Neil Lennon: Man and Bhoy. Neil Lennon

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      I then played against Partick at Firhill in something of a strange dream. At the start I was applauded by both sets of supporters—I will always be grateful to the Thistle fans for that gesture. But my mind wasn’t really on the game.

      I received messages of support from across the world, some of it from most surprising places. There was a letter from leading Unionist politician David Irvine expressing his abhorrence of what had happened and Unionist party leader David Trimble stated his concerns.

      Michael Boyd of the Irish FA’s Community Relations Department wrote to say: ‘The IFA’s Community Relations Department is 100 per cent behind you at what must be a very difficult period of your career. In partnership with the supporters we are working hard to eradicate sectarianism from the game in Northern Ireland. Much progress has been made in this area in recent years and that is why it is so disappointing what happened at the Cyprus game. We are all totally gutted and frustrated that the actions of a very small minority have taken away from all the very positive work being carried out by our supporters to make the game more inclusive.’

      John McMillan, chairman of the Rangers Supporters Association, told the press that what had happened was ‘absolutely disgusting’. He added: ‘These are not football fans. I don’t care who is involved or which side the threats come from, it is terrible for any person to be treated in that way. It’s hard to imagine what it must be like when you’re not in Neil Lennon’s position, but I would probably feel the same way as he does. I would hope for his own sake that he does continue in international football, but I can understand you have to think about your own safety and that of your family.’ Thanks for that, John—I believe that to be an eloquent expression of the feelings of most ordinary decent fans, whatever their club.

      Even the British Government got involved. Northern Ireland Deputy First Minister Mark Durkan said: ‘The sectarian threats against Neil Lennon are deplorable. Sectarianism and paramilitarism should not intrude into the sporting arena.’

      Around the world, it seemed that every major newspaper and broadcaster carried the story—it even made headlines in the USA where soccer is rarely regarded as newsworthy. I suppose that for a short period I was one of the most famous players on the planet, though not for a reason I would ever have wanted.

      Some pundits would later say that I had been ill-advised to call for the football teams of Northern Ireland and the Republic to be united, but not for the first or last time, they were misquoting or misunderstanding what I had said in an interview some weeks before the match. I had said that a team drawn from all of Ireland’s thirty-two counties would do better than the two separate teams. In saying that I was only recognizing that in rugby union, all Ireland played as one and did so very successfully. But at no point did I say the two countries should unite, in football or politically. In fact, I was only stating the same position as the late George Best, the greatest of all Northern Irish players. But then he didn’t play for Celtic.

      In the aftermath, much was made of the fact that the call was apparently a hoax. Two detectives from the PSNI came to Glasgow to interview me and said it was probably a hoax, but they had taken it seriously enough to trace the call and found it came from a phone box in Rathcoole in north Belfast. But how does anyone actually know that it was a hoax? How can anyone prove 100 per cent that the caller was not some deranged lunatic with a gun? In Northern Ireland and elsewhere I had seen players assaulted on the pitch by fans—what if one of them had a gun and wanted to make a name for himself?

      One English journalist wrote I was a ‘big girl’s blouse’ for not risking death. Funnily enough, he never had the courage to say that to my face…

      Maybe I could have gone out and played but what kind of focus would I have had? How could anyone perform to their best in such a situation? The fact is that I did not play that night and have never played for Northern Ireland since, and therefore the caller did not need to carry out the threat, so we will never know for certain whether or not it was a hoax. That reasoning seems to have been lost on the alleged intellect of people like that English journo.

      What might have been the most upsetting speculation was that pulling out of the game served some sort of hidden agenda on my part. But I did not let that nonsense upset me because you cannot reason with idiocy like that. It’s the sort of biased reasoning which has seen me burned in effigy on the tops of bonfires across Northern Ireland on 12 July, the great Unionist and Protestant day of celebration—I must be rivalling Guy Fawkes for being ‘toasted’.

      After that weekend, things did die down a little, and I was left to pick up the pieces. I took a long time to recover fully and it did affect my form for Celtic. But in the long run it may have been a blessing as quitting the international game may have prolonged my club career. I long ago concluded that I was correct to make my decision to quit, even though I have had tinges of regret—though I have never missed the exhausting trips to out-of-the-way places like Moldova.

      It had been an awful experience, not least because it was my first real contact with the people and issues of ‘the Troubles’. I had never made public my political views or my religious leanings, but here was I, a footballer, being treated as some sort of public hate figure, not because I was making statements but because I was a Catholic who wore the green and white hoops of Celtic.

      What message did it send to young Catholics in Northern Ireland that they could be singled out for such treatment if they ever played for Celtic? A lot of Catholics will not attend matches at Windsor Park—after what happened to me, can you blame them?

      The plan for a new national stadium, principally for football, to be built elsewhere in Northern Ireland could be a good start in uniting the country behind its sportspeople, as used to happen with our football team and individuals like Olympic champion Mary Peters and world champion boxer Barry McGuigan. I think that a new stadium will be a big step forward for sport in Northern Ireland.

      In the meantime there is undoubtedly a cancer in the society of Northern Ireland and it will take a long time to excise. But that cancer should not be allowed to infect sport.

      You can argue that the Old Firm have profited from being on the two sides of the sectarian divide, and I would not disagree. But events have often been way beyond their control and what happened to me was a wholly different matter—the incidents took place in the international arena while I was playing for my country; they were seen by the whole world as disgraceful; and they damaged me as a person.

      I have to confess I was scarred by those events. I will admit now that I really and truly was in fear for my life at times. No one can undergo such an experience and not be affected. And yes, it made me bitter against the ‘other side’ for a time, something I had never been before. But I have accepted things and in time I have lost that bitterness. I believe it all made me a stronger person in the long run.

      I had to be strong, for it was not to be the last time I would be assailed and indeed assaulted because I played for Celtic.

       CHAPTER TWO A Lurgan Bhoy

      There is a noise that occasionally haunts me. It is the noise of the Troubles in the 1970s and 1980s, the time when I was growing up in a country that was trying to tear itself apart. The particular sounds I recall are those of whistles blowing, women wailing and metal clashing. It was the noise that signified death, and is one of the strongest memories from my childhood.

      I was born in Carlton Home, Portadown, Northern Ireland, on 25 June 1971, the second child of Gerry and Ursula Lennon, née Moore, of Lurgan in County Armagh. I was christened Neil, but it might well have been Cornelius as I was called СКАЧАТЬ