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People and Politics by Patrick Roberts

Poppy fascism used against Irish leaders in politics and sport -- No reason to glorify horrific deaths in World War I

Posted on Tuesday, November 13, 2012 at 07:18 AM

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Irish leader Enda Kenny made the decision not to wear a Remembrance Day poppy

I see Irish leader Enda Kenny, Foreign Minister Eamon Gilmore, rugby star Brian O’Driscoll, and soccer star James McClean have all been attacked for not wearing the poppy on Remembrance Day.

That is poppy fascism at its finest.

John Snow, the distinguished British commentator, refuses to wear a poppy for that very reason, as he rails against the Poppy fanatics who regard not wearing one in honor of Britain’s war dead as close to treason.

I’ll wear my own poppy when the British wear an Easter Lily remembering the Easter Rising of 1916 dead – that is it, pure and simple.

The First World War was a complete abomination, a blood filled massacre on a thousand battlefields that left millions dead and ravaged and led to the even bloodier Second World War conflict.

Thirty seven million died including 8 million soldiers in the bloodiest war in history to that point – and we are supposed to celebrate that?

Beside that, Patrick Pearse’s 1916 Rebellion with 446 killed was like a rounding error for the First World War casualties.

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

On a point of principle I would not want to commemorate it, no more than I would the Vietnam War here which I regard as the closing kick of American paranoia about communism in Southeast Asia.

Very few wars are just, as the churches and your common sense will tell you, and World War One, which has its origins in a series of utterly obscure events in the Balkans, will never be in that category.

Of course there were brave men who fought in it and died, lions led by donkeys as the Ulster Volunteers called it, but that does not excuse its utter uselessness.

For any Irish leader to wear the poppy would be to ennoble that dreadful struggle where the upper class Brits sent millions of working-class men to their deaths.

No way say I that it should be remembered and treated as some kind of antiseptic heroic deed from long ago.

The men who died so needlessly would surely not want it so.

So count me out poppy fascists -- unless you wear the Easter Lily too.

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FallsRNat | Dec 24, 2012, 07:56 AM EST

i think it was Arnie in 1 of his movies that said 'you still don't get it do you' only the blinkered can view the poppy as an emblem for the British dead, it is for all soldiers & if you can't see that, then you my friend are the facist, no wonder even the NI RC like me are willing to stay as part of the UK, the Republicans are the ones now who like to say No to everyone else, thankfully they will always be a minority

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Mortimer74 | Nov 26, 2012, 11:15 AM EST

Enough already with the poppy fascists.

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Thomas84 | Nov 23, 2012, 03:47 AM EST

Irish people wearing a poppy and saying its not about britain , its about the dead guys ... tell me this, have you ever honoured the other 98% of irish dead who fought in all the other armies. South america, north america, africa ,asia and australia. Thats right , they fought everywhere, but let me guess they dont matter because they didnt join the army you want to support. Wear your poppy, but at least have the courage to admit that you do it because you want to british or feel in some way that you are.

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YoungPike | Nov 19, 2012, 12:42 PM EST

Well said jimquad! I too wear my poppy with pride and it has nothing to do with jingoism or glorifying war. Millions of young men lost their lives in the obscenity that was WWI. Then millions more gave their lives to rid the world of Nazism in WWII!

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IrelandNorth | Nov 19, 2012, 08:00 AM EST

Tory n 1a a member of a major British political group of the 18th and 19th c favouring at first the Stuarts and later Royal authority and the established church and seeking to preserve the traditional political structure and defeat parliamentary reform b CONSERVATIVE 1 2 an American upholding the cause of the Crown during the American revolution - (Merrian-Webster (1987). Longmann Family Dictionary: A Clear, Concise and Modern Guide to the English Language. London: Chancellor Press, p 743). A term originally used to describe defeated Irishry by Cromwellian roundhead parliamentary commonwealthers who refused to go to the hell that was Connacht. Also an island off the coast of north Antrim. Avoid sanctimoniousness and/or pontification, I ponder which of the above definitions most closely approximates your nom-de-poste?

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IrelandNorth | Nov 19, 2012, 07:56 AM EST

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seanomelb | Nov 15, 2012, 11:42 PM EST

toryTory by your name we know you, a fawning Anglophile.

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maireadinmelb | Nov 15, 2012, 03:22 PM EST

Given the Third Reich did not exist in WW1 your argument is moot citizen69. THe origins in the poppy are ww1 - the notion that "Small nations shall be free" that is all 1916 was about Making a small nation free!!

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citizen69 | Nov 15, 2012, 12:08 PM EST

Pat Roberts, more Irishmen died in one battle of WWI than died in the entire war of independence in Ireland yet you think these men should not be remembered? It's not the war, the battle or the causes of the conflict that are being commemorated but the men & women who lost their lives. Hundreds of thousands of Irish fought in both world wars, protestants & catholics side by side. They stood up against the Nazi tyranny, which was out to conquer the whole of Europe, while those in the IRA stayed at home and conspired with the Third Reich behind their backs.

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ancavker | Nov 15, 2012, 10:14 AM EST

Red Branch, yeash sure, and the militia's running around here in the U.S. in places like Idaho and Montana, say they are following in the foot steps of George Washington and the other AMerican revolutionaries. Should Americans cancel 4th of July because of that?

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hancock | Nov 15, 2012, 06:34 AM EST

World War 1 led direcctly to World War 11. Pin your English poppy on that. Also to the demise of your English empire.

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maireadinmelb | Nov 15, 2012, 02:28 AM EST

Interesting perspective redbranch - but you fail to associate the disastrous creation on yugoslavia as a result of ww1 and the effect that had up until the 1990's including genocide! Some would say that ww1 caused that debacle!

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RedBranch | Nov 14, 2012, 05:48 PM EST

Last person to be shot as as result of WWI declarations was back in 1918. Last person to be shot dead as a result of the 1916 Proclamation, well that would be a couple of weeks ago. You pin on your lily Mr.Roberts you condone the further use of violence in Ireland. Simples!

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Strongbow | Nov 14, 2012, 05:37 PM EST

WobblyKnee- Show me the lab where Fascism was "invented" and I'll introduce you to the fella who synthesised gravity.

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KevinKehoe | Nov 14, 2012, 02:09 PM EST

Woundedknee: When I said :By all means remember and honor those brave souls who were butchered in there millions” I meant on all sides, especially since one of my relatives along with a few of his friends ending up fighting with the Germans against the allies in WW1.

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