Sir, - I would, I believe, have a good deal more right to wear a poppy than any of the several notables who have recently chosen ostentatiously to do so. Were I living in England I might in fact wear one, but here in Ireland I would not.
Whatever the original symbolism, in Ireland the poppy has long ago been misused by monarchists and similar misfits into a means of parading their distaste for this country.
I feel we do need some genuine way of commemorating the countless thousands of young lives lost, mostly wasted as cannon fodder, participating in wars against peoples with whom neither their own country nor they themselves had any quarrel. A suitable emblem might be the ceannabhan or cotton grass flower, which was worn long ago by Irish mercenaries in Continental armies.
Yours, etc.,
Boithrin Fada,
Gaillimh.