This year I have bought two poppies. One went straight into the lapel of my replica 1937 Sunderland top for the Aston Villa game. The second was purchased when I was realised it was still there (on the shirt, in a cupboard). One of them will be worn with special pride today.
Not everyone takes the same view. This weekend, there was been a row of the sort that is a logical extension of the authoritarian zeal that obliges television presenters and reporters to start wearing poppies absurdly early to avoid causing offence to retired brigadiers in Dorset.
Eyebrows have been raised, dismay expressed and insults levelled because James McClean would not wear the SAFC poppy top at Everton.
In the street, I pass people who do wear poppies and people who don’t. I have not seen a white poppy this year though this was a concept I, though not a complete pacifist, admired. It enabled people who oppose war to show they could still honour and respect the fallen, specifically from the First World War though Remembrance Day and the wearing of poppies have come to be seen more widely as a tribute to sacrifices made by British and allied service personnel in all conflicts.
Now, if McClean were the great grandson of a British soldier who had died in the 194-18 war, the grandson of one killed in the Second World War or the son of a dead or maimed serviceman/woman from Middle Eastern conflict, I would perhaps be surprised if he chose not to wear one. And it is certainly true that many Irishmen, from north and south, have served and fought in the British Armed Forces.
But I would still respect it as his absolute right, the very right of freedom of expression that is so frequently listed among the reasons we went to war against Hitler.
In fact, as everyone commenting on his choice should know, McClean is a young man from the Roman Catholic community of Londonderry/Derry, a product of the Creggan. I’d guess that the vast majority of those he grew up among regard themselves as Irish, not British, and have the right to travel on Irish passports. Mention the Army to them and their minds go instantly to what they know or have been told about Bloody Sunday, Jan 30 1972 – 17 years before McClean was born.
Under no circumstances am I a standard-bearer for the IRA, which carried out countless despicable, murderous and often very cowardly attacks on men, women and children throughout the Troubles and whose dissident elements broke away to continue their squalid campaign after a flawed peace emerged. There are arguments to be had over politics and the island of Ireland, and Britain’s role there, but this is not the place for them.
But Bloody Sunday was much more about the suppression of unarmed protest than countering terrorism. Fourteen civilians died.
It was not our finest hour. Even the essentially discredited Widgery Tribunal described the soldiers’ shooting as “bordering on the reckless”; the much later Saville Inquiry found that all of those shot were unarmed, their killings “unjustified and unjustifiable”. After the Saville report appeared, David Cameron made a formal apology on behalf of Britain.
Mistakes are made in all conflict. Men in uniform are sometimes badly led or required to enforce or act on bad political decisions. The use of troops in times of civil unrest is fraught with danger. But we should not be surprised that when innocent lives are destroyed, victimhood and bitterness prevail.
It is naive to be shocked when any Irish Catholic/nationalist chooses not to honour British military sacrifice. That naivety is all the more inexplicable when considering the case of a Catholic from Derry.
However, the freedoms we nominally hold so dear extend to the freedom to disagree – loudly – with McClean’s actions and every word I have written.
Excellent piece. Well done.
To clarify, when I talked about wearing it with pride “today” that referred to yesterday when the piece originally appeared at Salut! Sunderland and was submitted to BFTGT.
It has attracted a large number comments – large for us anyway – which can be seen at http://salutsunderland.com/2012/11/james-mcclean-and-poppy-day/ Generally a good, robust debate on an emotive subject but I have just turned off comments after the tone degenerated.
The Irish were practically allied with the nazis and are still extremely anti-semitic and anti-British to this day. This is largely due to the fact that the nazis were catholic and anti-semitism has roots in catholicism.
The current president of Ireland supports groups like Hamas and Hezbollah that preach genocide against the Jews. In Northern Ireland hatred is popularised through the sectarian school system without which it would likely have been forgive and forget long ago as the current generations share no blame for the crimes of the past. I was raised catholic in Northern Ireland. At school I was taught science classes by nuns who lectured about miracles and if you supported the wrong (i.e. protestant identity) sports team you were villified.
James McClean is a victim of that system. He doesn’t understand the history and motivations of the bigotry that he ascribes to. Children are too easy to indoctrinate. In Northern Ireland everything is ‘them and us’, the other side dehumanised. The UK has much less nationalistic fervour and a greater openness towards other culture and groups and that’s why it’s a far superior nation to Ireland.
