I see that Sinn Fein’s candidate for the Irish Presidency is open to the idea of wearing a Royal British Legion Poppy. Private citizens in Ireland have always been free to do so, but so far as I know those who held the Presidency have never done so.
There was a time in Dublin when the local Branch of the British Union of Fascists marched In amity with the British Legion on Remembrance Sunday, but happily, those days are long gone.
For myself, when I first came to Britain in 1964 I used put some money in the Legion collection box, considering the suffering of unfortunates tricked or conscripted into the great slaughters, but never wore the Poppy. When the British Army resumed its traditional practices in Ireland I never contributed a penny. I was already paying taxes to sustain these practices.
I remember an interview by the Fine Gael Presidential candidate in the Sunday Independent In 1969. He recalled that he had been summoned to Dublin in 1921 by the Minister for Defence, Cathal Brugha, who wanted him to lead an attempt to wipe out the British Cabinet. He would have been happy, as a soldier, to execute such an order. But he was captured by the British before he could make preparations for the business.
MacEoin polled very well, but was defeated by a candidate considered less accommodating to the British, Eamon de Valera.
And there was no come-back from any Dudley Edwards or other Indo pundits.
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