the IFA are just pissed off that they spent money training him, naturing him and giving him FULL support.
then at the eleventh hour he goes to the ROI set up.

if someone from NI wants to play for the ROI team thats fine, but do so from the earliest oppertunity. do not expect anothers FA to spend money on you and then defect at a later stage.
some lad who will have busted his balls for NI selection will have been told no to accomadate McLean.

not condoning the arsepipes on twitter threatening him, there are twunts.

I was born in England to English parents, but raised in Scotland from being an infant. Any sporting development or coaching I received would have come through Scottish channels and had I shown enough ability any youth representative duties would have been for Scotland too (due to selection being based on your school rather than your place of birth). Under the system you suggest though I would be ineligible to represent Scotland at full international level, which would surely be an example of exactly the same waste of funding and development time that has been referred to earlier in the thread?

a good argument shands.i ont think NI blue or any other northern irish would have a problem with that scenario,its the fact that players are representing northern ireland right up until you cant play for any other country,u21 or whatever age it is and then jumping ship.thats why they are upset.
the roi should be made to pay compensation and that would solve some of the issues.

I guess people are allowed to change their mind, maybe he just felt he didn't want to play for a colony and preferred to play for his own country or maybe he just felt he had a better chance of winning something. Either way death threats are a bit out of order.