Opinion

Remembrance should not be used to air grievances

The poppy is not the universal symbol of commemoration that some would have us believe. Even former British servicemen have complained it has been adopted by those who do not understand its meaning
The poppy is not the universal symbol of commemoration that some would have us believe. Even former British servicemen have complained it has been adopted by those who do not understand its meaning The poppy is not the universal symbol of commemoration that some would have us believe. Even former British servicemen have complained it has been adopted by those who do not understand its meaning

Would it be too much for us to go a full week without either taking or giving offence?

Every year, millions of people gather in respectful silence on November 11 to remember the war dead.

Many do not agree with the commemorations, either because of the British army’s actions in the north, or because they believe remembrance of people who died in the brutal world wars has been hijacked by politicians attempting to justify recent conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Yet those opposed to the commemorations do not appear to object to them taking place. Often, the people who are most vocal about the ‘proper way’ to remember the dead are the same people who, every year, try to hijack events for their own political aims.

Take the poppy. Over the last few weeks we have seen bitter, and at times absurd, rows about poppies not being sold in Lidl shops in the north, or not being worn on the shirts of Ulster rugby players.

Even though the British Legion, the charity behind the annual poppy appeal, has insisted that those who use the symbol as a means of protest demonstrate “a misunderstanding of what the poppy stands for”, quite a few people haven’t taken the hint.

DUP deputy mayor of Belfast Guy Spence claimed Lidl’s decision not to allow the sale of the poppy was “disgraceful”. Robert McCartney, a former soldier who runs the Beyond the Battlefield charity, told the BBC it was "an insult” for Ulster players not to wear a poppy on their shirts.

Yet the poppy is not the universal symbol of commemoration that some would have us believe. Even former British servicemen have complained it has been adopted by those who do not understand its meaning.

Two years ago Harry Leslie Smith, a 92-year-old Second World War veteran, said he would no longer wear the symbol.

Writing in The Guardian, he complained that in recent years “the sepia tone of November has become blood-soaked with paper poppies festooning the lapels of our politicians, newsreaders and business leaders”.

In effect, the most fortunate in society had hijacked the commemorations for their own ends.

So it came as no surprise when a remembrance service at Stormont last week was also hijacked.

TUV press officer Sammy Morrison, a man with the cherubic face of a young hobbit and the iron will of John Calvin, insisted on leading an impromptu rendition of God Save the Queen at the end of the event, even though the British anthem was not due to be played.

The singing was hardly rousing. Like children forced to take part in a school concert, some unionist politicians mumbled and stumbled their way through the music.

Even a befuddled-looking Theresa Villiers, who must be hoping that her long sojourn as Secretary of State will soon turn out to be just a bad dream, stood up and mouthed a few words.

It was a bizarre scene, and, depressingly, a stunt that had already been done two decades ago.

In the mid-1990s Ian Paisley Jnr and Peter Weir, both now DUP politicians, had the same idea.

Angry at Queen’s University’s decision to drop God Save the Queen from their graduation ceremonies, the pair thought it would be a good idea to bring a cheap tape recorder to a graduation and play the anthem.

Cue irritated parents looking around to try to find which idiot had ruined their child’s day.

But then certain sections of unionism have always been obsessed with the correct observance of ‘Britishness’, as if locked in a permanent contest to show who loves the British establishment most.

The First World War was supposed to be the war that ended all wars. Slaughter on such a huge scale had never been seen before.

The Second World War, in which Harry Leslie Smith fought, saw whole cities destroyed, a refugee crisis, the murder of six million Jews - a cruelty which is still hard to fathom.

Many of the men who fought in the war, like their fathers who took part in the previous conflict, came home wounded in mind and body. These are the people we should remember.

The fact that wars continue around the world is a testament to human stupidity.

An act of remembrance, whether at a public ceremony or privately, should be just that - a commemoration of those who have died, not an opportunity for the living to air their grievances.