62 Comments

• seanomelb | Nov 12, 2012, 01:21 AM EST

  Hey Dano with the amount of Cognac in his bloodstream everybody looked like a pig.

• DanOLoingsigh | Nov 11, 2012, 04:25 AM EST

  Seano - Churchill claimed that a pig will look a man in the eye and see his equal...not sure he had you in mind, though?

• seanomelb | Nov 10, 2012, 05:47 PM EST

  Sad!! Moses(dano) you trivialise the argument to make a weak point. But the again what can you expect from a pig but a grunt.

• DanOLoingsigh | Nov 10, 2012, 06:26 AM EST

  Mr Knee…thanks for the history lesson…the point I was making was that, given your argument about not fighting unless you’re directly attacked, the allies should have ‘sat on their’ hands, waiting for the Nazis to finish off their ‘enemies within’, and those in the east, until he was ready to go west?

• WoundedKnee | Nov 09, 2012, 10:32 AM EST

  Lumpenlooney--just so you know, the Germans in WW1 were not fascists. Fascism hadn't even been invented, you dope!

• ancavker | Nov 09, 2012, 10:03 AM EST

  Dan: You may not have actually said it, but the tone of your posts imply it. They were all wrong, in WWI, and America had no business being in that war. Perhaps you can tell us what was the benefit of Irish men going off to kill Germans and Turks?

• DanOLoingsigh | Nov 09, 2012, 04:45 AM EST

  Old Knee seems a little confused...and thinks fighting the fascist menace should have been left to others...

• WoundedKnee | Nov 09, 2012, 02:45 AM EST

  barneyhjo--"Well documented" that Dublin sales of Poppies were high? Well documented in your fantasies, have some sense.

• WoundedKnee | Nov 09, 2012, 02:43 AM EST

  LumpenLoonsey--the onus on anyone who supports peace is not to defend his position. The onus is on fascists and warmongers like you to show us why it was a good idea for Irishmen to kill Turks, Hungarians etc. Should today´s Irishmen make plans to start killing Turks and Austrians also?

• seanomelb | Nov 08, 2012, 07:40 PM EST

  Towngate the turd who called Pearse and his colleagues racist fascist has no morality on this site.

• DanOLoingsigh | Nov 08, 2012, 06:51 PM EST

  ancavker - can't recall calling anyone a 'hopeless romantic'...remember it was a world war...if you believe that the French, Belgians and the USA were fighting on the wrong side...and the Germans were right, maybe you could give us a rationale for this viewpoint???

• barneyjo | Nov 08, 2012, 04:19 PM EST

  It is well documented that up until the mid 1960s, the most successful sales of poppies were by British Legion branches in London. The second most successful area was, wait for it.......Dublin; but of course that was before the IRA decided to destroy the Legion Hall(s) in and around the city!!

• Towngate | Nov 08, 2012, 03:01 PM EST

  Dan thanks for your spirited defence; but you are throwing strawberries to the pigs,I'm afraid.`~~~ Whoever they were and where-ever they came from they all 'fought for freedom'.That is: unqualified freedom to praise or condemn their effort or to wear a poppy or not. ~ ~ ~ Hey, let's all cherish this Romantic delusion - because the Truth is just too appalling to contemplate!

• ancavker | Nov 08, 2012, 09:15 AM EST

  Dan:I don't question the men who fought in WW 2, who fought for whatever reason most likely economic. My problem is and has been WWI. If you choose to believe that gallant young Irishmen went off to fight German tyranny and the rights of small nations to be free, than that is about as romantic as you can get. Ironically you accuse posters who disagree with you, and support a free independent Ireland as hopless romantics. Sorry I will honor the small group of Irish men and women who gave all so that Ireland might have a shot at freedom, and to find her own way. Those are who the Irish government should be honoring. As far as air brushing, it is ironic you mention that, as it is successive Irish governments who are air brushing 1916 and the war of independence out of Irish history! At the end of the day Dan you believe it was perfectly fine for Irishmen to go out and kill Germans and Turks in WW 1, people and countries who did no harm to Ireland, and yet those Irish men who fought for Irish freedom during the period of 1916-21 were criminals and gunmen because they killed British soliders etc. So it is OK to kill, for England, but not for your own country.

