I doubt that you have heard of the alleged comedian and GB News presenter Mark Dolan and if you haven’t I strongly recommend that you leave it that way. GB News is, of course, a far right propaganda TV channel, masquerading as a news channel, and Dolan is one of it many unhinged presenters. His latest gripe is about the new interim England football manager Lee Carsley, who declined, as he has always declined, to sing the national anthem before games, notably last night in Dublin before his team strolled to an easy victory against Ireland. He has given his reasons why but that’s not enough for dickbrains like Dolan.
Dolan is what the far right like to call one of the “free speech warriors” and last night on his miserable little show he told both his viewers – Private Eye readers Sid and Doris Bonkers -that “It’s time to show Lee Carsley, the unpatriotic crank, the red card.” He went on: “What were the football association thinking, hiring a man unwilling to celebrate the country he has the great privilege of representing?”
Predictably, the Daily Mail was keen to get in on the act. Carsley had “shockingly” admitted he would not sing the national anthem and risked “fan fury“. Well, perhaps there was “fan fury” as the UK national anthem (because that’s what it is) was drowned out by booing Irish fans but if there was, why?
Whatever Carsley’s reasons – and frankly, they are none of my business – it is important to recognise some important facts. While he was born in Coventry, he has a great deal of Irish heritage and chose, as he was entitled to do, to play international football for the land of his ancestors. He is, to all intents and purposes, of dual nationality. This is not unusual. So, dear reader, am I, with a mish-mash of English, Welsh, Dutch and Norwegian DNA. Tragically for some reason – perhaps a complete lack of sporting talent? – I was never offered the chance to play for the Netherlands or Norway and frankly in the unlikely event I had been called up, I’d have declined. I am proud of my heritage but despite my name and DNA, I am English, end of. But I am not Lee Carsley. And if that’s how he feels, which maybe is more Irish than I feel Dutch or Norwegian, then good for him.
It’s barely worth dissecting Dolan’s words. If Dolan considers Carsley to be an “unpatriotic crank” and believes him to be “unwilling to celebrate the country he has the great privilege of representing“, then because of free speech, he is entitled to say so, as I am entitled to say that I feel that Mark Dolan is a bigoted, populist far right bell end who peddles nothing but hatred and division. I assume that as he dishes it out, he can take it, too.
I have a somewhat different outlook than Dolan. I am not remotely interested as to whether the manager, any of the players, or even the fans for that matter, sing the national anthem. I want a manager who can get the best out of the players he has available and to win football matches. If that entails having a manager who doesn’t want to sing about King Brian being “happy and glorious” and requesting that God saves him (from what, exactly?), then so be it.
Of our previous managers, the late Sven-Göran Eriksson struggled with the national anthem – well, he was Swedish – and Fabio Capello couldn’t even speak English. Come to think of it, Ireland’s latest manager, Iceland’s Heimir Hallgrímsson, didn’t even try to sing Amhrán na bhFiann. Does that make him an “unpatriotic crank” too?
It’s such a fuss over nothing, just a continuation of the culture wars that were so prevalent under the last Conservative government, flames fanned by the right wing red tops. The likes of GB News and its crank presenters, like the wretched Mark Dolan want to keep them going. I’m beginning to think that most of us, certainly since the general election, have moved on.
I really enjoyed England’s win over an admittedly abject Ireland and it seemed to me that Carsley’s ideas about how to play football have been embraced by the players. That, for this football fan, is all that matters. The stuff about the national anthem is just noise.
It is strange how the so-called free speech warriors only demand free speech when it applies to them. Except that it isn’t strange at all because they know exactly what they are doing, shoving a right-wing viewpoint down our throats and raging when some of us answer back. They are, in truth, the enemies of free speech, along with the lying red tops who illustrate on a daily basis that we do not have a free press or anything like one. Ours is not state-owned, but it is controlled by the super rich elite who seek to control the way we think and the politics we embrace. And that is what GB News is all about. Both its viewers should wise up.
As for Lee Carsley, just do what you do best, which is coaching elite footballers. If idiots like Dolan want to waste their time whining about the national anthem, just leave them to it.
