the past.

The difference is, the majority of the bloggers weren’t around to speak out against these folk. But we’re here now.