why do you wear a poppy?

Forgiveness is what the military is all about all right @Phoenix1Arisen!
Why do you think people are reluctant to support the RBL?

You're quite right. I am lucky.

My family, massive Irish inheritance, CHOSE to move on.

I say again, as I stand beneath the Menin Gate, among representatives of dozens of nations, forgiveness is the only way forward.

Has anybody in the whole history of humankind ever come up with something better?

To remember those who literally gave their lives in defence of this country. To honour thousands who still serve, our retired veterans (of which many are members of my own family) and to encourage my children to remember these brave men, women and children.
I wear mine with pride, as a symbol of respect. Nothing else.

I wear them as a symbol of remembrance for war dead, but there are also other artistic and community incentives, take a look at this article https://alisonlittle.blog/2025/11/07/rivers-of-poppies-at-christ-church-united-reformed-church-port-sunlight-a-stunning-tribute-of-remembrance/

I think a lot of this comes down to the fact that Irish experiences of the World Wars weren’t all the same. Plenty of Catholic Irish men did fight in the British Army, including in WW1 and WW2. But many did so in really difficult circumstances. Many signed up due to poverty, lack of work, and the promise that supporting the war would help deliver Home Rule. That promise was never delivered after the war, and many Irish families, mine included, felt betrayed by that.

You’re absolutely right that atrocities happened on all sides during the Troubles. But for lots of people in NI, the British Army were physically present, in their streets and homes, not from the past. I myself have first hand experience of brutal behaviour from British soldiers patrolling the streets and my parents know unarmed, innocent people who were killed by them. So while the poppy is intended as remembrance, in NI it is often conflated with very recent trauma, identity and politics in a way that isn’t the case elsewhere in the UK.

As for the Royal Irish Regiment, it doesn’t exist because some Irishmen “don’t want to stay at home”, it exists because the British military recruited heavily in Ireland. Partly due to strategic need and partly because joining the army was one of the few routes out of extreme poverty at the time. Some men also believed service would help secure freedom for Ireland from British rule. So again, the meaning of that service is complicated and not experienced the same way by everyone.

Anyway back to the poppy. None of this is to say people shouldn’t wear a poppy. Anyone who wants to honour the fallen should absolutely do so. It’s just that for many Irish people, remembrance takes a different shape, and that deserves the same respect.

And I think part of the difficulty is that this is British history. Northern Ireland is part of the UK, but a lot of what happened there isn’t taught or acknowledged widely in Britain. So people often don’t realise why the poppy can feel different to those of us who grew up during the Troubles and the history of Irish involvement in the world wars being very close with it being our grandfathers and great-grandfathers. It’s not about offending anyone. It’s just that for some of us, our experience of that history is much closer to home, and remembering looks different for us because of that.

Lucky you!

No, I didn't.

However, I stand beneath the Menin Gate and see so many nationalities, all of whose citizens served and died, all coming together, in free will, to regret past tragedies, past political disasters and their outcomes...

Nobody has to wear a red poppy to understand that hate among peoples incurs nothing but dreadful trouble and death.

Did you grow up as a Catholic in NI subjected to daily abuse by British soldiers?

Irish soldiers, from both sides of the border, suffered and died in Flanders. Are their deaths of less or more value because of their professed religion? I don't think so.

As i lay my wreath at Polygon Wood, my great uncle, whose grandparents came to Britain from Ireland but who had himself emigrated to Australia and therefore served in that country's forces, will be the member of my tribe that I honour.

Under the Menin Gate, there gather Chinese, Punjabi, Kiwis, Australians, Canadians, North American Native peoples, Melanesians, Europeans from every district...

Religion matters not one jot. Fellowship and recognition and repentance rules the day. Political point scoring means nothing as I bob a curtsey to the Belgian War Memorial as we march by on the way to the Armistice Day service.

I wear one on the 11th. I remember the sacrifices that my grandparents' generation made. I do not virtue signal by wearing the poppy for the best part of a month beforehand, nor do I judge others for their ambivalent or objection towards it.

Both my grandfather's fought in the WW2, my grandmother was a WRN as well (it's how my grandparents met). My great grandfather fought in the trenches in WW1 (he's written about in a book). We must never forget what they did and gave for our freedom.

My father was in the army for 30 years.

I have a lot of time for our armed forces past and present.

Exactly despite being called the Royal Irish Regiment, it's nothing to do with being Irish.

The religious make up of a British regiment is neither here nor there given that the Republic of Ireland is a separate country from the U.K.

How many Catholics in the Royal Irish Regiment - Google suggests 6% but maybe you have more accurate info?
Deleted to reflect that all your relatives were Catholic - they were unusual.

I’ll do my remembering separately- without giving money to more recent soldiers.

‘We all sleep soundly in our beds because people who would do violence on our behalf walk the night.’

What a load of balls. Walk the night, FFS.

For me I wear it to remember my relatives who fought and died during WW1 and WW2. No other reason.

One of them barely out of his teens when was killed.

When I was a teenager in the 1980s, our Catholic next door neighbours used to invite us to enjoy their bonfire (with a Guy Fawkes effigy) and fireworks.

Just to say that this is happening in Belgrade. Although this event is being organised by the British Embassy, the people of Serbia remember that British women doctors and nurses served (and sometimes died there) during WW1.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ElsieInglis

ETA Can't get the link to the Embassy FB page to work. Sorry. The Wikipedia link explains about the work of Dr Elsie Inglis.

All Catholic before anyone asks.

I really don’t get the “I don’t wear one because I’m Irish” thing.

Two of my Irish Great Grandfathers fought in the First War and one my my Irish Grandfathers fought in the second.

They all wore Poppies.

In the Troubles there was atrocities committed on both sides.

To this day the British Army has a Royal Irish Regiment for Irishmen who don’t want to join the Irish Defence Forces and be stuck at home.

The poppies are to remember those that fought and died, not to “celebrate the British Army”.

For what it's worth, I think any insistence people should or must wear poppies is totally wrong. We've had enough national symbols (St George's Cross, Union flag) hijacked and used for dubious purposes especially lately and I don't want the poppy to be similarly tainted.

Because I am immensely proud of my grandfather, great uncle and their comrades and everyone who fought for our country during World War II. Also for my great, great uncle who fought and died in World War I.

Also to support our armed forces.

These days I feel like I should be apologising.

I do feel sad at the growing indifference and ignorance to their plight.

I don’t think people think that @Uricon2.

But some insist that if you don’t wear a poppy you don’t honour the veterans of the WWs, when clearly the symbolism of the poppy is more complicated than that for many.

No, it isn't. I'm going to be honest and say that I cried the first year the Falklands vets marched at the cenotaph, perhaps because they are men of my generation. I protested against the Falklands war at the time (nothing else was seriously tried before sending a task force) and was called a traitor for it.

It doesn't stop me remembering eg the men who died on Sir Galahad and yes, the conscripts on the Belgrano. British soldiers were killed in Bosnia while acting as peacekeepers, including those attempting to defuse bombs. Should they not be remembered or their families helped?

It is reductive to think "WW1 tragic, WW2 valid, all other conflicts were fought by bad people who joined the army voluntarily".