• Kilsally | Nov 08, 2012, 07:29 AM EST

  I see the SDLP have several politicians wearing Poppies also - good on them!

• DanOLoingsigh | Nov 07, 2012, 07:02 PM EST

  Old Knee quotes Connolly…and while that’s what he may have believed, the Kaiser wasn’t known for providing U-Boat cruises around Ireland, unless he saw an advantage…he also facilitated Lenin’s return to Russia, for much the same reason…

• DanOLoingsigh | Nov 07, 2012, 06:49 PM EST

  Seano – Well you certainly seem to go out of your way to be insulted…I’ve never been in said RAF club, but I imagine it mirrors some republican drinking establishments where the host country is insulted, and they sing their own songs…unpleasant but fairly harmless…a bit like your good self!!!

• seanomelb | Nov 07, 2012, 06:26 PM EST

  Dano in typical fashion fails to answer the question by ancavker on those who died fighting British tyranny in Ireland (800yrs.of it). I remember been in the RAF club in Dublin (one Christmas eve) and listening to the anti Irish rhetoric and the laughter from vulgar Irish jokes and toasting the Queen. Not one word of respect from them of Ireland the country which they lived in and earned a living in. I was at a ceremony on Nov.11 some tears ago at a second world war site in Inchicore and they played 'GOD save the Queen" and did not play the Irish anthem which is the protocol standard. The "Salvation Army" displayed the "Union Jack" in their temples and did not display the "Tricolor" until they received a visit from the IRA. They decided then to display both. So Dano you can crawl back up on your Moses mountain and consider why some people may be a little suspicious of you west Brits.

• WoundedKnee | Nov 07, 2012, 05:24 PM EST

  IrelandNorth: " the lumpen proletariat of respective European imperial powers". That's good--you been reading Lenin recently? As the martyred Connolly put it (slain by men wearing the British Army uniform and firing British Army guns) "We serve neither King nor Kaiser". Of course we have our own lumpen element on this site--Lumpen Loonsigh, for example!

• DanOLoingsigh | Nov 07, 2012, 04:39 PM EST

  ancavker – You may prefer that these men remain airbrushed out of Irish history…as they were for so many years…but now that the Irish National War Memorial Gardens has been properly refurbished, after years of disgraceful neglect, and the memorial at Messines is complete, these long-forgotten men now have fitting memorials…just like all the other soldiers that helped to defeat tyranny in two world wars.

• ancavker | Nov 07, 2012, 11:35 AM EST

  Dan: Nobody knows what would have happened is true, but many historians have made reasonable scenarios as to what Europe would have looked like had Germany won. And most were in agreement that England would have kept her empire, including Ireland. Of course people die in wars, I do not dispute that. What I do dispute is the fact that you and others believe that it was perfectly justifiable for Irish men to kill people who never harmed them. The last 35 years or so has been a constant battle by the revisionists to raise these mens's profile and demand that they be honored, while at the same time vilifying those men and women who fought for Irish freedom. So it is Ok to kill, as long as you killed for England. If you killed for your own country than you are a thug, a gunmen, and a criminal.

• DanOLoingsigh | Nov 07, 2012, 10:36 AM EST

  ancavker – Nobody knows what would have happened if Germany had won, but you can get a flavour of how Germany dealt with defeated opponents by looking at the treaty of Brest-Litovsk…in all wars soldiers kill people who never personally harmed them…that’s how wars are won and lost…you don’t like the fact that thousands of Irishmen volunteered to fight, but that’s how it happened…vilification came later, when their efforts became an embarrassment for others….and a new narrative was needed.

• ancavker | Nov 07, 2012, 08:53 AM EST

  Dan: Please stop with Ireland was part of the UK. Ireland was conquered, and made part of the UK. The fact remains no matter how much you try to justify it, that Irish men went out and killed people who never harmed them or their country.If Germany had one WW1, it would not have affected Ireland one way or the other. England wouls still keep her empire including Ireland.

• IrelandNorth | Nov 07, 2012, 08:45 AM EST

  The symbolic significance of the poppy is due to its floran resilience. It was the only thing left growing after the lumpen proletariat of respective European imperial powers were finished slaughtering each other over their social betters' global real estate hostile takeovers. As to whether the fact that the central nervous system sedative heroin derives from poppy seed inspired imperious narcotic nationalisms is open to conjecture.

