In this guest post, Dr Paul Breen reflects on the question of Remembrance and the poppy from a United Irelander perspective.
Michelle O’Neill’s decision to lay a wreath at Belfast’s Cenotaph on Remembrance Sunday is a powerful and symbolic gesture. By doing so, she is keeping the promise she made on the day she assumed office. She’d “serve everyone equally and be a First Minister for all.”
And yet in trying to do that she has faced criticism from various directions. Within her own community, there is a sense of pain in witnessing Sinn Féin’s act of honouring Britain’s war dead. And I understand that completely, having long argued that Britain has forgotten exactly what the poppy was supposed to represent.
From mid-October onwards, the red poppy seems to be everywhere. There’s barely a TV presenter that dares to appear without one. The bigger, the better too. And then there’s football, the biggest and most visible stage of all. Every club has a Remembrance game, with some involved in several, and every player expected to bend the knee.
That has led to claims of ‘poppy fascism.’ Others argue ‘not at all’ because the simple red flower represents the dead of every war. Theoretically then, it’s not just Britain’s war dead who are being remembered. The poppy’s blood-red petals are representative of everyone who’s died in battle from those Sons of Ulster marching towards the Somme to those 13 men on the streets of Derry.
Speaking of remembrance, I remember how Seamus Heaney spoke of them, writing of walls that read “PARAS THIRTEEN, BOGSIDE NIL.” Naturally then, Ireland’s victims of British Army violence might rightfully ask whether Rudyard Kipling’s “Lest we forget” includes our dead too. Equally so, does it include the Hunger Strikers or the dead of Iraq and Afghanistan? And how about today’s Palestinians?
The answer is that nobody seems to know. The poppy has become a symbol that’s effectively all things to all men. Whatever you want it to represent, that’s what it is. It’s a chameleon in a single colour, except whenever it’s in the rainbow shades that have the right in such a rage. These days, you can wear your poppy with pride in as many senses as conflicts that have happened in the name of British imperialism.
Maybe to understand that vagueness of symbolism, we can look at the Linguistic terms of ‘denotation’ and ‘connotation.’ The denotation of something is basically what it means or looks like on the surface, but connotation refers to the meaning that’s taken from it. The prime example of this is a close cousin of the poppy, in colour at least.
On the surface, a rose is just a pretty red flower. But when you give that flower to someone in particular circumstances, it has a whole other meaning, whether a bouquet on a date, or a single rose on a coffin. Speaking of which, coffins are the perfect example of differences in denotation and connotations of a poppy.
To those on the British side, poppies are inextricably linked with the coffins of their military dead – including soldiers involved in recent energy wars. Meanwhile, for those who were colonised or invaded by Britain, the poppy and the coffins have a very different meaning. The wreathes at the Cenotaph are a blood-soaked symbol of Empire.
That’s why many on the Irish Republican side are angry at Michelle O’Neill’s decision. However, people on the Unionist side are angry too, arguing that it makes a mockery of victims. And in doing so they’re being very British. That’s because they’re being colour-blind to what we mean by victims. Within that worldview, only the British dead are victims.
I would doubt that very many people who wear the poppy have ever considered that ‘all victims” includes the Irish or the Palestinians. It would be as alien a concept as us going back three generations and attempting to explain social media to people. But if there’s ever to be progress on issues of symbolism, something has to change.
Somebody has to reach out and make Mandela-like gestures to the other side, challenging their colour-blindness. That’s the only way to attain the kind of healing Seamus Heaney spoke about in another poem ‘The Cure at Troy’ where ‘hope and history rhyme.’ Through that synergy, the great tidal wave of justice can rise up, bringing once-in-a-lifetime change.
And when it comes to Irish unity, it will be a once-in-a-lifetime experience. The road to that place will be a painstaking one, and probably one that others see as paved with foolish intentions. In participating in a Remembrance Ceremony, Michelle O’Neill is challenging conventions. She’s making us think outside the box.
