Republic of Ireland international James McClean told Patrick Kielty on Friday's Late Late Show that the racist and sectarian abuse he has faced while playing football in the UK is "not going to change" but he is "well versed in how to handle it".
In a wide-ranging interview in the first Late Late Show of the new season and Kielty's first show as host, Derry man McClean was asked about the ongoing fallout from his decision not to wear a poppy during the annual remembrance period in the UK.
"Some things change, some stay the same," said the host. "You've moved a few clubs. You're still getting the abuse from the terraces. Where's your head in all of that these days?"
"It's like a duck to water now," the winger, who recently signed for Wrexham AFC in League Two, replied. "It's not going to change. I'm well used to it. I'm well versed in how to handle it.
"It doesn't change life for me. I go on with my job as normal. There's some things you control and some things you can't control. If people want to be idiots and go and vent their week's frustration in a football match at me, I can't control that. All the best to them."
Kielty then turned to McClean's wife Erin in the audience and asked: "What's it like bringing the kids to the matches and hearing that stuff about James?"
"It's not nice, never has been," she replied.
"But I think we have gotten a bit used to it over the years and I just talk to the children now they've gotten a bit older and I just explain to them, 'Look, you're going to hear not-nice things shouted about daddy, but that's just because he's in the other team. They don't want daddy's team to win'. That's kind of how we play it with them."
"They will ask the questions and I'll try and be as honest as I can without bringing too much detail to it. They're at an age now where they have the questions. It can be tough, but I think we've handled it quite well with them so far," Erin McClean added.
When asked for his "lowest point with all that stuff", James McClean replied: "The lowest point... like me, I'm quite headstrong. You can shout abuse at me all day long and I'll fight fire with fire. I don't mind that. But it becomes a different kettle of fish when your children are brought into it."
"There's only so much you can keep going and keep going and writing back and getting yourself into your own bother by just retaliating," McClean said of social media.
"It's got to the stage now where you just turn all comments off and people can't really get to you. That probably annoys them more, so when they do actually go to games, they kind of bring that out there."
"How much of that comes with the turf?" asked Kielty. "You know, in terms of taking a stand on the poppy is something that's got nationality in it. It's got religion in it. It's got politics in it. All that's playing out in the jungle of football terraces."
"I knew when I took the stance that it wasn't just going to be something that... I knew there was going to be heat off the back of it and I was quite prepared for that," said McClean.
"I was a Derry lad growing up, I have my beliefs. Just because I became a footballer in England doesn't mean I was going to change them."
"It's quite funny, actually, because there's two sides to that history. But over there there's an arrogance and an ignorance where they're taught one side of their history," McClean told the host.
"I understand their beliefs," he concluded. "I don't go 'round trying [to] push my beliefs on them. What I ask for in return is, people have different backgrounds, people have different upbringings, different beliefs. You have yours, I have mine. Just respect mine.
"You don't have to agree. I don't agree with yours, but I don't try to force mine upon you. Over there, it's trying to be forced upon me - and that's what I have an issue with."
Watch the interview in full on the RTÉ Player.
The Late Late Show, Fridays, RTÉ One and the RTÉ Player, 9:35pm
