Madam, – Fionnuala O’Connor’s article (Opinion, October 29th) may be true in its assertion that a piece of red fabric in the shape of a flower brings a small dilemma to some Northerners, however, I believe there are many living in the southern part of the island who are also in a quandary about wearing a poppy at this time of year.
In November of 2001 I faced my first Remembrance Day poppy-less, having immigrated to Ireland that year. Growing up in Canada, communities were awash with the red emblem and we recited John McCrae's In Flanders Fieldsin schools. For my first few autumns in Ireland I missed wearing a poppy. I felt as if part of my identity as a Canadian was missing, and so arranged for a few poppies to be sent over. The first November bearing the "small piece of fabric" I felt very self-conscious, as if I was committing a cultural sin in my new homeland and would be chastised on the street because of it. I am pleased to report that five years of poppy-wearing in the west have gone off uneventfully.
Each person wears a poppy for their own reasons: some in memory of an unknown and long-dead family member, or for the nameless, countless young men who volunteered in naivety and innocence. Some wear poppies in support of those currently serving in battle and some, as I believe many Canadians do, as a sense of cultural or national identity. History says Canada entered the first World War with a colonial mindset and came out as a nation of its own. Its nationhood was forged on the fields of Somme, Ypres and Rimy Ridge. The graves in Flanders that hold the bodies of many a Canadian soldier certainly hold the bodies of many an Irish volunteer, Catholic and Protestant, Northerner and Southerner.
Many believe this annual tradition glorifies war, and I understand their arguments, and do often agree with them, however, I will continue to wear my poppy, in memory of those who died, far from home, far from families and in respect and pride of a young nation defining itself. – Yours, etc,