Poppy comments `offensive'

The Minister for the Environment, Mr Dempsey, was accused last night of fomenting tribalism by his remarks on RTE's Questions and Answers last Monday over the wearing of the poppy.

Speaking in a debate at UCD's Literary and Historical Society last night, on the motion "That this house would wear a poppy", Henry, Lord Mount Charles said he found the remarks offensive.

He quoted Mr Dempsey as saying that it was his clear understanding that nationalists in the North regarded the wearing of the poppy as a similar symbol to the sash that the Orangemen wear.

Lord Mount Charles wondered whether it was time that "those politicians who try to claim some kind of exclusiveness in expressing nationalist sentiment should recognise that there exists on this island a complete tapestry of feelings, much of which is entirely tired of the divisive use of symbols in perpetuating ancient quarrels."

Just as he found it reprehensible for a candidate for the Presidency to be questioned because because she came from the North of Ireland, "so too do I find it offensive that politicians seek to support the continuing manipulation of symbols to perpetuate division."