Sir, - In her Quidnunc column of November 8th, Renagh Holohan wrote that in the North the poppy is "seen as a triumphalist tribal emblem". Having lived in Northern Ireland for 52 years in what is deemed a predominately nationalist area, and having worked for many of these years in mixed areas throughout Northern Ireland, I have never experienced the poppy in this way.
In the past 30 years extreme nationalists have degraded the Irish Tricolour and what it was intended to stand for, have stolen the title "Republican" and presented its antithesis of narrow, bigoted nationalism and have claimed the concept of "peace", by which they mean "peace on our terms".
In the past two years there has been an attempt by these same elements to further divide the Northern Ireland community by trying to argue that the poppy is a unionist emblem.
While it has never been worn by everyone, far from being perceived as a divisive emblem the poppy was and is generally accepted as a mark of remembrance for the dead of the two World Wars. In fact it became more popular following the second World War, which most people did identify as a war against fascism.
Whatever about the misuse of the poppy, whether by an individual British Army soldier, as alleged by Des Wilson, or by any element of extreme loyalism, it has certainly never been perceived by people in Northern Ireland - of any persuasion - as an emblem similar to the Orange sash, as alleged by the Republic's current Minister for the Environment.
At a time when there is hope for real peace on this island it is important that columnists help the process and that no one fuels misconceptions which in turn breed mistrust. - Yours, etc.,
Newry, Co Down.