Enda Kenny and sports stars Brian O’Driscoll and James McClean criticised over Poppy Day snub

Easy lads & lassies. I was in county Donegal over the weekend and I met any amount of folk who were wearing the poppy. Add to that the fact that there are rememberance services taking place in Ireland both north and south nowadays, and the sky isnt falling in on anyone.

It's not an English motif, Hancock you bigot.

Not all fallen Englishmen were so noble esspecially in Ireland. Let the English wear the poppies .

British Isles you mean, Hancock, and yes it is, thanks to those fallen soldiers. It wouldn't be so egregious of a statesman or popular celebrity to recognise the profundity of Remembrance Day, would it, instead of being petty and small minded.

Is it still a free country over there in the Irish isles?

It's not a compulsory badge, but it'd do those in the public eye well if they bothered to attach a small symbol to their breast. It's a token of remembrance and it does behove those in Office to act in a dignified and statesman like manner - just typical small mindedness from a certain (and slim) slither of Irish society.

A symbol of remembrance ceases to function when it becomes a compulsory badge that people are conscripted to wear.

Irish fighting for the Crown in WW1 arguably a form of appeasement. And we know that appeasement gets us just as far as flattery can.

How silly. Getting all offended over a poppy? Grow up. To her credit, queen Elizabeth did visit and bow her head in respectful homage at the shrine dedicated to Irelad's freedom fighters, but I don't recall she wore an Easter lilly on her lapel to the ceromony.

My wife and I just returned from Europe and while in England I wore the poppy for one day as a mark of respect for the Irish and British dead of World War l and for the Irish and British dead of World War ll - who fought to defeat Hitler and fascism.

Don't worry, 'everything comes to those who wait' and the British and the embarrassed intelligentsia of Ireland have plenty of time for the truculent slow-learning Irish Statesmen to learn how to show some manners and respect:- >Stop. >Face the memorial. >Lay a Wreath. > Step back. >Pause a moment. >Bow your head. .............Honestly, have they learned nothing from the lessons on statesmanship and humility taught by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II on her recent State Visit?

Exercising their right to not wear poppy is fine I wouldn't wear one either.

I know I'm splitting hairs, but the poppy pictured is a Canadian poppy, which is slightly different from the ones worn in the UK.

poppy symbol of the false promises