Madam, – It appears that some of your recent letter writers fail to grasp the salient points of the annual remembrance ceremonies and indeed role of the Royal British Legion here in Ireland.
Tom Cooper (November 5th) claims that those of us who wear a poppy do so to annoy those of a nationalist bent. This is incorrect. Funds raised by the annual poppy collection go to help ex-servicemen and their dependants of different generations including those injured and affected during recent tours in Afghanistan and Iraq.
The Legion is a non-political organisation and it is wrong for Mr Cooper to think differently. Sunday’s ceremony in St Patrick’s is an ecumenical service and the attendance of Mrs McAleese is a clear sign that the sacrifice of earlier generations and of the present members of the Irish Guards, Royal Irish Regiment and Irish members of the Royal Marines is not forgotten by this State.
In a week that has seen five servicemen die in one incident in Afghanistan, it is important, now more than ever, that the Legion continues its work after the soldiers return. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – Tom Cooper‘s assertion (November 5th) that the symbolism of the poppy is “a veiled propagandist attack on separatist Irish nationhood” is truly extraordinary.
Have the efforts of former president Mary Robinson and President Mary McAleese to recognise the contribution which many Irish men and women made to freeing Europe from Nazi tyranny been futile? In recessionary Ireland are we moving backwards into the old nationalist versus Brits camps?
People should be able to wear an Easter lily with pride; equally they should be able to wear a poppy with pride too. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – As a young boy, growing up in the late 1940s and early 1950s in Nenagh, I recall that Poppy Sunday was commemorated each year. The ex-service men who had served in the first World War paraded wearing their medals and a wreath was laid at the memorial to the dead, which still stands in the town.
The poppy was sold and worn by many people. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – In 1933 the Co-operative Women’s Guild, in the UK, introduced the white poppy.
It symbolises the belief that there are better ways to resolve conflicts than killing strangers. Wearing it is a statement that war cannot create peace.
Perhaps someone who feels the need to wear a poppy, but does not want to cause offence, might find the white poppy an acceptable compromise. – Yours, etc,