Poppies and Patriotism

Patrick Ryan takes a look at the history of the Armistice Day poppy in Dublin, and the story of symbol that continues to divide public opinion here and in the UK.

It started as a poem by a Canadian surgeon that inspired an American professor and a French language teacher to help survivors of World War I, but long after the guns of the Great War fell silent the appearance of Remembrance Day poppies would cause loud protest, pain and suffering on the streets of Dublin.

Through his poignant poem In Flanders Fields Lt Col John McCrae movingly recalled the symbolism of red poppies in Ypres after the death and burial of a close friend at that terrible battle, calling on survivors to never forget the soldiers’ sacrifice. His words were widely recited at funerals after their appearance in Punch on December 8th, 1915, and inspired University of Georgia Professor Moina Michael, who later worked with disabled US veterans of the conflict, to promote the sale of silk poppies to raise funds and help wounded men. In 1921 her campaigning proved successful when the idea was adopted by the American Legion Auxiliary which supported former soldiers’ families. Months earlier the organization had invited Anna Guérin, a provincial French language teacher who had successfully sold US war bonds, to discuss a similar initiative that would use money from poppy badge sales to help devastated families back in her home country.

An incredible 9 million of Madame Guérin’s French-made poppies were bought in the lead-up to November 11th, 2021 and the Frenchwoman impressed Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig, commander of the British Expeditionary Force on the Western Front during their discussions, ensuring that the poppy was adopted as the official emblem of his newly-formed British Legion.
With Haig’s support the Disabled Society charity in London was soon employing wounded ex-servicemen to make the badges at a collar factory on Old Kent Road and within a few months 50 disabled veterans were churning out 27 million badges, some of which were sold informally in Ireland to support veterans.

Right from the start the poppy appeal divided Dubliners.
Though there was no conscription here in WWI joining the British Army had been one of the few options open to boys who survived malnutrition and deprivation in our Lockout-era slums while for men from Anglo-Irish and Protestant families volunteering for military wartime service was a solemn obligation
In contrast many educated nationalists signed up in response to the impassioned call from John Redmond MP, head of the Irish Parliamentary Party, to fight for Ireland believing their sacrifice would hasten inevitable freedom in the form of Home Rule, temporarily blocked in the House of Lords. Redmond spoke in parliament of “…a distinctively Irish Army, composed of Irishmen, led by Irishmen, and trained for the field at home in Ireland” but the survivors returned to an island changed utterly after Easter 1916.

The subsequent victory of rebel Éamon de Valera for Sinn Féin in the East Clare by-election caused by the death on the Western Front of the brother of the leader of the Home Rule Party, Willie Redmond MP ensured republican nationalism was the new Realpolitik.
The Rising had been credited to Sinn Féin and the execution of leaders like Tom Clarke radicalized much of the Dublin population, derisively nicknamed “Jack-eens” by the party for waving small union flags during a previous royal visit, which was encouraged to now equate all British institutions with exploitation and imperialism.

In his excellent piece on the subject for comeheretome.com historian Donal Fallon notes that the IRA in Dublin were quite prepared to fire on marchers at the first Armistice Day parade in 1919 and the bitterness caused by the Black and Tans and the Irish Civil War following partition remained for decades.
British Pathé newsreel footage in 1924 reported on 50,000 people crowded into College Green for a wreath-laying ceremony to the Irish 16th Division under a temporarily erected Ginchy Celtic Cross of elm taken from the Somme battlefield which had cost their ranks dearly, while the Union Jack fluttered over the Old Bank of Ireland and people sang “God Save The King”.

In October 1925 the local British Legion headquarters in Harcourt St formally launched the poppy appeal here and within five years the annual sale was raising some £469,215 – a whopping €50 million in today’s money.

In 1926 Lady Haig established another poppy factory, in Edinburgh, by which time the new sport of “poppy snatching” was a bloody annual event in Ireland’s capital.
That year a parade of Great War veterans passing the junction of D’Olier St and Westmoreland St was attacked by between 200 and 300 men and boys, the crowd shouting “Up the Republic!” as Armistice Day badges were ripped from lapels and crushed underfoot.
Poppies symbolizing the bloodshed in war were soon covered in the real thing. Wearers wary of being attacked embedded razor blades under the petals of their red flowers to the anguish of fellow Irishmen intent on removing them by force, and skulls were cracked and mouths split open in the ensuing fights while at UCD opposing students resorted to fists and feet rather than lively debate to drive home their points.

