The League of Ireland newcomer who has defied racist slurs to fire Drogheda to FAI Cup semis
Douglas James-Taylor has been a shining star for Drogheda United and helped them reach the FAI Cup semi-finals.
by Garry Doyle · Irish MirrorDouglas James-Taylor came to Ireland to escape a place of neglect.
A Londoner who travelled where his profession took him, the forward ended up at a dead loss team in a humdrum town, barely used, going nowhere. So, Ireland was not just an escape but an opportunity, somewhere where he could achieve sporting fulfilment, and feel wanted. And he has done. Look at what he has done so far: 13 games in a Drogheda United shirt, 11 goals.
But before we delve deeper into those stats and talk about what we have seen, we need to discuss what he heard. At a game in July, a fan from an opposing team racially abused him. Taylor told the referee. The game was stopped, an announcement made over the PA. And that was that. No punishment was dished out. Nothing was ever said about it again.
Read more: Chris Hughton set the ball rolling for 2-Tone Ireland 45 years ago
Until now.
This is his story.
Taylor says: “I think a lot of people were caught off guard. It was probably a new experience for a lot of people and dealing with it was maybe a new experience. I did a report, said what I heard but they felt like they couldn't take it any further.”
It is the only experience he has had of this nature in football. Beyond the pitch, well, that’s a different story. “I’ve met a few people that…” The words tail off, the remainder of the sentence left for our imagination to complete.
And you don’t have to think too long or too hard to get an idea of what might be said to him on the street. Racism in Ireland exists, folks. We can’t pretend it doesn’t.
Taylor says: “I don’t think too much about that because I’ve way more positive people around me than individual cases of people. It doesn’t happen all the time.
“The thing is that having a black mum and black family members means you’re brought up to be a little bit tougher than having to feel bad about yourself when people say bad things to you.
“I’ve had it (racism) before but it’s not a common thing. Nothing major, just name calling, a bit of aggression, nothing crazy yeah.
“It’s definitely distracting. You see things in the top leagues, like La Liga, all over about racism and comments and things like that ...you don’t really pay attention to it as in you never listen to the content of what they’re saying and start to reflect on it, or think this shouldn’t be happening, why is this happening, all these sorts of things.
“The main thing for me is that it was distracting and I didn’t think it would affect me. I never imagined I would think anything of it but it was distracting and hopefully it gets sorted out.
“I know the PFA in England do a lot of work and talk about these things and the procedure and we actually had a FAI meeting at the club a couple of weeks earlier about things you can and cannot say and things like that. There has been a lot of work from a lot of the leagues to sort of lay out what the right procedure is on that.”
He stops what he is saying because he wants to make a point.
Since coming to Ireland, life has been overwhelmingly positive. There have been the goals, the run to a FAI Cup semi-final, the attraction to a league and a club that may be unfashionable but which is homely, and on match nights, noisy.
The point he wants to make is that the overwhelming majority of Irish people have been welcoming.
“If it (racism) happens outside of football in life you just ignore them. It’s someone who doesn’t know what they’re talking about, who has some type of prejudice and could quite easily you could walk about your life and it doesn’t affect you. But in this case it was on a pitch and when you are on a field, you are one cog in a system, you are part of a team, you have your fans who depend on you, all of these people, and then something like this (racist abuse) is just taking you away from that and that is when you sort of have to deal with it."
And he has dealt with it. He wants to make a point: Ireland has been good to him.
“The lifestyle here is great; the big thing is the people. Everyone is friendly and wants to have a conversation, in Drogheda everyone is following the football. In the supermarket or even when you walk down the street people are seeing how you are doing, it feels like, to know that what you are doing means more than just playing football on the pitch.
“The fans too, they are so good, intense, tifos and flares. The Dundalk game, my second game, a Louth derby, with flares and tifos, you feed off all that energy as a player.
“I had been told about the League before I came here but I probably hadn't fully realised the passion that was here. It has been a different experience to England, football wise. I’ve loved it.”
So much so that he is extending his stay beyond the traditional half-season loan deal and into a 12-month stay at Drogheda. He likes the town and the club, and is thriving under the responsibility of being their main player, profiting from a return to an old fashioned forward partnership with Frantz Pierrot.
Between them, they have helped revitalise Drogheda, taking them from the brink of relegation to a position of relative safety and also into a FAI Cup semi-final where they will play Wexford tomorrow.
Taylor freely admits he doesn’t know much about his First Division opponents - “we’ll discover on Sunday,” - and deep down you suspect they anticipate they will be appearing in the Aviva Stadium in November for FAI Cup final day. That’s one way to make a name for yourself and an even better way to quieten the haters.
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