An Irishman reasons why not to wear a Poppy…

Fergus O’Rourke on his non fanatical reasoning as to why he won’t be wearing a poppy this or in any other year

What was Britain’s purpose in WW1? That is a question routinely evaded, but whatever it was, it did not include granting self-determination to Ireland. We had been duped. (Two decades later, it was entirely understandable that we should have been resistant to a reprise of the dupe rôle.)

Why should we “honour” as a body of men those who were duped ? Remember, yes, but let us recall them as individuals, some of them as fine as one could imagine and many who were better people than those proved right by events.

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