There was a predictable mini furore this week in British media over Ireland footballer and Arsenal captain Katie McCabe’s decision not to wear a poppy for a match last weekend. It is that time of year again in Britain. Remembrance Sunday is this weekend.
Wearing a poppy to commemorate Britain’s veterans is hardly universally observed. Some surveys suggest that at least a fifth of Britons never don one. It seems like it must be double that proportion for younger adults. Observance is near ubiquitous in the Westminster political bubble, where I spend perhaps half of my working time.
At this time of year, Irish people living in Britain sometimes feel the glare of attention over their decisions about wearing the poppy.
I do not wear one but, of course, I have no issue with the Irish in Britain who do. I might even feel justified making a different choice myself in future should the mood ever take hold. But the truth is that I do not expect it to. Displaying symbols is just not my habit.
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Like many Irish people, I had ancestors who fought on the side of Britain in the first World War. My grandfather’s brother, Patrick Swaine, joined the Royal Dublin Fusiliers at the outset of the war. Military records show he later switched to the Royal Munster Fusiliers.
Swaine, who came from Ballinakill in Co Laois, was a private in the regiment’s 2nd battalion, which spent much of the war stationed in northern France on the western front. The battalion was mauled in the German spring offensive that began on March 21st in 1918.
Various British records suggest my granduncle was killed in action the next day. Or at least that is what they believe happened to him. His body was never found. But it seems likely that he was among the 2nd battalion’s many casualties who perished in bloody battles on the 22nd, somewhere between Tincourt and Péronne in the Somme.
Swaine was 21 when he died. I know he was awarded the victory medal for which all soldiers who went to war for Britain between 1914 and 1918 were eligible. I also know he is among the 14,657 fallen troops with no known grave who are named in the Pozières Memorial for those killed on the British side during the German spring offensive.
But that is about all I know of him. My guess is he simply needed a wage and the British army offered one. It is likely he died fighting for economic survival as much as anything else. I never felt the need to wear a poppy for him. His story was typical of the time.
Meanwhile, McCabe this year is receiving much of the same treatment that is normally reserved for Derryman James McClean, who now plays for Wrexham. He has made a career of some notoriety in Britain out of crunching sliding tackles and poppy refusal.
It appears that the Daily Mail was the first British newspaper to report on McCabe’s decision to “DITCH” the poppy from her jersey last weekend in Arsenal’s match against Leicester. One of the newspaper’s sports reporters dug out names of a few Irish players in the Women’s Super League, and examined team photos.
In its piece published at 8.36pm on Sunday, the Mail noted that McCabe had worn the poppy last year but chose not to this season, although she observed the designated moment of silence before the game. The newspaper also name-checked McCabe’s Ireland team-mate Caitlin Hayes, who plays for Brighton, for her poppy refusal.
The Daily Telegraph followed up the Mail’s story in a piece published at lunchtime on Monday. It added to the list of poppy refuseniks with Hayley Nolan, although it wrongly said she played for London City Lionesses instead of her club, Crystal Palace. Abbie Larkin, also of Crystal Palace, was also singled out by the Telegraph.
The reader comments section of newspaper websites can make for hazardous reading, but the feedback under the Telegraph’s article was surprisingly balanced.
There were commenters such as “Oliver Cromwell”, whose opinion was succinct: “No poppy, no play. Simple as that.” Yet others defended the Irish players’ right to choose. Another chided them for not commemorating the “British military that keeps Ireland safe from malign countries, whilst the Irish have literally nothing of their own”.
At the time of writing, the story had also been picked up by right-leaning television channel GB News. It was also growing on social media linked to Britain’s right.
The Royal British Legion sells 30 million poppies each year. Still, it is the few that they don’t sell that often seem to garner much of the attention.
