Harry Patch, the last survivor of World Ward I, died last July at the age of 111. A man whose experiences during that war made him hate wars for the rest of his life once dismissed the Remembrance Sunday commemorations as "Show Business." The manifestations over the past few years would suggest that the old veteran had a point.
At one time it was not the done thing to put up a poppy before the first of November; in recent years people sport poppies from the middle of October. It was about that time this year that I spotted the first poppy, worn by the Prime Minister, who seemed determined that he would not be upstaged on the matter, so obsessed has the British public become on this issue. It would seem that no-one can appear on British television on the run-up to Remembrance Day without the ubiquitous poppy. Contestants on talent shows and comics on chat shows are all required to display the emblem. Characters in soap operas, recorded months earlier, wear a poppy. Whatever the intention, all of these displays only serve to cheapen and degrade the solemn business of remembering and respecting the memory of the fallen. Football teams have the poppy device embroidered on their jerseys and serving and retired servicemen parade ceremonially on the pitches in the minutes before the kick-off. British Forces are engaged in a deadly war in Afghanistan and the casualties are beginning to mount. The memory of the dead morphs into a cheer-leading exercise for 'our boys' in the field, and the spectacle distracts from serious debate about the purpose and viability of the war. The whiff of militarism permeates the atmosphere of honouring the sacrifice of those who gave their lives in previous wars.
The wearing of the poppy has had a history of controversy in Northern Ireland. There are not many families in this jurisdiction who did not have someone belonging to them fighting, or indeed dying, in the two great wars of the twentieth century. Unfortunately, in the era of Unionist hegemony, the emblem was politicised to such a degree that it became a virtual monopoly for one side of the house only, and wearing the poppy became an implicit mark of support for the activities of the British army and its native regiments of foot, at any given time.
As relations between Britain and Ireland thawed over recent decades, a more conciliatory attitude has developed. As a genuine indication of a yearning for mutual respect, Nationalist elected representatives have attended Poppy Day commemoration ceremonies. The President of Ireland attended the Royal British Legion Remembrance Service at St Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin last Sunday. Several years ago the Irish President, the Queen of England and the King of Belgium attended the ceremonies to mark the completion of a commemorative tower at Messines to remember Irish and British casualties of the Great War. The tower was the initiative of Derry unionist Glen Barr and the Donegal TD Paddy Harte.
These are encouraging signs. However, this voluntary expression of remembrance is vitiated by the degree of compulsion which attends the wearing of the poppy. Some years ago a newsreader with BBC television news in Belfast protested that the poppy should be voluntary was told, in no uncertain terms, that if she wanted to keep her job she would be well advised to wear the poppy.
World War I was supposed to be the war to end wars. The Cenotaph, unveiled in Whitehall in 1919 was designed as a warning against the futility of war, a fact that seems to have been forgotten as wreaths are dutifully laid by politicians who send their soldiers into wars in a cavalier fashion, and then fail to give them adequate equipment or protection. The Haig Foundation's institution of the poppy was designed to augment the meagre provision made by the state to support the servicemen invalided by war, or to help the dependents of those who lost their lives. Governments are not noted for gratitude.
The fallen of world wars are often invoked as the defenders of freedom. That freedom includes the right of individuals to remember the war dead in their own way, in a quiet and dignified fashion, without being dragooned into a national orgy of pageantry, or a celebration of militarism that threatens to undermine the feeling of grief for the victims of wars, past and present. Civilian victims do not get much of a mention, although their lives are precious too.
At recent celebrations, as at the Normandy beaches, representatives of all the belligerent nations are invited. Remembrance of war, for the United Kingdom is an exclusively British occasion.
The 1960s saw the publication of the collected poems of the anti-war poet (and Great War victim), Wilfred Owen. It was the decade of 'Oh, What a Lovely War' and 'Where Have All The Flowers Gone?' In 1968 no British soldier died in battle. These creative works conveyed the pity of war and deprecated jingoism. That trend has not been continued.
In evidence the court heard that the defendant was a professional actor who had been engaged to perform at a local festival. The festival was held annually to celebrate the life and good works of a local saint who was held in great reverence in the locality. The actor was to lead a procession through the town and to deliver a reading from a platform. According to the organisers the performer had been unsteady in his gait, incoherent in his speech and so confused on the platform that this key part of the proceedings had to be abruptly terminated. He had brought the entire festival into disrespect. The defendant denied that he had been intoxicated and explained that he had taken medication with which he was not unfamiliar, and this it was which occasioned his behaviour. "He maintains", said the presiding judge, "That he was no plastered saint."
A suspect, wanted by police in Swansea, was displeased at a mugshot issued to local newspapers. He circulated the press with what he considered to be a truer and more recent likeness. The local police have thanked him for making their job easier.
The first hotel in space is to open in 2016. It will set you back ¤3 million to spend three nights, and is run by a group based in Barcelona. It will be interesting to see how many stars it will get in the ratings.
Sheep in Ardboe have been daubed with green and orange paint which, with their white fleece, has turned them into walking tricolours. The owner is not amewesed.
A Buddhist burglar doing time in Whirl, Germany, has claimed discrimination, alleging that in forbidding his pet cat to visit him, he has been denied visits from his mother. A spokesman for the prison said, "The prisoner has failed to prove that the spirit of his mother has been reincarnated in his cat."
A Welsh newspaper advertises a performance in the Wales Millennium Centre of the Gershwin opera 'Porky and Bess'. Talk about ham performances
