Neil Lennon: Ex-Celtic captain says death threat drove him to succeed at Celtic

Neil Lennon has said the death threat he received just before captaining Northern Ireland helped drive him on to achieve more success with Celtic.

Speaking on the latest episode of The GAA Social, Lennon revealed he was informed of the death threat less than an hour before the 2002 friendly against Cyprus kicked off.

He said he was determined the incident would not define him and that he never considered returning to play for his country after it happened.

"Very much so," Lennon said when asked if the incident motivated him to succeed.

"A year later I was playing in a European final [Celtic's Europa League final defeat by Porto], then I got the Celtic job and it drives you on.

"It is part of your DNA, it is where you are brought up. We are thick-skinned in Armagh.

"My way of getting back at people was to win, to keep going and be successful. That is the way you can show you are not deterred by this."

Two years after ing Celtic as a player, Lennon, who would go on to manage the Glasgow giants, was chosen by Northern Ireland manager Sammy McIlroy to captain the side in a friendly against Cyprus at Windsor Park.

A death threat was phoned in to the BBC in the hours leading up to the game, leading to Lennon not taking to the field that night and, ultimately, deciding not to play for his country again.

"You can go one way or the other, you can give up or you can go 'I'll show you'," he said when reflecting on how he was informed of the death threat.

"I was going to be captain that night and Sammy McIlroy came in. I could just sense something.

"He told me there were two policemen outside who wanted to have a word with me. They told me they had had a phone call into the BBC that said that 'if you turn out tonight something is going to happen to you'.

"I asked what that meant and they said they didn't know. I said 'well on a scale of one to 10 how serious are you taking it">