interview McCourt breaks silence on bullet threats but only to consign them to history
The parcels were intercepted at a sorting office, but the symbolism was obvious to the Northern Irishmen. They chose to ignore it.
Lennon was then targeted by parcel bombs in the post, while a supporter attacked him at Tynecastle, so McCourt can even feel bashful about comparing his own experience. He chose not to talk about it at the time, and when he does now it is just to reduce it to something he can push back into the past.
“It’s something you never think you’re going to get, but I’d be a bit stupid -- I’d be a clown, to be honest -- to say it upset me when you look at the stuff the manager went through,” McCourt says. “That was only the tip of the iceberg we went through. It shouldn’t matter what country you’re in, what religion you are, or what football team you’re playing for. It just shouldn’t be in football. I refused to speak about it, because I didn’t see it as that big a deal to me. I’m not putting on a brave face or trying to be hard. I wanted to put it to bed as quickly as it happened and concentrate on playing.”
As Catholics from Northern Ireland who are involved with Celtic, the three found themselves singled out. Yet McCourt has never encountered trouble when on international duty (unlike Lennon, who received death threats, or Anton Rogan, who played for Celtic in the late 1980s).
It must be bemusing to move away from Northern Ireland, where the peace process is slowly asserting itself, yet still encounter the kind of bigotry and aggression that stirred in Glasgow last season. McCourt can only respond in the way that comes naturally to him, to shrug it aside.
“It wasn’t something that bothered me,” he says. “It was disappointing times for here and for Northern Ireland. It would be better now if everybody drew a line under it and went back to more positive stuff. I’m sure [Scotland], or most of it, would’ve been disgusted by it. All we can hope for now is that it’s been put to bed and we can concentrate on getting headlines for the football.
“Any time I go away with Northern Ireland, I get treated really well by the staff, the players and the supporters. A lot of them might be Rangers fans on a Saturday, but when we meet up with the national team, they’re brand new. If the fans saw it that way, it might cause less problems.”
McCourt was at Lennonxtown, rather than in Cardiff, because a minor knee injury needs treatment to allow him to be fit for Sunday’s opening league game against Hibernian. For the winger, this campaign is about continuing to establish his worth, and he bridles whenever his fitness is questioned.
He made 31 appearances last season, and no longer wants to be considered fragile. But he still seems like a fitful talent and Lennon has tended to use him as a specialist in games, when his drifting runs and intuitive dribbling can unnerve tired or plodding opponents.
Often, this has been as a substitute, but as long as he feels valued then McCourt will not complain. There was a time after he moved from Derry City that he was marginalised, but Lennon sees something worthwhile in McCourt’s sometimes whimsical talent.
“Look at the players I’m competing with for a place, they’re top quality,” he says. “Sometimes I’ll find myself on the bench or not playing, but it’s up to me to take my chance when I get it. It was [Lennon] who persuaded me to stay, he made me feel I was part of his plans. But Kris [Commons] came in and scored 13 or 14 goals, and from the turn of the year was challenging Emilio [Izaguirre] and Biram [Kayal] for being our best player, Sometimes you just have to sit back and say, ‘the boy in my position is doing great stuff’, and try to improve and show the manager you’re still about. It was worse the previous two years, just not being involved at all.”
And now, on the eve of a new season, the only concern for McCourt is doing justice to himself, and his ability. “The target,” he says, “is just to improve.”
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