SOMEWHERE, some little boy is looking up to footballer James McClean and thinking: “I want to be him some day.”

The fifth most-capped Ireland player has shown that determination, practice, and sheer graft can take someone from kicking a ball against a Creggan gable wall to representing their country.

He deserves recognition for that achievement. He should also remember it before shooting his mouth off.

Like it or not, he is a role model.

Time for Carla Lockhart to make her party allegiance clear - The Irish News view

Noel Doran: Unionism remains its own worst enemy

The Derry City winger has rarely been out of the news over the last decade or so, though often for reasons other than his football.

His refusal to wear a poppy was entirely understandable. Not so his 2020 balaclava photo, later deleted, in which he said he was teaching children a “history lesson”.

Then there was his social media post about listening to The Broad Black Brimmer. He told the Guardian last week: “I was sure it would rile a certain type of person up.” Quite.

He has a generous side, too, and has donated to various good causes, including homelessness and men with alcohol addiction in his native Derry. His biological father was a reported heavy drinker.

Human beings are complicated. Adverse........

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