Footballer James McClean, wearing an olive green jacket, has a serious expression
James McClean says that the reaction to his refusal to wear the poppy ‘completely changed me as a person’. Photograph: Charles McQuillan/The Guardian
James McClean says that the reaction to his refusal to wear the poppy ‘completely changed me as a person’. Photograph: Charles McQuillan/The Guardian
InterviewJames McClean: ‘Wearing the poppy was just never going to happen’Donald McRae

The former Republic of Ireland international on growing up in a community still reeling from the Troubles and the controversy that scarred his career