Ban the Poppy

lawred2

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117784626#Comment_117784626

Agreed

Personally I wish they would do so in a way that didn't provide direct funding for the British legion but if that's their informed choice as Irish people then so be it.

myfreespirit

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117784839#Comment_117784839

Precisely why is it important or relevant that we in Ireland don't speak German?

Serious question.

Burt Renaults

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117785109#Comment_117785109

Anyone who goes around wearing one in Ireland wants nothing more than to make a political statement.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117785245#Comment_117785245

Posts like yours are a good way of spotting people who won't be allowed post here for very long.

olestoepoke

Who cares? Let people wear whatever they want. Also, in all my years I've never saw anyone in Ireland wear one anyway so whats the point in banning it?

AlfaZen

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117785413#Comment_117785413

You’re making generalisations and assumptions on why people wear them and then calling them derogatory names for doing so. Thus acting like the derogatory term you used. Why does it bother you so much?

tdf7187

No, the poppy should not be banned. Neither should the wearing of the Easter lily, the playing of 'Come out Ye Black and Tans', 'God Save the Queen', 'The Sash my Father Wore', 'Come out Ye Black and Tans', etc, etc.

It's called freedom of speech. Welcome to the clash of ideas! Don't like it, maybe there's some places out in the middle of Asia that might suit you better.

Burt Renaults

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117785475#Comment_117785475

Like I said, people should be allowed wear whatever they like. And the rest of us can judge them for it. This is a real 'Only On Boards' thing - people advocating for the wearing of a British military symbol in a country where the British military committed so many acts of brutality.

cnocbui

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117785401#Comment_117785401

I imagine 12 months in a Polish concentration camp would sort out your comprehension problem, possibly even a good few months before you died, even, though there's no knowing with some people.

Allinall

Why are you presuming to speak for others?

Black Swan

Poppy is the California state flower. It grows everywhere. But I have not seen one worn in Cal. It would be meaningless. Then again, it is different in Eire.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117785506#Comment_117785506

With many Irish among them. Collaborators. And many Irish helped build the British Empire. These things are never black and white.

Ireland's collaborating type, those that love to cozy up to imperialistic power, have moved on though, and you should too; it's all about the New West Brits these days. This type is found all over Ireland; Britain, no longer Master of The World, bores them now and being a West Brit doesn't create as much er... frisson as it once did, so they have moved onto U.S. politics, but they are exactly the same grubby, power-loving type.

myfreespirit

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117785532#Comment_117785532

You mentioned that a family member fought in World War 1 on the British side presumably to protect us Irish from "speaking German by now".

This self same British side that is guilty of genocide in 19th century Ireland and is also the reason that we were coerced into speaking a foreign language.

How is this different from what you claim would have happened if the German side had triumphed in 1914-1918?

Again, this is a serious question.

I find this obsession with symbolism in Britain in recent years is becoming a bit tiresome.

I don’t think the poppy is or should be a controversial symbol in Ireland, if it’s just honouring those who were killed in wars, but that isn’t what the symbol is. It is politically loaded and everyone knows that. They just go hysterical when it’s pointed out to them.

I’d much rather we had symbol that wasn’t attached to the British army itself. If we are commemorating war dead, we should do it our own way.

I think though in England it’s gradually morphing into something more like the kind of crazy you see around symbols in Northern Ireland in recent years, as the wearing of the poppy seems to have become almost compulsory, certainly for media and public facing figures and it’s being enforced by thuggish nonsense online and offline. It’s the same path as MAGA and American flag obsession in the USA.

There was a long period of time when the British had much more cop on, and saw symbols for what they were: just symbols, but that time appears to be fading fast and Brexit unleashed a new era of jingoistic nonsense.

I just get fed up with this false dichotomy that by not wearing a poppy, or by being offended by what is a very loaded symbol that it’s somehow offensive or disrespectful. It’s not. The symbol means many things beyond a simple, neutral remembrance.