• DanOLoingsigh | Nov 06, 2012, 07:14 PM EST

  KevinK – KevinK – East Poland was occupied in 1939, long before Churchill was PM. And it was Roosevelt who agreed Poland’s post-war status at the Yalta conference, against Churchill’s wishes. Read the Treaty of Non-Aggression between Germany and the Soviet Union

• DanOLoingsigh | Nov 06, 2012, 06:50 PM EST

  Seano - Congratulations on another well-argued response, NOT

• seanomelb | Nov 06, 2012, 06:01 PM EST

  Dano the son of Moses with his pearls of stupidity.

• DanOLoingsigh | Nov 06, 2012, 03:43 PM EST

  Knee - Let's make this simple - Ireland was part of the UK; The UK was in alliance with France; France was invaded by Germany; so not so different to the Pacific, except in your poor head.

• WoundedKnee | Nov 06, 2012, 02:18 PM EST

  Will there be a celebration of the Irish Brigade, the small but gallant band of Irish soldiers who had made the mistake of joining the British Army but who realized their stupidity and treachery when the great Roger Casement spoke to them? Knowing the Irish ruling class, I very muich doubt it. But there WILL be a celebration of those Irish fanatics among the POWs who spat at Casement and insulted a man that was worth a thousand of their low ilk.

• ancavker | Nov 06, 2012, 02:00 PM EST

  Will this TD be getting his knickers in a twist for the 1916 100 year anniversary? Ah now sure we don't want to be offending any one! But sure go ahead and wear your Poppy!

• Frosty38 | Nov 06, 2012, 10:31 AM EST

  Yes we do I have one every year.They stand outside all of the stores, BTW. In order to do that one of the head folks have to send a letter to ALL the stores to do that. So donate the money goes for good things same as the Knights with tootsie roll drive.

• ancavker | Nov 06, 2012, 10:07 AM EST

  SO this TD says there are two sides to every story, and equates the Poppy to the Easter Lilly. What a gutless pineless bunch. The only government and people that do not honor the men and women who fought for Irish freedom. And yes the Irish who fought in WW I went out and killed those who never did any harm to them. All for the colonial power of England that did all it could down through the years to destroy Ireland. That may not be fashinable today, but it is still the truth. Those who wish to wear the Poppy fine, but no elected representative of an Irish government should wear one, period.

• WoundedKnee | Nov 06, 2012, 08:31 AM EST

  You really are an utter fool, oloonie. The US was ATTACKED by Japan in Dec 1941. The US had a right to respond. Now tell us when Ireland was ATTACKED by Turkey or Austria. Come on, don't be such a dope, give us the date and where the Turkish invasion force landed. Truly, your knowledge of history would fit on my bar tab, with space left over.

• Smyrnian | Nov 06, 2012, 03:52 AM EST

  Actually poppies are worn in the U.S. The VFW gives them out every year at this time, for example.

• KevinKehoe | Nov 05, 2012, 09:06 PM EST

  Rebelforce, quick correction, the Russians occupied Eastern Poland in agreement with Churchill and the allies and went on to enslave all of Poland till the late 80's. Poland was used as bait and left to rot, until they liberated themselves with little help from the almighty allies.

• merefalow | Nov 05, 2012, 07:30 PM EST

  no,NO,no,i cant see one on michael collins,not ever.

• DanOLoingsigh | Nov 05, 2012, 07:05 PM EST

  Old Knee's rationale also means that all the US troops engaged in combat in the Pacific are guilty of murder...he must try telling that one to the Marines...

• DanOLoingsigh | Nov 05, 2012, 06:55 PM EST

  Old Knee opines that 'for a man to go a thousand miles in order to kill someone he has never met is murder'...well from East Prussia to the battlefields of WW1 is well over 1000 miles...that's where the battles took place...that's how far some German regiments travelled.

