I don't think he had any intention of wanting to turn out for the country of his birth somehow. He has been brought up in a bad home. Theres nothing much anyone can do about that. It's exactly like McGeady and I don't doubt that there will be others in exactly the same position in the future. It's disappointing for Scotland to have their own turn their back on the country of their birth. But we all know the reasons behind it. If thats the way they want to live then fair enough.

Personally I would just scrap international football as the criteria for playing for a country is nothing short of a joke anyway.

When he first played for Accies he wasn't good enough for Scotland! He was like a fish out of water to begin with, and the SFA came to see him right at the beginning, because of all the, natural, hype. A lot of Accies fans, however, believe that nobody connected with the club can ever do anything wrong. So will conveniently forget how poor he, and indeed we as a team, played in the beginning.

another reason why i wish Iwelumo had scored yesterday - he at least had the patience to wait until his country thought he was good enough to call up. Ignoring the country of his ancestry in the process.

Why are some players like this

Scotland should be used to players not wanting to play for them by now. Half of your current squad don't even want to play for you. It's a waste of time travelling all over the world to get pumped by minnows and have no chance of playing in a major tournament.

When did two players - neither of whom are remotely close to being first picks - count as "half the squad"? And tell me, what was the score the last time ROI played away to Cyprus?

Scotland haven't been "pumped by minnows" in my lifetime.

Excuses excuses. Scotland are in choas and they can't deal with it. It's brilliant watching the smug Scotland fans who were on here last year after their decent campaign last year squirm.

What was the result the last time ROI played you in your own backyard?

What was the last score Scotland played ROI in your backyard?

If you hate Scotland so much, why support a Scottish team?

Strange little man.

Why you support celtic a scottish team, watch the diddy irish league

Who hates Scotland?

OK, that was perhaps the wrong thing to say.

I find it interesting that you choose to mock and ridicule the fortunes of the Scotland national football team which is important to the Scottish nation. A team which hundreds of Celtic players, not forgetting Celtic’s greatest ever manager, have represented over the years.

When you look at the names of the most capped players, you will find Kenny Dalglish 102 caps, Paul McStay 76, Tom Boyd 72, Danny McGrain 62. Recently we’ve had Tommy Burns and Roy Aitken as coaches

When you choose to mock and ridicule Scotland, then you also choose to mock and ridicule these great Celts

It’s great that as a proud Irishman you back your national side. I don’t even care about the Scots of Irish heritage that choose to back Ireland. It’s their right to do as they please. But why all the anti-Scottish rhetoric and sentiment?

Although I'd prefer if Scotland as a whole was united when it came to supporting the national team, I understand that some people's upbringing may not place importance on this.

If McCarthy/McGeady and there families felt their Irish heritage took precedence over their current situation, then fair play to them.

I would imagine there are many more families throughout Scotland like this, not just the third and fourth generation Irish Celtic supporters, perhaps those supporting other clubs, who are of English, Northern Irish, Polish, Norse, African and Asian descent.



Either way, what James has done regardless of what you think of his choice, is give himself publicity, the fans of his club will back him and any other Scot's who feel a greater connection with Ireland will back him too.



The only thing that confuses me, though is that they're differing stories as to why he chose Eire; was it that it really was his dying grandfathers wish or was it that they gave him the chance when Scotland wouldn't?

Either one of these options make me question why he would even reconsider his allegiance in the first place as switching teams after citing each of the mentioned reasons would not paint him in a very good light.

good post, unless he really really wanted to play for eire, he could just have told his grandad that he was going to change, then dingied it after he popped his clogs - it's not like he was going to know or nowt.

I do think it sounds to me as if JM was badly advised at 15, if you are told you are not good enough for your country you don't just defect to another country. I've read Steven Gerrard was told he wasn't good enough for his country at 15-16, but he stuck in and became one of the best midfidlers in the country, you could bet he probably had some Irish heritage somewhere to seek alternatives.

I wouldn't be surprised if a greedy agent wanted him playing at International level to ramp up his value considerably.

This is a good post. I will never claim to have been an avid supporter of the Scottish national team but whenever they played I always wanted them to do well. That changed after I joined this site, which was during the period when Scotland were doing not too bad. The arrogance of some of the people on here was as bad as the English.

Suddenly, people on this site believed Scotland were now world beaters. I couldn't quite believe the sneers directed towards my country's poor campaign. Now Scotland are big to their usual selfs. Poor results, stumbling from one crisis to another I find it extremely amusing. I support Celtic players when they play for Celtic, not Scotland.

i have friends who emmigrated to austrailia a number of years back. they have sons now, 14 and 15 yrs old, who regularly play football. both these boys parents would love their son to play for scotland, just as i would if i was living in austrailia. according to the parents, both boys would love to play for scotland. its their decision. end of

what difference would mcarthy do to the scotland team at the moment? feck all like the manager is going to do in the next set of games to get us to the world cup, how have holland done us a favour by beating norway? iceland did, but holland have now made it virtually impossible to finish first so we have to finish second to get into the play-offs AND HOW ARE WE GOING TO DO THAT WITH A RUBBISH POINTS TALLY? we will need to finish with around 14 points three wins and a draw from our remaining games! absolutely no chance under the management of burley

Well, none, because he isn't remotely good enough for the national team at the moment.

That's not really the point though.

I see some relative of his is bleating away in The Sun today about Ally Ross' article - "He's only 17, Scotland looked at him but they didn't put him in the Hall Of Fame staright away!"

Nothing about him always wanting to play for the Republic, they can spin it all they want but the fella's playing for the country who's flag he's spent his entire life under.

I think it's a disgrace he wasn't made the only foetus with a full international cap.

Have to laugh at the sudden prominence the pre-pubic hair internationals are now taking, as if a cap for an Under 16 or Under 18 national side means fuck all. Even under 21 caps are an irrelevance. Jamie McCunnie won a sackfull of them.