Previously, as a member of Northern Ireland’s youth football teams one can only imagine that now Republic of Ireland star James McClean once stood to face the “God Save the Queen” anthem or the flag of St George.

In recent years, playing for Sunderland and Wigan Athletic respectively, the Derry footballer has made headlines by refusing to wear the British Legion poppy on his shirts, a standard practice amongst English football clubs ahead of Remembrance Sunday.

As a newly-signed West Brom player, recently McClean turned his back on the flag of St George whilst the English national anthem played.

Last autumn, in explaining his refusal to wear the poppy, he stated “it would be seen as an act of disrespect to those people; to my people.”

Considering the conflict that played out in this person’s hometown over decades, no matter what your own political persuasion is this individual’s decision ought to be recognised and respected.

Yet, whilst refusing to wear a poppy is one thing, turning one’s back on a nation’s flag and anthem ahead of a sporting fixture is something entirely different.

Despite McClean’s personal motivations or thought process, clearly this abstract act of his was always going to be seen as an act of disrespect among his followers in England.

Whereas McClean chose to do this it is unlikely that any of his Republic of Ireland teammates would ever consider following suit, playing for club or for country.

It did not happen at the Aviva Stadium this summer ahead of an Ireland/England football friendly. Neither did it happen at Croke Park when the two nation’s rugby teams met competitively.

Writing in the Irish Independent, commentator Dion Fanning stated there was something “deeply adolescent” about McClean’s actions, but there is more to it than that.

McClean in many ways has come to personify an adolescent Northern Ireland: a state still young, gradually breaking away from established norms and social restrictions, experiencing somewhat of an identity crisis.

Legally speaking, McClean has every right to refuse to wear the poppy and to shun the English anthem.

Still, practically speaking, living and playing football professionally across the two islands whose relations are changing so fast and so much for the better, these are not scenes that even a younger generation than his expect.

In Northern Ireland we still struggle to deal with division and conflict; acts such acts as McClean’s remind us of the enduring symptoms, at every level, of unhealed wounds.

As well as having a past, however, Northern Ireland also has a future, and only by democratic mandates in both the North and Republic of Ireland will the Union with Britain cease to exist.

There is no need for a Northern Ireland identity crisis. What is required is more confidence and exploration. That is, exploration of what we have here and what we share.

Acknowledging, expressing and understanding the experiences of our people are especially crucial to understanding our shared past and present, and to moving forward without wariness over facing symbols and traditions which others hold dear.

McClean’s acts and the typical simplistic, sensational reactions to this episode both from our media and politicians interestingly sum up the situation which we as one community in Northern Ireland currently find ourselves in.

We can either choose to move on, to respect one another and another’s anthems, emblems and traditions – and even learn to share them, too – or we can continue to rebel against a tide of change which itself will become increasingly difficult.