• WoundedKnee | Nov 05, 2012, 04:02 PM EST

  ReturnedYank: The reason you have never seen poppies worn in France or America is because people in these countries don't wear them, despite the ignorant claims being put forward here by people who probably have never gone beyond Britain or Ireland in their narrow lives. Of course these stupid Anglocentrics think that Britain is "the world", that's why they make these ludicrous claims. I've never seen a poppy worn in Ireland, but I wouldn't be surprised to see one, as there is a rump in Ireland--many of these associated with the formerly fascist Fine Gael party--who think Ireland should never have sought its freedom from "the motherland". One of the ironies of this is that this rump claim to be big lovers of peace and opponents of violence, yet they glorify the killing by Irishmen of perhaps 50.000 Hungarians, Germans, Turks, Austrians etc., men of whom their Irish killers knew nothing and with whom they had no quarrel. I say for a man to go a thousand miles in order to kill someone he has never met is murder, and I say the Irish in the British Forces were murderers. In fact, the figure killed by Irishmen in just four years, 1914-18, far eclipses the entire number of people killed by Irish Republicans from the 1798 Rebellion up to the present day. Some peacelovers--they poppymongers are warmongers, and a few of them are pushing their poison and hate on this site!

• Kilsally | Nov 05, 2012, 03:55 PM EST

  Returned yank , the poppy is worn extensively in Northern Ireland, less so in the republic where until recently a lot of folks were ashamed to commemorate their relatives in the British Army but things are changing and poppies are sold and worn, just received my Irish poppy badge from the royal British legion limerick branch, they commemorate Remembrance Day along with Irish defence forces and the American legion in Ireland

• ReturnedYank | Nov 05, 2012, 03:39 PM EST

  @mreinhar2001 I have lived in France, Ireland and America. I never saw people in those countries wear them. Just because a few rural Minnesotans sport poppies doesn't mean the majority of Americans wear them - or even know about them for that matter.

• dublinshea | Nov 05, 2012, 10:32 AM EST

  fair play to the deputy he is obviously very mature, personally i wouldn't give money to a charity that takes care of ex british soldiers but thats just me. i get bitter about things like the suppression of irish democracy, partition of ireland harassment of our people at the point of a british gun, stuff like that. irish people who joined that organization are still british soldiers. there not boy scouts. they get trained in the use of violence to assert britains will, that may be in ireland or some other unfortunate country. in ww2 they could have very easily been used to invade the south, during ww1 they where in occupation of the south. today and since ww1 and 2 they are occupying the north. no sympathy for them. While this TD has a right to his own opinions his support for such a violent foreign organization is worrying. at the least he should be investigated by the security services.

• pilib04 | Nov 05, 2012, 10:20 AM EST

  Why would a westBrit wearing a poppy surprise anyone?

• IrelandNorth | Nov 05, 2012, 08:49 AM EST

  "Thornes and thistles grow wherever armies have been!" Lao Tzu - Tao De Ching - Chapter 30. I can find no reference to either shamrock or poppy. Far better to remember WHY many young men of 20 died rather than just that they did. For they who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it. European imperial powers are now bosom buddies, but their ambitions may be the same as their early 20th century antecedents - only worse. Let's hope not!

• Tooreenagrena | Nov 05, 2012, 07:12 AM EST

  Please be aware that there are some very delusional,anti Irish saddos on this and other irish sites who have no life but to spread their anti irish venom. You know who you are WOUNDEDKNEE. Speaking to them just encourages them.

• mcdolan | Nov 05, 2012, 02:45 AM EST

  Amen, Frank, and good on you! I remember my Brooklyn childhood and the then Armistice Day (November 11th) parades and commemorations when everyone wore a poppy in remembrance of all who gave their lives. I was most surprised upon moving to Ireland that there was such an anti-poppy feeling around. It's long past due that the lives of those who fought from the island of Ireland are remembered, and it has nothing to do with anti-Republicanism. I have worn both symbols, and don't apologise for it.

• mreinhar2001 | Nov 04, 2012, 10:45 PM EST

  @ReturnedYank: Like @woundedknee has been advised, go google it and visit with Americans who came from small towns in Minnesota. Americans wear poppies to remember the war dead. Just because you have never seen it, does not mean it does not occur.

• Seanmor | Nov 04, 2012, 08:46 PM EST

  It is interesting to learn the U.S. , not G.B.,was the first country to wear the poppy. I was in England (the land of my birth) on 11 Nov. of '57 and being an Irishman, I did NOT wear a poppy, even though most of my fellow workers did. However, since I got discharged from the U.S. Marine Corps in the mid-'60s, I have often bought and worn poppies on Veterans Day, Memorial Day, and once on St. Patrick's Day. For the past 15 years I have participated in the Memorial Day parade in my local upstate village, where poppies are sold on that Day. On the Friday fefore 11 November,, I'll attend a veterans' breakfast at the local publisc school - across the street from the American Legion post of which I am a member.

