It remains to be seen if Britain reached Peak Poppy yesterday.
If next year is anything like this, or even more over the top (see what I did there?), then the weaponisation of the war dead is probably an irreversible cultural trend in the UK.
What was once a sombre day (note day) for families and communities to reflect on a lost loved one has become a bizarre seasonal festival of compulsory “grieving”.
Of course, Planet Fitba is not immune from this disorder.
Yesterday the klan was seething that Celtic supporters observed the mandatory silence at Livingston.
The Ibrox chaps were aching for something to be angry about.
When that is the case then Remembrance Sunday is not about a solemn act of remembering.
Rather, it is about scoring points in a futile culture war.
With each passing year in Britain Poppy Porn becomes increasingly hardcore.
Here in Ireland, the Royal British Legion Poppy remains a contentious symbol and in the Six Counties, it has become the seasonal emblem of the Unionist community.
Therefore, it was probably inevitable that someone would come up with a local variant for the Republic.
Indeed, our Love Actually Taoiseach is very fond of it.
This is a clear attempt to redefine the RBL Poppy as something historically specific and local for us in Ireland.
The emblem is meant to be just about the Irish who died in the First World War.
The 16th Irish Division was full of men who had listened to the leader of the Irish Volunteers John Redmond.
It is a matter of historical record that some of the Irish Volunteers who joined the 16th Irish Division came back and joined the IRA.
However, it is also a fact that some of the chaps in the trenches would later terrorise the Irish on behalf of the Crown.
During the horrible attrition on the Western Front revolutionaries in Ireland would strike the first blow in a process that would undo the British Imperium forever.
What makes the Poppy and Remembrance Sunday difficult in Ireland is that our founding document, the Easter Proclamation, makes reference to “our gallant allies in Europe”.
The Irish Volunteers who didn’t follow Redmond were in the GPO in 1916 and their allies were looking down the sights of a Spandau at the approaching British.
Recently I read of an incident at a railway station where Republican internees who were being transported to Frongoch saw some British soldiers on the opposite platform.
The lads, just for the craic like, started marching up and down singing
“Deutschland über alles”.
I literally laughed out loud when I read that and I hoped that my grandmother’s brother Michael was there belting it out too!
He was certainly interned in Frongoch.
In fairness, the guards at that POW camp in Wales did have nice outfits.
The enemy of my enemy is my friend and the enemy of the men in Frongoch was not the Germans.
The war itself was transformative.
By the time that the guns fell silent in November 1918 all was changed, changed utterly.
Regiments that went to war on horseback in 1914 were driving tanks four years later.
Battlefield commanders had to adapt to a changed landscape in every sense of the word.
By the end of the war the following innovations had been introduced to the business of war:
Aerial photo reconnaissance.
Flamethrowers
Light machine guns
Radios
Sub-machines guns
Tanks
That list isn’t exhaustive, but it indicates the technological revolution that had taken place in four years.
The First World War was also the zenith of British global pre-eminence
Since then it has been a slow decline on the world stage.
The idea that the First World War was good guys versus bad guys is historically illiterate.
The British Empire was a genocidal crime syndicate.
Quite simply they had to deal with the new Kaiser on the block.
Moreover, they were in alliance with Czarist Russia, probably the most repressive and cruel regime in Europe in 1914.
It was, in part a family affair.
The Czar, the Kaiser and the British King were first cousins and all grandsons of Queen Victoria.
Only Bertie would remain in place.
His cousin Willie abdicated, ousted by a socialist uprising led my sailors and soldiers.
The Kaiser lived out his life peacefully in Holland, but the Russian cousin of this crime family was not so lucky.
It all ended for the Romanov dynasty in a basement in Yekaterinburg in 1918.
Had it not been for the outbreak of the First World War, then none of those seismic events would have unfolded in the way that they did.
Without the Great War, there would have been no 1916 Easter Rising and no War of Independence here.
In two weeks I will do my own private remembering.
On the 28th November I consider the courage of the men of Kilmichael.
I do not grieve the passing of Francis Crake MC and his war criminals on that remote boreen in the Rebel County.
His gang were terrorising the local population and taunting the IRA to come to close quarters with them.