Such actions literally fanned the flames of hatred.
Kathleen Kavanagh from Dorset St was sentenced to six months imprisonment in 1926 for setting fire to a poppy depot and on November 11th, 1928 an imposing statue of King Billy – William of Orange – at College Green, where TCD students regularly declared their support for Britain to the disgust of republicans, was bombed.
In 1930 Fianna Fáil leader Eamon de Valera and Sean Murray of the Communist Party of Ireland shared a platform with IRA men such as Peadar O’Donnell, Sean McBride, and Frank Ryan to unite against Armistice Day commemorations after which Union flags were torched in front of the appreciative crowd.
As Donal Fallon notes “League Against Imperialism demonstrations could mobilise crowds of 10,000 to 15,000 at College Green” and An Garda Síochána struggled to keep apart baying groups of protesters.
Gardaí were even forced to fire several shots from revolvers to restore order, with the Irish Press headline declaring “City Centre in Turmoil”. Members of the British Union of Fascists also started to appear on the streets, causing further worry in official circles.
According to AP Connolly, Area Chairman of the British Legion’s Irish Free State Area, the statistics were stark.

“There were still 142,000 war widows, 35,000 officers and men who had lost a leg or an arm in the war. 6,450 officers and men who are insane and have been detained in lunatic asylums,” he stated in November 1930.
Over the following couple of years attitudes began to soften somewhat with even ardent opponents like Frank Ryan calling for understanding and respect towards ageing, impoverished, and often hungry ex-servicemen proudly wearing their medals alongside a poppy on threadbare lapels.
Of the 645 Guinness employees who signed up 370 returned to the jobs kept open for them in Inchicore, but they were among the lucky few. 35,000 veterans were receiving welfare payments here after the Great War and their unemployment rates were far higher than among former comrades across the Irish Sea.

One-in-five of the officers and half of the other ranks of our newly-formed National Army in that era had previously served in the British Armed Forces, and many other Dubliners had little choice but to reenlist abroad again.
A lifetime on from the original Armistice Day the symbol most closely associated with Remembrance Sunday as it’s now known continues to cause consternation.

Over recent years the white poppy for peace which first appeared in 1933 has become popular with many Britons disturbed at the link between the traditional version and unequivocal support for the armed forces’ involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan. Others are happy to have a pop at “poppy fascism”, where in the three weeks leading into sombre silence of the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month everyone on TV is given a poppy before the cameras roll, including even Sesame Street’s Cookie Monster on the BBC.

Deciding not to display the badge will certainly see some label you a Muppet – and far worse – online in the UK. ITV news presenter Charlene White and Channel 4’s John Snow, both of whom wear a poppy off-air, faced a backlash for appearing without the symbol during broadcasts, while the failure of Sienna Miller and Paul Mescal to wear poppies on Graham Norton’s UK chat show provoked the ire of many on social media.
It’s estimated more than 200,000 Irish men and women from all backgrounds have served in the British Armed Forces.
In recognition in 2014 the Irish branch of the Royal British Legion decided to design a new Remembrance Day badge featuring both a shamrock and a poppy, which drew much praise and was later worn by Taoiseach Leo Varadkar in the Dáil.Despite this lapels sporting the flower are still rarely seen on the streets of our capital, though a few miles north In Belfast the poppy continues to be divisive and splits communities along traditional grounds. The story’s much the same in Scotland, as shown in the difference in attitudes towards the symbol between fans of Celtic, whose origins lie in this country, and Rangers who draw their support from Protestant communities often with close ties to Loyalism.

Derry’s James McClean, who consistently refuses to wear a team shirt emblazoned with one citing in particular the record of the Parachute Regiment, and the British Army in general, has paid a heavy price for his stand.
This stance has led to the footballer’s family receiving threats and being vilified by supporters of other clubs many of whom demand that players declining to wear poppies should be transferred out of the club, and forced to leave the country.

The fact that clubs’ matchday shirts in November typically have a poppy sublimated into the fabric leaves footballers in a difficult position, and McClean has also spoken about the lack of support he’s received from his union, the PFA, in contrast to their vocal stance on LGBT issues and racism in the game.
Some Irish celebrities are happy to wear the bright red flower, most recently Roy Keane who donned a badged version as a pundit on Sky Sports, but the poppy remains a symbol that divides rather than unites people in Ireland and the UK.

“If ye break faith with us who die, We shall not sleep, though poppies grow, In Flanders fields” warned John McCrae just three years before his own death in 1918.
A century on it seems memories of the dead, and the emotions recalled by annual remembrance of their sacrifice even for the worthiest of causes, continue to live long in our hearts for better or worse.

Ar dheis Dé go raibh a h’anam dílis.