Aiden McGeady has described football fans who booed him for picking Ireland over Scotland as “small minded”.
The winger was booed by opposition fans up and down Scotland during his time at Celtic, with James McCarthy receiving similar treatment while playing for Hamilton Accies.
McGeady declared for the Boys in Green as a teenager, when a rule prevented youngsters at the Parkhead club from playing for Scotland schoolboys.
Packie Bonner invited McGeady to represent Ireland when he was 14, but the boos started once he broke into Celtic's first team.
McGeady highlighted how other Scottish-born players who played for other countries were not booed, such as Scott Arfield who plays for Canada.
"I made the decision when I was 14," he told BBC Sportsound. "It's not like I did it at 18.
"Scotland had those rules that you couldn't play for your school team, but Ireland didn't. 'Packie' Bonner knew my dad and my grandparents and asked if I wanted to play for Ireland.
"I just went with Ireland and that was it. I knew all of the boys and I liked the set up.
"It was when I got in the first team, it was like 'oh my god how is this guy not playing for Scotland?' But that was why. It's not as if I'd just made the decision.
"I'd get it everywhere I went off the park too; 'traitor, turncoat, Judas'.
"It's just small-minded individuals, that's all it is. Other players did the same, like Scott Arfield [Canada] or Brian McLean [Northern Ireland] and they didn't get the abuse I got. Was it because I played for Celtic, because I played for Ireland?
"In a way, it's a compliment because, if they didn't think you were a good player, they wouldn't bother."
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