Barry duly obliged, but at a time of his choosing.
The “Auxies” were the SAS of their time and proved to be no match for the West Cork Flying Column.
Of course, the Corkman had himself had been in the uniform of the British King when he heard of the events of Easter Week.
In 1916 he was serving in Mesopotamia securing oil supplies for the Empire.
He returned home to be on the correct side of history.
On the 28th of this month I do consider the sacrifice of Volunteers Pat Deasy, Michael McCarthy and Jim Sullivan.
Fuair siad bás ar son Saoirse na hÉireann.
It is worth noting the RBL Poppy is a symbol commemorating ALL British war dead since the start of World War One.
Therefore, it pays homage to all of those heroes who defended the British Empire against those ghastly natives.
Here’s an idea…
Instead of this North Korean type of enforced “remembrance” every year (and it seems to be getting earlier and lasting longer) the British should learn about the great evils that their empire perpetrated across the planet for centuries.
Now that is something I could take part in.
It is not forgetting that the British nation should guard against, but the culturally enforced amnesia of what their leaders inflicted upon millions of innocents.
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Britain has reached peak Britain.
The problem with bringing atrocities I to the debate when discussing the British Empire you also have to recognise the atrocities carried out in the name (not necessarily the spirit) of Republicanism Phil.
The Poppy has been hi jacked by the numpty element in Society and by Politicians who won’t be found anywhere near a trench ,helmet or bullet proof vest when the detritus hits the proverbial.
Here have been atrocities carried out by all sides in Irelands troubled times.
Lest we forget that when pontificating about one side or the other eh.
Ah the old “one side is as bad as the other” rubbish. Listen the British and their proxies the Loyalist murder gangs have left Republicans far behind in the scale of things. James Connelly was right.” Britain has no right in Ireland,Never did have any right in Ireland and never will have any right in Ireland”.
An atrocity is an atrocity no matter what cause or in who’s name it is carried out under.
All sides were guilty of them.
That’s just an uncomfortable truth for some it would seem.
James Connolly was 100% spot on but then he was an unusual position of having served both sides in Ireland.
I used to buy a poppy every year, but stopped after the infamous behaviour of uniformed soldiers at Ibrox stadium, where they openly joined in with racist and sectarian chanting.
It wasn’t so much the incident itself, but the complete lack of public redress from the army or anyone. They just brushed it off with some mealy mouthed waffle. Had the soldiers joined in with chanting against persons of, say, pakistani muslim heritage, then the army would have been on its knees grovelling for forgiveness, while those responsible would have been for the high jump.
I agree with remembering the dead of the world wars and the falklands war. While the origins of some of these conflicts may be dubious, the victims in the main were young men in the prime of their life, trying to throw invaders out of someone else’s country (I appreciate the great irony of British troops in this role, of course).
But I reject any equivalence with these modern conflicts, which are highly contrived and politicised. They were the cynical schemes of politicians, not just wars. Sadly, the men who return from them dead or injured are not heroes, but only victims – just as are the very many civilians who suffered as a result of the conflicts.
I very much feel that modern poppy day is used to bestow an undeserved credibility on modern conflicts, and use sentimentality to gloss over inconvenient facts such as legality and the like. I also think the fourth rate celebrities known as the “royal family” also depend on it as a vehicle to sustain their own relevance. They enjoy parading about on TV, weighed down by the copious amount of medals which they didn’t earn.
I dislike the modern, very american phenomenon of “soldier worship” which has surfaced in the UK. That is, if you once walked past an army recruiting office, you are perpetually a hero of great character who is above any form of criticism.
When I was a wee boy, I was mad keen on tanks and soldiers and the like, but it is disconcerting to see grown men in their 40s and 50s go weak at the knees over a camoflage smock. In large part, the phenomenon is down to the Klan, as they scrabble around for something to center their threadbare kulchur on, now that racism and bigotry is frowned upon.
I cant remember the name, but there is fleet of tipper lorries in scotland which has silhouettes of modern soldiers painted on the back and the italic slogan “support for our wounded” on the back.
