Scurrilous attack on all Gaels and Nationalists by O'Reilly's rag

[Evil Genius]

The point is that Anton Rogan was on the receiving end of shameful sectarian abuse whilst playing for N.Ireland at Windsor Park not the semantics of when and who he was playing against

My point was that Aerlik described in graphic detail a sequence of events which quite simply didn't happen, despite his asserting unequivocally "It did happen. I was there."

He got the date wrong.
He got the score wrong.
He got his location wrong.
Above all, he got his main point totally wrong, since Anton Rogan didn't actually make his home debut until two years after Aerlik set foot in Windsor for the last time.

So I assume what Aerlik really meant was "It did happen. Or maybe it didn't. Either way, I was there. Or maybe I wasn't. Anyhow, Anton Rogan most definitely was there. Except he wasn't."

As for Rogan's NI career generally, he did indeed receive abuse on account of his being a Celtic player and that is deplorable. However, he also received a standing ovation when substituted in the 84th minute of the victory over Uruguay in 1990, in recognition of what was his finest display in an NI shirt.

Either way, you are referring to events which occurred twenty-odd years ago. A great deal has changed since then - even if your bigoted thinking is still the same.

Presumably it is this passage of time which allows Rogan himself to offer this perspective:
"After that first game as a Celtic player there was a little hassle for me in Northern Ireland games but nothing serious. In fact, I think I became quite well liked by the Windsor fans because they knew I always gave 100% for Northern Ireland"
(Belfast Telegraph, 22/03/01)

[Main Street]

Tony  -the facts are that abuse happened - it was the catalyst for FFA
its your interpretation and exaggeration of the facts that is the problem, along
with a lot of rhetoric

I'm curious if you think the following is exaggerated.
Context is 99% imo with this Lennon incident.
Accounts of Lennon (provence wide) RIP Graffiti before the Norway game.
Big publicity of the condemnation of the hate campaign against Lennon. Lennon was then coming to town to play against Norway.
McIlroy  before the Norway game on the hate campaign
"We do not want anything like that."The Windsor Park crowd have been magnificent since I took over and I want to keep that going."
Despite all the hate campaign plus the RIP graffiti Lennon turned out for NI.
What I heard over the  TV mics on satellite, the loud booing directed at Lennon was fierce and sustained, it didn't let up or diminish throughout the half. Over the TV mics I didn't hear any cheering, if there was any it was drowned out.
The whole incident left me sick and I couldn't care less about the NI team.
After the game I was stunned to read McIlroy "I've heard worse, and there were cheers and boos,".

I know what happened in the next game after with NI fans cheering Lennon's every touch, I know what Lennon is reported to have said positively in the years after.

[MW]

MS - it was 150-200 people at most.

And I speak as someone who stood selling our fanzine at the next match with two photos of Lennon on the front cover, one with him in his Celtic shirt with the legend "Neil Lennon (Northern Ireland)" and the other vice versa and wrote an article inside striendtly condemning those responsible and calling for action to be taken against them.

[nifan]

lennon himself reported that he saw people arguing with those booing during the game.
There where certainly many cheering, i was amongst them. I was also int he stadium earlier when the boys came out for warm up and those there applauded lennon, who took the time to run round the stands clapping the fans there back.

Dont get me wrong, I was as depressed as anyone that night, i was disgusted at those who booed. The weather was filthy, our performance was understandably awful (ironicly bar lennon) and i went home after the game soaking and went and watched the thing again which only annoyed me more. The booing did seem louder on tv, i feel due to the position of the mics in windsor which where generally behind the goal at the kop.

The czech game was a fantastic atmosphere - those hangers on who had only come to boo lennon had fucked off again sharpish. Keith Gillespie put in one of the finest displays ive seen from a NI player and was unlucky to be on the losing side that day.

[MW]

The point is that Anton Rogan was on the receiving end of shameful sectarian abuse whilst playing for N.Ireland at Windsor Park not the semantics of when and who he was playing against

That may indeed be the point but another pertinent point is that this Aerlik character made up a ball of shíte as "evidence".  Generally, one will  doubt the veracity of something when it is backed up by lies.

/Jim.

Aerlik's claims were impressive in the fact that he managed to get just about everything wrong. He managed to pick an actual match to base his claims on (the NI v Morocco warm up game for Mexico 86), but got the date wrong (we'll let him away with this, he was only a month out), the scoreline wrong, the winning team wrong, and brilliantly managed to pick a match Anton Rogan didn't even play in, given that he was over a year away from his international debut and didn't play a home game for NI until nearly 2 years later. And to cap it all off Rogan hadn't even signed for Celtic at this point - he was still plying his trade in the Irish League for Distillery.

But just imagine Aerlink had been a bit smarter, and actually picked the match on which Rogan made his home debut (at which he was booed by a section of the crowd) - I would suggest most readers would have accpeted it as 'fact', and labelled anyone who even dared to question its veracity as "bigots", "in denial", "spin merchants". That's the problem with claims made on an internet forum - if the person making the claim is sensible enough to check the basic facts he can say whatever he wants and his intended audience will believe him. And to him it's only a bonus that those who actually were there deny his claims - because then his intended audience's knee-jerk reaction is to dismiss them as spin merchants/bigots/etc attempting a cover-up.

[Mr Pink]

Those that booed Lennon were nothing but scum, the true NI fans showed their support for Neil.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/world_cup_2002/1240496.stm

Neil Lennon paid tribute to the Northern Ireland fans after he received nothing but cheers from the supporters in Saturday's World Cup qualifier against the Czech Republic.

However, the Celtic midfielder was "gutted" by Northern Ireland's 1-0 defeat after what he described as a "tremendous performance".

"I'm really sorry for the lads because the efforts they put in were magnificent.

"But the support out there today from the fans was brilliant.

"That is what Northern Ireland football should be all about.

"The atmosphere today was as good as it's ever been since I've been involved with Northern Ireland," added Lennon.

The home fans sang `There's only one Neil Lennon' at the end and manager Sammy McIlroy was delighted at the response of the 10,000 crowd.


Keith Gillespie was magnificent and the fans were absolutely magnificent
  Sammy McIlroy

"The crowd were 100% behind every player, Neil Lennon included," said McIlroy.

McIlroy was "so proud" of his players.

"When we have one of the best teams in the world, kicking the ball into the stand and struggling to contain us, I can only praise my lads.

"Keith Gillespie was magnificent and the fans were absolutely magnificent.

"This is the kind of support we want because it gives the lads a lift," added McIlroy.

The manager admitted that qualification is now a huge mountain for his team to climb after their second defeat in four qualifiers.

"The result is a blow but we knew that we were in a tough group.

"I can ask for no more from the players. If we keep on playing like that, we will improve," said McIlroy.

[MW]

For those that didn't hear about the saga...

That last photo was cropped by a Scottish newspaper to take out the banner of support for Neil Lennon, and used for an article about abuse Lennon had faced, with the caption 'Hate Mob'. I believe the newpaper had to pay damages to some of those pictured.

One of the worst cases of twisting by the media I've ever ever seen.