Freedom of ChoiceSTEPHEN CUCKOO

What is the poppy?

What does it represent?

“Over six million men had served in the war - 725,000 never returned. Of those who came back, 1.75 million had suffered some kind of disability”

(Britishlegion.org.uk, (2015)).

“King George V announced that a two-minute silence at 11am on 11 November would be observed in 1919, four days before the first anniversary of Armistice Day.”

(International Business Times UK, (2015)).

“Three million poppies are sent to 120 countries outside the UK, says Nick Buckley, head of the legion's Poppy Appeal.”

(BBC News, (2015)).

“This is especially true in the case of that other collective trauma of the twentieth century, that of the two world wars. Of course, the two histories – that of Fascism and communism on the one hand, and of warfare on the other – are inextricably mixed. The shape of ‘the short twentieth century’ emerged from the catastrophe of the First World War. It is only now in the 1990s, after the collapse of communism, and at a time when the European state system created in 1919 is being reconfigured, that we are able to see clearly some of the fundamental features of this brutal century.”

(Winter, J. and Sivan, E. (1999). p.8)

On the eve of 11th November 2011, writer and film-maker Liam Nolan questions the continued resentment towards the wearing of the poppy of remembrance – especially in light of loss of Irish life in the two world wars.

(Nolan, S. (2011)).

The Poppy and Ireland

Queen Elizabeth II and Irish president Mary McAleese after a wreath laying ceremony at the Irish War Memorial Garden, Islandbridge, in May 2011 (PA)

(Myers, K. (2014)).

The White Poppy

Poppy to wear, or not to wear?