“Our” wounded? They are not “my” wounded, I didn’t send anyone to Iraq based on lies, and they were not fighting for me. “Support for Blair’s wounded”, maybe.
While I understand the need for fundraising, I think the Army made a big mistake in allowing itself to become closely associated with the ibrox fanbase and I think the Poppy organisers have been very careless in allowing the poppy to become adopted as a symbol of “loyalism” which now often features strongly on orange walk drums etc. All of this is a real turn off to normal, decent people.
I don’t wear the poppy but I do honour the silence as my great grandfather lost his life in the war.
I noticed that Stevie G was wearing a special ‘poppy badge’ in interviews last week – a poppy entwined with the Rangers’ crest – ‘lest we forget ‘ that only players/supporters of Ibrokes and no other Scottish club were sacrificed in the Great War ( sic ).
“Lest they forget” (to pay their taxes)
The irony is that ‘they’ were most adept at running scared from war and hiding behind their supposed ‘war effort occupations’ while others went off to fight for the country that ‘they’ live so much.
To add further Govanside brass to the mix…’they’ think that titles won during barely competitive war years competition should be credited to ‘their’ already false total..
I’d mention pots and kettles but they’d call it a “Fenian Ba5£4rd” as well as black!
That’s the problem (illustrated) with those pesky modern low collars… they just don’t keep those ideologically bipolar tattoos quite ‘out of sight’ when needed.
I’ve not worn a poppy for years for a variety of reasons. Not because I don’t agree with the sentiment … Not due to what it represents ( or is supposed to) but partly due to what it has become….
Leaving aside the iBrokes appropriation of the poppy emblem – the stance of the BBC on them as a required accessory on any of their November broadcasts is bordering on political bullying and I find it quite sickening.
My main reason for not wearing one is broadly due to my own extreme personal stubbornness at being told what do do…. I know what my opinions are and don’t feel the need to broadcast them to anyone else by having a poppy visible on my clothing at all times. The more anyone insists that I do… the more likely I am to resist.
Last year when I dropped a few coins into the tin at a poppy stall in my local supermarket , having gestured that I didn’t need a poppy… a ( well meaning but insistent) pensioner pursued me some distance and attempted to stab a poppy into my chest a few times before getting my message. And they’re supposed to be a symbol of peace.!?
Luckily this year I have just returned from a poppy-free trip abroad and seem to have missed the festival altogether.
On a footballing note…
Very interesting the number of withdrawals or ‘not interesteds’ from the Scotland squad….
I’d hoped fanpower would take hold and show the sfa how ‘we’ feel about the appointment of a tax cheat to the top job in our game…
.. but it’s a fickle sport with even more fickle supporters sadly.
Are the players however showing some ‘spine’ on our behalf though? The withdrawals cant surely just be down to injury and fitness…
It’s quite clear that many don’t want to represent Scotland under McLeish although not saying specifically why!
I often believe that there is frequently some substance behind most football rumours. The one I’m hearing is that tax paying players don’t want to play under a tax cheat.
Wouldn’t it be great if they came out and stated their reasons. – either individually or as a group.
The figures don’t lie.. something is definitely irking the players as Big EBT has to scour the countries backwaters and subs benches for late alternatives who were nowhere near a call-up just days ago.
Maybe the BBC will ask some tough questions?
No?
PNB: Regarding your views on the poppy frenzy, couldn’t agree more.
The thing that horrifies me about the Poppy Industry (for that is what it is becoming) is that there are a growing number of very angry people out there who wish to require people to Show Respect or face some (ill-defined) consequences. Whatever happened to personal choice? https://theclumpany.wordpress.com/2016/10/29/oh-no-not-a-poppy-blog/
Every year I respect the silence. I always put money in the tins, but I choose not to wear the poppy. And that is exactly what it is. A choice. I put to other charities regularly, but choose not to wear the badges etc. The poppy as Phil has said has turned into some jingoistic emblem to the Klan and we’re better than you attitude. I dont know how they ‘celebrated the remembrance’ at Ibrokes yesterday but in the past that have had handpicked armed forces personnel attend the stadium at that time and join in on the shall we say, festivities of Britishness. No class, no respect. They have no idea how to act properly for any occasion.