Former Ireland footballer James McClean has claimed that the FAI's decision to refer to his native home as Londonderry in the Ireland vs. Wales match programme is "disgusting, pathetic, and insulting."
The Irish women's senior football team played Wales and lost 2-1 in the Euro play-off. A match programme containing a map of the island of Ireland was printed to illustrate the counties from which the various members of the women’s national team squad were born and raised. The match programme for the Ireland Euro 2025 play-off referred to Derry, as McClean and many nationalists would call it, but was instead called Londonderry, as many unionists would call it.
Calling it "Londonderry or Derry" is rooted in political, historical, and cultural divisions in Northern Ireland.
The match program for the Ireland Euro 2025 play off last night refers to Derry as Londonderry
James McClean has called this out
He’s spot on, so disrespectful… pic.twitter.com/ERALF5r1FZ
— IrishPropaganda🇮🇪⚽️ (@IrishPropaganda) December 4, 2024
McClean, well known for his stance on various subjects, posted on his Instagram story this week and said: "The match programme at last night’s Ireland v. Wales game at the Aviva Dublin… disgusting, pathetic, insulting, hang your heads in shame, you shower of arseholes."
Shortly after McClean's post, outlets like RTÉ and the Mirror reported that an FAI spokesperson described it as a genuine mistake and apologised for any offence caused.
They said: "The wrong graphic was inadvertently used in an Ireland Women's National Team match programme; this was a genuine mistake, and the Football Association of Ireland apologises for any offence caused."
This mistake comes months after the FAI went viral for using fake names instead of the Latvian player names in their U-21s game programme in September.
The Ireland U-21 clash match programme against the Latvia U-21s listed names such as Robert the Liar, Dario Sht*, and Bruno the Black before the game.
The FAI also apologised for that gaffe via a spokesperson.
