Sir, - Along with friends, I visited the war graves of Flanders and the Somme on Armistice Day 1996when everyone attending wore poppies.
The group left Dublin Airport wearing poppies: Northerners and Southerners, Catholics and Protestants proudly united during the visit. This received a lot of publicity in the national papers. I had a telephone call from a journalist in Dublin asking would I be wearing a poppy on our return? We had left Dublin Airport two days before and I believed we would be wearing one on our return. Will you be wearing one in Dáil Éireann? I had not considered this but when I was asked, I replied, why shouldn't I?
We have now designed what we are calling an Irish poppy with a shamrock centre as has been done by Canadians, Americans and New Zealanders according to their own tradition. - Yours, etc,
Sir, - Gareth P Keeley finds the poppy offensive (November 8th). In deference to his sensibilities I will rip off the one I bought yesterday in Bridge Street, Belfast, then explain to my German friends why the architecture dates from post-1941. I assume he is not a regular Irish Times reader and missed the coverage of the meeting of our heads of state recently? - Yours, etc,