I too refused to wear a poppy as it’s been hijacked for a political agenda
I LIVED and worked in England for a number of years. I had a good job, good friends and a good life, but every November I felt the oppression of an obligation to wear the poppy.
The poppy has become an emblem for more than just remembering the brave men and women of two world wars. Somehow the self-righteous have to exploit it to further their campaign.
Refusal to wear it is seen as bigoted, disrespectful and ungrateful.
I refused to wear it not out of republican belief, or spite; but merely out of respect for freedom of choice. But also with a conscientious mind. I could not, as an Irish woman, support a cause which inexplicably supports the British army, which then patrolled Northern Ireland without cause.
I stood under the famous gates to the concentration camp at Auschwitz, rendering ‘Arbeit macht frei’, and I still shudder to think of the magnitude of hate and death that is contained there.
So, yes, I do understand the importance of those who gave their lives for us. Without the acts of these brave men and women, I do not know where we would be.
They should be commended, and I, like so many, choose to support them, but in other ways.
My refusal to wear the poppy, like James McClean, is not meant to be vicious, ignorant or immoral, it is merely a choice, the freedom of which was protected by those who fought.
The fact that James McClean is still being attacked for his choice says more about football fans than him.
Where is the respect for his rights in the argument?
The problem with the poppy is that now its identity is no longer just tied to honouring war heroes, but it is also used to further political agendas.
James McClean is not the first nor will he be the last to refuse to wear the poppy.
I know several English citizens who also refuse to wear it.
Julie Bennett Mountrath, Co Laois