During a panel discussion on Newstalk's The Sunday Show this week about wearing a poppy during November, contributor Ian O'Doherty made a comment about Liverpool Football Club which has been getting a big reaction from the team's supporters.
The topic of Irish footballer James McClean not wearing a poppy was raised during the weekly discussion on the Sunday Papers, and O'Doherty opined that wearing one or not should be a matter of choice for each individual.
He also stated that he believed the fact that the poppy is now worn by almost everyone who appears on TV, from presenters to sports stars actually "represents the increased mawkishness of British society".
At that point, he suggested that for Liverpool in particular that was an issue, and that the "joke" about Liverpool was that "they seem to go through so many commemorations of disasters and deaths that they should have just had a black armband just as part of their regular kit".
Host Shane Coleman intervened, however, to point out that the fans and people of Liverpool "went through an horrendous event", referring to the Hillsborough disaster in which 96 Liverpool fans lost their lives at a match against Nottingham Forest in 1989 at Hillsborough Stadium in Sheffield.
O'Doherty responded that he was a Manchester United fan and so wasn't going to pass up the opportunity to "have a go at them".
The comments have been getting plenty of attention since, with one fan telling the Liverpool Echo "I don't think the journalist in question should simply be allowed to mock so openly the families of the 96, the club, its fans and the annual commemoration of the tragedy. The comments are nothing short of appalling".
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