Having grown up outside of Enniskillen, I know what the poppy means to the Unionist community. I also had ancestors and distant relatives who fought in wars but I have never worn a poppy. At best, I could accept wearing a white one which truly represents all the victims of militarism, and advocates for a peaceful future. But as it is I don’t purchase or wear poppies of any colour in November.
A huge number of British people, certainly in England, feel the same way. We shouldn’t assume that everyone who identifies as British is royal, loyal and militaristic. Probably the majority who wear the poppy do so because of personal conscience, not any great love of war. They’re just shockingly ignorant of the history that goes with military conflict.
And that’s why maybe when Michelle O’Neill lays the wreath at the Cenotaph, she should emphasise that this is for all of the victims. Because the poppy allegedly represents all the dead of war, then let’s attribute a couple of petals to the Irish, the Indians and the Arabs. Personally I’d love to see at least one black petal in the poppy to eradicate Britain’s colour blindness to the suffering of other races. However, that’s not going to happen overnight.
For now, hard as it might be for some to stomach, Michelle O’Neill is making a very powerful statement. I’d imagine that as an Irish republican she’ll have echoes of Bloody Sunday and Ballymurphy’s bullets in her thoughts when she lays that wreath. But… if the poppy does what it says on the British Legion tin… that wreath is for all the dead of war. It represents Ireland’s dead too.
Tough as it may be, if we want a unity of equals at some point in the near future, we have to make such gestures. Maybe then too the poppy will remember what it’s forgotten about wars to end all wars and the old lie that Wilfred Owen wrote about in ‘Dulce et Decorum est’.
Though I’ve taken a lot of inspiration from poets in this article, there’s no poetry in war. But there’s a lot of symbolism in what Michelle’s doing. A hard road to unity lies ahead. This is a first step barefoot across the hot coals of history. It’s painful but it has to be done for the greater good.
Dr Paul Breen is a lecturer at University College London, a writer, a teacher and a member of Labour for Irish Unity. Follow him on X/Twitter at @paulbreenauthor.
In this guest post, Dr Paul Breen reflects on the question of Remembrance and the poppy from a United Irelander perspective.
Michelle O’Neill’s decision to lay a wreath at Belfast’s Cenotaph on Remembrance Sunday is a powerful and symbolic gesture. By doing so, she is keeping the promise she made on the day she assumed office. She’d “serve everyone equally and be a First Minister for all.”
And yet in trying to do that she has faced criticism from various directions. Within her own community, there is a sense of pain in witnessing Sinn Féin’s act of honouring Britain’s war dead. And I understand that completely, having long argued that Britain has forgotten exactly what the poppy was supposed to represent.
From mid-October onwards, the red poppy seems to be everywhere. There’s barely a TV presenter that dares to appear without one. The bigger, the better too. And then there’s football, the biggest and most visible stage of all. Every club has a Remembrance game, with some involved in several, and every player expected to bend the knee.
That has led to claims of ‘poppy fascism.’ Others argue ‘not at all’ because the simple red flower represents the dead of every war. Theoretically then, it’s not just Britain’s war dead who are being remembered. The poppy’s blood-red petals are representative of everyone who’s died in battle from those Sons of Ulster marching towards the Somme to those 13 men on the streets of Derry.
Speaking of remembrance, I remember how Seamus Heaney spoke of them, writing of walls that read “PARAS THIRTEEN, BOGSIDE NIL.” Naturally then, Ireland’s victims of British Army violence might rightfully ask whether Rudyard Kipling’s “Lest we forget” includes our dead too. Equally so, does it include the Hunger Strikers or the dead of Iraq and Afghanistan? And how about today’s Palestinians?
The answer is that nobody seems to know. The poppy has become a symbol that’s effectively all things to all men. Whatever you want it to represent, that’s what it is. It’s a chameleon in a single colour, except whenever it’s in the rainbow shades that have the right in such a rage. These days, you can wear your poppy with pride in as many senses as conflicts that have happened in the name of British imperialism.
