Irish veteran criticises ex-head of UK military’s call for No vote

Former British military officers, including a Dublin-born Royal Navy commander, have condemned a

claim by a retired top general that Scots died to keep the United Kingdom together. On Sunday, Lord Richard Dannatt asked whether it "was really right that a few thousand Scots" determined to secure independence should "change the destiny of us all".

He said 100 Scots had died serving with the British Army in Northern Ireland in "a bloody fight" fought "to keep Scotland as part of a United Kingdom that included Northern Ireland".

“I wonder just how much thought, appreciation, recognition is given to the memory of those who have fought and brought this United Kingdom of ours to where it is today.”

Lord Dannatt, who was chief of defence staff between 2006 and 2009, said he “really worried” about “the wives, mothers and friends of those Scottish soldiers who died to keep Northern Ireland in the UK”.

His intervention prompted a sharp response from veterans voting Yes, including a Dublin-born former Royal Navy Lieutenant Commander, Feargal Dalton, who is now a Glasgow councillor for the Scottish National Party.

“We take the strongest possible exception to [this] outrageous statement implying that our fallen comrades died in support of a No vote in a Scottish independence referendum.

“How dare he take their sacrifice in vain and try to turn it to political advantage – particularly having presided over the destruction of Scotland’s historic regiments,” they said.