Legion `delighted' by McAleese attendance

Members of the Royal British Legion in Ireland are "delighted" that the President-elect, Mrs McAleese, will be attending the Remembrance Day service at St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, tomorrow. And they are "not in the slightest" disappointed that she will not be wearing a poppy at her inauguration next Tuesday, Armistice Day, the legion's administrator, Maj Hume Grogan, said last night.

"We never expected her to," he said. "It was always our understanding that the President was not allowed wear any badge or emblem other than the shamrock."

He agreed the poppy had become politicised "a little bit", but emphasised that the legion was "solely" a welfare organisation. "We are non-political, non-denominational, and non-religious," he said. He felt that some people had got away from the true meaning of the poppy, which is a symbol of remembrance, and which is sold as a means of raising funds to help ex-servicemen and women in need, as well as their dependants.

Last year the legion spent £78,000 assisting more than 1,000 such people in the Republic. "They are spread throughout the 26 counties," said Maj Grogan, "with most in Dublin, as you'd expect because of its population." Just a third of that money was raised in Ireland, through selling poppies and such exercises, with the remainder coming from charities in the UK.

This year the poppy is being sold on the streets of Dublin for the first time in more than 25 years. The only difficulty the legion has experienced with these street sales has been in recruiting enough sellers, said Maj Grogan. Interested people can contact the legion's Dublin office at 26 South Frederick Street, phone 01-6713044.

The ecumenical service in St Patrick's Cathedral will be at 3.15 p.m. tomorrow. Lessons will be read by the British ambassador, Mrs Veronica Sutherland, and by a representative of the national president of the Organisation of National Ex-Servicemen and Women, while the act of remembrance will be lead by Mr Fergus Duff, Irish president of the Royal British Legion.