I don’t think it should be banned. I just don’t think it should be reacted to either.

Ireland has war dead, whether they died for British forces or not, they’re Irish and I think we should acknowledge them in our own way, without the baggage of the flag they fought under. Those that say you can’t separate the two are, in my opinion, just trying to create an argument that really doesn’t really need to exist. We have a history as a colony and as having been part of the U.K. for a time, it doesn’t mean it was by choice nor does it mean that it’s something we have to honour, but we can acknowledge that it’s part of history.

History and politics are complex. You can’t sum it up in a single symbol. Likewise the British army is complex. It’s done positive things and it’s done very negative things and it’s completely possible for people to have different and nuanced opinions about it.

I also don’t like this narrative of “the Great War”. No war was great. They were all abysmal periods of human savagery. The causes of them and the reasons they were fought, particularly WWII may have been noble and necessary, but glorifying war in my view is a bit twisted. They need to be a learned from and their horrors understood, not turned into points of national reverence.

This endless desire to put people into one of two camps is just oversimplification and insulting to intelligence.

Timberrrrrrrr

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117785506#Comment_117785506

Who's advocating for it though?

myfreespirit

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117785577#Comment_117785577

+1 to this ^

Agree fully that it is right to commemorate those who have died in war, as so many Irishmen did in WW1 and WW2.

The Irish National War Memorial Gardens in Dublin is a fitting memorial to the dead.

Gatling

Op is there anything you can do about the weather ???

Anyway, there are much more productive and effective ways to do your bit for Ireland, such as going on the BBC Sport website and giving Jack Grealish a low score on the player rating thingy, no matter how well he played. 😯😄

Gatling

Still think the best WW1 memorial here was built in Kilkenny not far from the castle

indioblack

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117785577#Comment_117785577

The "great" in The Great War refers to size - huge, gigantic.

super_furry

I honestly can't keep up.

Is it 'politically correct' to wear a poppy or 'politically correct' to bitch and moan about it?

indioblack

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117786417#Comment_117786417

You could complain about wearing the poppy whilst wearing a poppy - sure to confuse everyone.

Tony EH

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117784585#Comment_117784585

........

jt69er

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117784626#Comment_117784626

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117784626#Comment_117784626

If I could thank this post 1000 times I would.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117786410#Comment_117786410

It might, but that’s not how it’s interpreted or talked about by its fan club. They continue to glorify war.

Solemn commemoration is one thing, but it tends to go off into militarism and celebrating in a very nationalistic way. The more Brexit like politics has developed the more over the top that has become.

You're now seeing a generation waffling on about the glories of wars they couldn’t possibly remember, as they were born in the peacetime that followed.

Tony EH

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117785571#Comment_117785571

There was NEVER a single moment in the timeline of either world wars where there was a danger of anyone in Ireland "speaking German". Unless they learnt it themselves. The "you'd be speaking German now if it wasn't for my Grandad" is a load of old bollocks.

That being said, I'd be highly sceptical of anyone wearing a poppy in the Republic of Ireland, who didn't serve. But it's not something that I'd really care that much about. I'd be more inclined to ask of their reasons why and then bore the shit out of them for the next 4 hours going on about the war.

They'd never wear it again. 😆

saabsaab

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117785401#Comment_117785401

Wer sagt, dass wir kein deutsch sprechen!

indioblack

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117786546#Comment_117786546

That was it's original meaning - but I take your point. I wasn't being critical of your post - I thought it was evenly balanced.

rock22

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117784839#Comment_117784839

If it wasn't for the terrible atrocities committed in Ireland by the British and English armies over many centuries, we might be speaking Irish. This is the same army you want to honour?

As far as I know, the money collected goes to current members of the british forces, including those who committed atrocities in NI from 1960's.

biko

Banning it for everyone seems excessive OP.

corner of hells

For a moment , I thought the Taliban were going to ban Onlyfans.