To wear or not to wear the poppy

IT has been drummed into us for generations that the two great wars, especially the Second World War, were fought for the maintenance of freedom – freedom from German or Nazi tyranny, freedom of conscience, freedom of speech, freedom to do what you wanted to do within reasonable bounds.

Part of that freedom should be the freedom to wear or not to wear emblems such as the poppy. Yet, the people who have been preaching so much about the freedom fought and died for in the two world wars are the very same people who would deny that freedom to others.

 

The English Tory press, or at least the gutter end of it, savaged an Irish soccer player at the weekend for not wearing a poppy while playing for Sunderland against Everton last Saturday. James McClean of Derry chose not to wear a jersey with a poppy.

Surely he was entitled not to sport the poppy if he didn’t wish to and the people who condemned him should be the first to praise him for his courage. They speak so much about liberty and bravery. But that would be expecting too much.

If freedom means anything, it must mean the right to wear the poppy, or not to wear it.
The problem is, of course, that only a fool would go into a pub in the Bogside in Derry or the Falls Road in Belfast wearing a poppy. No more than you would go into a pub in the Shankill wearing Glasgow Celtic colours.

Emblems like the poppy or the Easter lily are quite honourable badges but they can give offence if worn in the wrong environment. The poppy honours British soldiers who died in combat, while the Easter lily honours those who died for Ireland.

I would not expect Irish men or women to wear the poppy, no more than I would expect English people to wear the Easter lily. However, if they want to do so, if any Irish person wishes to wear a poppy, I am not going to object. Live and let live has been my motto for a long time but a lot of people would not agree with me there.

The poppy is still like a red rag to a bull among a lot of Irish people, not alone in the North of Ireland but also in the Republic. That’s because it pays tribute to soldiers of the British Army and we in Ireland have no reason to pay homage or tribute to the British Army.

I surely don’t need to spell out the reason. Just think of the Parachute Regiment. But better not think of them. It was the reason why neither the President, nor the Taoiseach nor the Tánaiste wore poppies at the various Remembrance Day services they attended at the weekend.

It could be argued, of course, that they should not have attended or participated in those services at all because by attending and by laying wreaths they were paying homage to the British Army, which was, for hundreds of years, the enemy of our country. It could be further argued that if they thought they should participate in those ceremonies they should have gone the whole hog, done the proper thing and worn the poppy.

However, they were not at those services in a personal capacity. They were there representing the people of Ireland. And the people of Ireland do not wear the poppy. Neither do the people of France or the United States, who were close allies to Britain in the two world wars.

As a matter of fact, the people of Ireland, generally speaking, do not wear the Easter lily either. That is because it is only associated with Sinn Féin and its Republican off-shoots. I would think that more people would be proud to wear the lily if it were more widely available and not associated with one party or one group.

At the end of the day, while I would not wear a poppy myself, everyone should have the right to wear one, or an Easter lily, if they want to. They should also have the right not to wear either emblem.

Meanwhile, if you thought things are bad in Ireland, you should spare a thought for the people of Spain, where things are far worse than at home. I know things are much worse again in Greece but this column is coming to you from the south-east of Spain, where even the weather for the past week has been worse than at home in Ireland.

Here in Spain unemployment stands at a record 25% and is still climbing. Figures released last week show more than three million unemployed people no longer have benefits of any kind. How are they supposed to live? We are talking about almost as many people as the whole population of Ireland having to depend on charity, with no pension, no dole, no hope, nothing.

They are fellow Europeans who fell into the same trap as ourselves but on a far larger scale. Spain, like Ireland, is buckling under the pressure of a huge deficit and property collapse. That pressure led to savage spending cuts and tax increases that have left millions of people without the money or the will to spend.

Fifty families are being evicted from their homes every day and while the banks this week agreed to suspend evictions for two years, nobody knows yet what this really means.

Everybody now believes Spain will have no alternative but, like Ireland, to look for a bailout. Things cannot go on as they are. Later this month the people of Catalonia will be going to the polls in a referendum to decide their future. There is a very strong demand in the region for independence from Spain. However, neither the Government in Madrid nor the Opposition want to let them go.

It would be the same as if the people of Donegal wanted to break away from the rest of us. Judging from they way they vote in various referenda, including last week’s one on children’s rights, I would not be amazed if the people of that county decided some day to set up the Democratic Republic of Donegal.