Maybe to understand that vagueness of symbolism, we can look at the Linguistic terms of ‘denotation’ and ‘connotation.’ The denotation of something is basically what it means or looks like on the surface, but connotation refers to the meaning that’s taken from it. The prime example of this is a close cousin of the poppy, in colour at least.
On the surface, a rose is just a pretty red flower. But when you give that flower to someone in particular circumstances, it has a whole other meaning, whether a bouquet on a date, or a single rose on a coffin. Speaking of which, coffins are the perfect example of differences in denotation and connotations of a poppy.
To those on the British side, poppies are inextricably linked with the coffins of their military dead – including soldiers involved in recent energy wars. Meanwhile, for those who were colonised or invaded by Britain, the poppy and the coffins have a very different meaning. The wreathes at the Cenotaph are a blood-soaked symbol of Empire.
That’s why many on the Irish Republican side are angry at Michelle O’Neill’s decision. However, people on the Unionist side are angry too, arguing that it makes a mockery of victims. And in doing so they’re being very British. That’s because they’re being colour-blind to what we mean by victims. Within that worldview, only the British dead are victims.
I would doubt that very many people who wear the poppy have ever considered that ‘all victims” includes the Irish or the Palestinians. It would be as alien a concept as us going back three generations and attempting to explain social media to people. But if there’s ever to be progress on issues of symbolism, something has to change.
Somebody has to reach out and make Mandela-like gestures to the other side, challenging their colour-blindness. That’s the only way to attain the kind of healing Seamus Heaney spoke about in another poem ‘The Cure at Troy’ where ‘hope and history rhyme.’ Through that synergy, the great tidal wave of justice can rise up, bringing once-in-a-lifetime change.
And when it comes to Irish unity, it will be a once-in-a-lifetime experience. The road to that place will be a painstaking one, and probably one that others see as paved with foolish intentions. In participating in a Remembrance Ceremony, Michelle O’Neill is challenging conventions. She’s making us think outside the box.
Having grown up outside of Enniskillen, I know what the poppy means to the Unionist community. I also had ancestors and distant relatives who fought in wars but I have never worn a poppy. At best, I could accept wearing a white one which truly represents all the victims of militarism, and advocates for a peaceful future. But as it is I don’t purchase or wear poppies of any colour in November.
A huge number of British people, certainly in England, feel the same way. We shouldn’t assume that everyone who identifies as British is royal, loyal and militaristic. Probably the majority who wear the poppy do so because of personal conscience, not any great love of war. They’re just shockingly ignorant of the history that goes with military conflict.
And that’s why maybe when Michelle O’Neill lays the wreath at the Cenotaph, she should emphasise that this is for all of the victims. Because the poppy allegedly represents all the dead of war, then let’s attribute a couple of petals to the Irish, the Indians and the Arabs. Personally I’d love to see at least one black petal in the poppy to eradicate Britain’s colour blindness to the suffering of other races. However, that’s not going to happen overnight.
For now, hard as it might be for some to stomach, Michelle O’Neill is making a very powerful statement. I’d imagine that as an Irish republican she’ll have echoes of Bloody Sunday and Ballymurphy’s bullets in her thoughts when she lays that wreath. But… if the poppy does what it says on the British Legion tin… that wreath is for all the dead of war. It represents Ireland’s dead too.
Tough as it may be, if we want a unity of equals at some point in the near future, we have to make such gestures. Maybe then too the poppy will remember what it’s forgotten about wars to end all wars and the old lie that Wilfred Owen wrote about in ‘Dulce et Decorum est’.
Though I’ve taken a lot of inspiration from poets in this article, there’s no poetry in war. But there’s a lot of symbolism in what Michelle’s doing. A hard road to unity lies ahead. This is a first step barefoot across the hot coals of history. It’s painful but it has to be done for the greater good.
Dr Paul Breen is a lecturer at University College London, a writer, a teacher and a member of Labour for Irish Unity. Follow him on X/Twitter at @paulbreenauthor.