• seanomelb | Nov 04, 2012, 06:37 PM EST

  I'll stick to my Easter lily(the pin on type)

• Kilsally | Nov 04, 2012, 06:13 PM EST

  France wear poppies, the American legion adopted the poppy two years after armistice day, indeed US was first country to adopt the use of poppies not UK. Malta, Ghana, Jamaica, Sierra Leone, Fiji , Dutch, Barbados all wear poppies. They are usually produced locally and sold on Veterans Day, Remembrance Day in aid of veterans charities or in Australia and New Zealand for Anzac Day . Scotland and Canada have their own unique poppy designs .

• Kilsally | Nov 04, 2012, 06:05 PM EST

  Woundedknee you are wrong , google it - poppies are worn by lots of nations

• seanomelb | Nov 04, 2012, 05:15 PM EST

  Maybe Mr. Feighan fails to remember the Connaught Rangers mutinied in protest against the treatment of Indians by the British and the leaders were hung(and some incarcerated. "Lest we forget" apparently Mr. Feighan has.

• mreinhar2001 | Nov 04, 2012, 01:29 PM EST

  @WoundedKnee: Many Americans, especially those from Minnesota, wear and wore the poppy on November 11th to remember WWI (and later WWII) War Dead.

• Riley1987 | Nov 04, 2012, 01:07 PM EST

  @Woundedknee You are the most pathetic of trolls.

• Rebelforce | Nov 04, 2012, 12:55 PM EST

  The Irishmen who fought to get the Germans out of Western Poland (the Russians occupied Eastern Poland in an agreement with Hitler) or the Irishmen who fought to get the British out of Ireland? I know which ones I consider more worthy of honor and praise.

• WoundedKnee | Nov 04, 2012, 12:33 PM EST

  "The poppy is used thorughout the world". Oh yeah? I've traveled the world, and I've never seen it used as a symbolo in Russia, China, Argentina, and of course not here in the USA. England and its colonies re not "the world"--grow up Kilsally and learn a little before posting your nonsense.

• WoundedKnee | Nov 04, 2012, 12:28 PM EST

  I wonder what this guy will wear to commemorate the tens of thousands of Austrians, Germans, Turks, Hungarians etc killed by Irishmen in WW1? Not accidentally killed, either--the Irish traveled hundreds if not thousands of miles from their homeland in order to attack and kill men of whom they knew nothing and with whom they had no quarrel. Pathological Irish killers.

• cillowen | Nov 04, 2012, 12:22 PM EST

  feighen another quisling candidate for knighting

• ReturnedYank | Nov 04, 2012, 12:00 PM EST

  I'll be wearing my Easter lily on Tuesday because the good guys were *inside* the GPO. As for this "universal" stuff, the poppy is a British military symbol. Never saw them in the U.S.

• Kilsally | Nov 04, 2012, 11:27 AM EST

  The Poppy is used throughout the world, it is not a British symbol. Indeed the poem In Flanders Fields which talks of poppies was composed by Canadian David McCrea. The Poppy is commemorative not celebratory , red poppies grew in the fields where the battles and slaughter took place. The Poppy Appeal also raises money for Veterans with disabilities etc. the Royal British Legion , Limerick Branch sell an Irish Poppy badge comprising Shamrock with a Poppy in the middle

• Portia777 | Nov 04, 2012, 09:51 AM EST

  "In Christianity, poppy symbolism is recruited to represent death as a period of tranquil slumber. This association is seen in metaphor as the red petals of the poppy symbolize the blood of a sacrificed Christ. Themes of resurrection and immortality (salvation of the soul) blossom as the poppy (and the spirit) never really die, just renew and ascend" Nothing like a bit of blood sacrifice.!!!

• Portia777 | Nov 04, 2012, 09:43 AM EST

  Hmmmmmmmm celebrating death?? Young men and women brainwashed into killing each other while the shadow men laughed and lined their pockets. Oh the fools we have been and now some idiot wants to celebrate their death, so the shadow men can feed off all the energy again next week. Time to wake up.