Sir, - Mr Noel Dempsey should be ashamed of himself for claiming that the Remembrance Day poppy would be regarded as a similar symbol to the Orange sash.
He might be reminded that more Catholics than Protestants from Ireland, North and South, fought in the first World War and that the only Victoria Cross won in the second World War was by a Catholic man from the Falls Road in Belfast.
Mr Dempsey might also not be aware that the mayors of all three cities in Northern Ireland - Belfast, Londonderry and Armagh - are nationalists and that all three will be leading the commemorations in these cities on Remembrance Sunday. Further, he might not know that John Hume's father fought in the first World War and that only two years ago, Sinn Fein sent a representative to the commemorations at Islandbridge in Dublin. So much for the poppy being an Orange symbol!
While some people were mounting a rebellion in Dublin in 1916, Catholics and Protestants were fighting against tyranny alongside each other in the trenches of Belgium and France. On July 12th of that year, Protestants celebrating the Twelfth made presents of their Orange sashes to their Catholic counterparts before they headed over the parapets together and this gesture was accepted as one of solidarity.
Perhaps Mr Dempsey would do the honourable thing and make a donation by way of recompense for his foolishness to the Dublin branch of the Royal British Legion, which helps ex-servicemen and their families in the Republic. Better still, I am sure he would be welcomed at the ecumenical Remembrance Sunday service at St Patrick's Cathedral. - Yours, etc.,
From Steven King
Newtownards, Co. Down.