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THIS TIME of year, a piece of red fabric in the shape of a flower brings a small dilemma to some Northerners. It usually lifts again within seconds. Poppy season is the most muted of Northern Ireland’s divisive issues, the resentments it causes usually silent, writes FIONNUALA O CONNOR

The ditherers wonder, since this is supposed to be a new age, whether they should ditch communal and parental habits. These are Catholics – or at least people born into Northern Catholic families. By and large, it is Protestants who almost automatically buy and wear the artificial poppies sold by the British Legion, to commemorate those who have fought, and are still fighting, in wars for the UK. Public figures of various kinds begin to wear poppies weeks before Remembrance Sunday – this year on November 8th. By and large, Catholics do not even think about buying the emblems.