[hibeejim21]

Under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement, people in Northern Ireland are entitled to hold an Irish passport, a British passport or both, so it's not just an FA or FIFA ruling; McClean is (presumably) an Irish citizen by choice and by law.

The media, sadly, will do anything that shifts copies and generates clicks, and there's not a lot that can be done about that except to boycott the worst offenders for sensationalism and mob-baiting.

The funny thing is that back in the days when it was mostly British players in the league, we didn't do poppies on shirts.  Every club observed a minute's silence before Saturday 3pm kick-off on the day before Remembrance Sunday, and if your side was away that week, so be it.  It's only within the last ten or fifteen years that the shirt thing has come about, and clubs having their remembrance ceremony in October because it's the closest home game to the 11th.  I understand why, and I sympathise with the reasons (if nothing else, it generates more money for the Royal British Legion, which is unequivocally a good thing), but it also starts to feel a bit more hollow and artificial as players from all around the world are wearing a symbol they don't even understand, and some are put in the position of being pariahs because they refrain on grounds of conscience.

Then again, at least the silence is impeccably observed nowadays.  Back in the day, when it was more "authentic", the band of dickheads you get at every ground would usually end up chanting through it.  Swings and roundabouts, I suppose.

Absolutely spot on.

However anyone on the island of Ireland was entitled to a Republic passport long before the GFA as far as I know.

As for mc clean he is 100% irish, not "northern irish", he doesn't need any spurious links to claim that either. His reasons for not wearing the poppy might not be popular in some quarters but they are totally understandable and he has explained the reasoning behind it repeatedly.