The Hamilton centre-half tackling some big issues in the New Statesman

Ciaran McKenna does his bit to show footballers in a different light on the letters’ page

Connor Goldson has received criticism in some quarters for taking a knee ahead of Rangers’ pre-season friendlies. Picture: SNS

Did you happen to read that long, thoughtful and thought-provoking essay on the rise of the activist super-player in the New Statesman a few weeks ago by editor Jason Cowley.

No? Neither had I until a few nights ago. And I wouldn’t have read the fascinating piece on high-profile players such as Marcus Rashford and Raheem Sterling, who draw on their early experiences of hardship and poverty, had a friend not pointed me towards the letters’ page of the following week’s issue of the political and current affairs weekly magazine.

The main letter was from a Ciaran McKenna from Uddingston, Glasgow. It’s unlikely too many readers of the magazine would have known without googling which team McKenna plays for. He had after all only described himself as “a professional footballer” in the opening sentence of his letter, which is itself a thoughtful and erudite response to an article that McKenna was glad challenged the “ignorant stereotypes about players” by illuminating the work and deeds of politically literate and socially engaged footballers.

Hamilton defender Ciaran McKenna wrote a letter to the New Statesman. Picture: SNS

McKenna, pictured inset, a centre-half at Hamilton Accies, certainly does his bit as well to show footballers in a different light as he warns against equating the self-consciousness of those such as Rashford and Sterling “with that of the rest of the UK”.

“Ours is a nation that four years ago voted for a Brexit campaign stoked by fear of immigration, and that six months ago gave the Conservatives their biggest majority in decades, following ten years of austerity that disproportionately harmed those communities for which Rashford and Sterling are now fighting,” he argues. “Writing in the Times last week, Janice Turner noted that only a fifth of Britons are on Twitter, with 80 per cent of tweets written by ten per cent of users. She emphasised that neither the trolls nor the woke progressives on Twitter are representative of the wider population. Let’s take online consciousness with a pinch of salt, and not forget that figures like Piers Morgan – who championed Rashford’s plea for the government to fund meals for vulnerable children over the summer break – failed to vote with his same social conscience last December.”

McKenna has had to grow up fast having been falsely accused of rape while studying political science and business on a scholarship at the renowned Duke University in North Carolina having turned down a professional contract with Celtic.

He successfully fought a suspension imposed on him by the university – the evidence against him was too scant to form a criminal case – and graduated two years ago, while also receiving an out of court settlement from the educational establishment.

Still only 22-years-old, he has now rebuilt his career in Scotland first with Falkirk and now Hamilton, with whom he will hope to take on his former club Celtic next weekend when the Premiership season kicks off again.

It is still to be decided whether the SPFL will issue an edict requiring players to take a knee before matches when the season begins in support of the Black Lives 
Matters. Alternatively, they might leave it up to the players to decide.

Whatever happens, the critical reaction and ignorant comments from some quarters to Rangers skipper James Tavernier and Connor Goldson posting photographs on social media of themselves, and their team-mates, taking a knee before recent games in France illustrates a couple of McKenna’s broader points. Admirable players
such as Tavernier and Goldson cannot be expected – nor can they expect – to take everyone with them on such socially conscious and educative journeys. And social media shouldn’t be mistaken as a bellwether.

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