This colour coded map of the world is indicative of how civiled Ireland is – http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a5/Abortion_Laws.svg
I have never read such tosh, you really have no idea what you are talking about, you had a poor history teacher at school.
Conor A you clearly have no understanding of anything to do with Ireland. You say Ireland is an antisemitic country and site the presidents support of hamas and hezbollah. The president of Ireland recognises that both organisations are the freely elected representives of the peoples they represent ie palestine and lebanon. These are facts and does not make a person anti semitic for saying so. This is a view shared by almost the entire world by the way. Israel supporters do not like Mr Higgins for advocating a two state solution to the palestine/israel conflict along the lines of the 1967 agreement. This resolution is voted on every year in the UN and the entire world support the same position as Mr Higgins except for Israel the USA and 3/4 pacific islands who rely on america for financial aid. He is undoubtedly not anti semitic and anyone with any interest in the man would know this. As for the uk having a much less nationalistic fervour let see. Ireland has no party or elected politician from a right wing nationalistic ideology. Britain has the BNP AND EDL. 10% of the irish population consider themselves non irish yet we probably are the only country in europe with no right wing nationalist party!!! cant b that bad a place!
Conor must have been taught history by Walt Disney. WOW!!! Ireland is a world leader in human rights as demonstrated by recent appointment to the UN council for human rights. James McClean is fully entitled not to wear a poppy, particularly as he is nationalist from Derry. It is harder to argue that the UK has such respect for other cultures given an imperial history that has resulted in bloody murder of civilians across the world for hundreds of years. There are now over 1 million dead Iraqis since the start of the current invasion, that is some signal of respect for humanity.
‘The UK has much less nationalistic fervour and a greater openness towards other culture and groups’ – but if they refuse to wear a poppy all bets are off
It was once hypothesised that one millions monkeys on type writers would eventually stumble upon recreating the works of Shakespeare. However no amount of monkeys on type writers could recreate the complete and utter rubbish spouted above.
I’m an Irish Nationalist who did also undergo the same segregated school system, I’m sorry to disappoint you but we didn’t have IRA leaders coming in to “indoctrinate” us. Yes we where taught Irish history, which if you knew anything about you wouldn’t be so quick to lord your “far superior nation” with it’s “openness towards other culture”.
However despite this “segregated” up bringing I, like the majority of the population have many good friends you would brand as “them”. I’m not sure you’ve been in a while, but the next time your in Ireland you may just notice a country with a rich and diverse culture, not the group of close minded bigots you portray. Perhaps you should look a little closer to home for the bigotry you seek, the bathroom mirror perhaps?
Your argument seems to be based on James McClean being an Anti-semitic, anti-british, right wing neo-nazi. When perhaps he is just a young lad from a town where the British army slaughtered 14 unarmed civil rights marchers, injuring another 12 in 1972. Maybe, just maybe James choose to remember them……
As an Irish Catholic from Northern Ireland it’s refreshing to hear that the ignorance and arrogance surrounding the poppy is not engrained in every British person. Having been living in England for some time now I would still never consider wearing a poppy, however respect those who do. It needs to understood that one man’s hero can be another’s oppressor and to expect someone to wear a symbol that represents an armed force that caused so much hurt in their country is simply wrong. Fair play to James for choosing not to wear it, in the same situation I would do the same. I would never expect a British man to wear an Easter lilly (the commemorative symbol of those who gave their lives in the fight for Irish freedom) and would hope never to be expected to wear the poppy!
As someone who grew up in England but has lived in Canada since 1982 and has dual citizenship, I respect the sacrifices made by members of my own family in the two world wars and, indeed, all members of the military who died. I was driving on Sunday morning and pulled over at 11am to observe the 2 minutes silence. But that’s a very personal thing and I don’t wear a poppy. No one else needs to know how I feel and no one should ever be pressured into wearing a poppy to avoid being thought unpatriotic/traitorous/whatever. I respect not only McClean’s decision to refuse to wear the poppy shirt but also his courage in standing by his principles in the face of whatever pressure was put on him. I like to think that, in his position, I would have refused to wear the shirt, too. Not through any disrespect for the dead (though I would never call myself patriotic) but simply because I don’t want someone telling me I should conform with their idea of what is right. That would be my reason. James McClean has his own reasons and I’m glad he stuck by them.