Poppy Watch

[Banana Man]

Quote from: Banana Man on Today at 09:03:19 AM
I don't have a problem with other people going off on a tangent as long as they don't then try to use that tangent to form an argument with myself. Unlike you, you have engaged me by using a tangent. I mentioned Ms Parker Bowles as Patrick Kielty was meeting her, if he had been meeting an African leader for example I wouldn't then have mentioned the ills of African society and done a running commentary on the rights or wrongs based on the Continent's history of genocidal warfare.

But an African leader would have no relevance to a discussion on the poppy. The poppy represents the fallen crown forces. The link is quite clear. I just questioned why someone would think that it's great that someone isn't wearing a poppy when they meet a member of the royal family. That's not a tangent; it's developing the discussion.

You just proved my point Maguire against yourself, thanks for that. An African leader in the photo has no relevance to the discussion of poppies just like the mistress of Charles Windsor has no relevance to it so why would i mention it. I reiteriate that if you want to discuss Irish personalities meeting with the royals then start a separate topic and I will gladly contribute to the debate (provided you can stay on topic of course).

You're not grasping this at all.
You think it's bad to wear the poppy, commemorating deceased members of the crown forces... yet it's grand to hang out with the wife of the heir to that same crown and the  Commander-in-Chief of those same forces. That's the link. Simple. If it was the head of an African state, there wouldn't have been a link.


I haven't once commented on whether or not it is grand to hang out with anyone, I am trying to discuss the wearing of poppies. And it is increasingly difficult to maintain the focus when you keep trying to divert of on a tangent to give you some pathetic chink of light to grasp at to maintain your part in the discussion.

I repeat, if you want to discuss meeting members of a foreign monarchy feel free to start a new topic and put your points on that and I will engage you on that debate bt if you can't maintain focus on one emblem I dismay at the prospect of you trying to deal with an entire family including teir mistresses

Quote button fail! But at least you're giving it a go.  Keep trying - I've mastered it even with my lack of intelligence and limited education.

I'm sorry you're finding it difficult to "maintain the focus". As you'll see over the last few pages, discussions develop. It's part of debate.

Tell you what lad , you might have been able to quote other people but there isn't much point in people quoting you when you talk nothing but shite ffs

if you stuck to the topic and offered debate i might put in a bigger effort

on another note westlife didn't have any poppies on on the x factor. Bit late in the day seeing as the boys helped launch the poppy appeal a few years back 

[twotwocharlie]

Margaret Richie was out today wearing her poppy.

ROLL ON EASTER

[Banana Man]

Margaret Richie was out today wearing her poppy.

ROLL ON EASTER

shes clambering for the last scraping of votes out of the alliance and moderate unionist voters in south down ffs, pity there wasn't a more credible shinner than Ruane. She'd sell her soul for power. As Braveheart said ''fighting for the scraps of longshanks' table'' - sums her up to a tee for me.

[Maguire01]

Margaret Richie was out today wearing her poppy.

ROLL ON EASTER

shes clambering for the last scraping of votes out of the alliance and moderate unionist voters in south down ffs, pity there wasn't a more credible shinner than Ruane. She'd sell her soul for power. As Braveheart said ''fighting for the scraps of longshanks' table'' - sums her up to a tee for me.

I don't see how this is any different to Alex Maskey laying a wreath at the City Hall. Surely it's just paying respect to the Irish men and women who died in the wars.
And with a majority of 8,000, she hardly needs to scrape a few votes.

[seanmacdiarmada]

Lads, I work in the BBC, on the 11th there was a 2 minute silence in the office, I simply logged myself out of the computer and went to the toilet for 2 minutes, there was about 4 people in my office out of 20 or so wearing a poppy...on Easter I wear my Lilly for the whole week of Easter, I had only one complaint about that last year, i refused to remove it due to the poppy issue and no more was said, I have no problem with the ordinary working class unionist or Stoops (as they know no better) people wearing a poppy, I do get annoyed tho when I see the likes of Colin Farrell, Frank Mitchell (big Down GAA man, yeah rite) and the other so-called Irish celebrities who wear the poppy just because they are told to.

You of course have evidence that these people are told to wear poppies? Colin Farrell isn't an employee of the BBC so I doubt if they would have cancelled his appearance on The Graham Norton show if he said he wasn't wearing a poppy. Try again.

You think it's a coincidence they're all wearing one?

There is a huge difference between being asked to wear one and being told/forced to wear one. I have no doubt they were asked to wear one. I can't imagine they would have been sanctioned if they refused the offer.

Sorry Tony when I said told to wear one I should have said asked, same thing really...they could have said no regardless...thats what annoys me about it

[Orangemac]

Don't know if this has been mentioned earlier but bit of a row kicking off in Fermanagh.

Imagine how hard it would be to listen to GAA if they lived somewhere else

http://www.impartialreporter.com/news/roundup/articles/2010/11/12/392550-poppies-divide-workforce-at-quinn-insurance/

[Nally Stand]

Mary Byrne & the young lad from west meath were wearing them on the xfactor. Shame on them

Good to see free choice is alive and well. If they want to wear them, so what and yes i know symbolisim etc. Plenty of Irish men in the ranks of the British Army over the years.

Money talks, all those Irish working in england wear them, its more a symbol of the irish licking the holes of brits, pandering for votes or money. I see it as selling your soul. Do they realise there supporting the comfortable retirement of all those brit soldiers who killed innocent people up North.
Is it complusary on brit tv to wear one?

My bold above.

Not forgetting that it wasn't only Brits and Loyalist Death Squads who killed innocent people up north?

As for wearing a Poppy.  I imagine that most people who do choose to wear it, would probably  do so in remembrance of those men and women ( Yes - including many Irish volunteers who didn't want to be ruled by a Fascist regime) who died in two World Wars so that most of Western Europe including Ireland, wouldn't be speaking German today.

The discussion is about poppies. Hence the relevance of brits murdering in Ireland.

If you are trying to stir sh1t, at least do so in terms relevant to the discussion ffs.

If you check above, you will see that it was Sligonian, who first mentioned "brit soldiers who killed innocent people up North".  Why didn't you have a pop at him?

Because his point was about the activities of the brit the troops who stand to benefit from poppy sales. The thread is about poppies.

Your post is an attempt to deflect attention from the brits on what is a thread about poppies. You are attempting to stir shite and are piss poor a it. Hence the number of times you have been told as much in your short board membership.

[Nally Stand]

[Maguire01]

Again, the difference between this and Alex Maskey laying a wreath at the City Hall?

[Banana Man]

Again, the difference between this and Alex Maskey laying a wreath at the City Hall?

For a start Alex Maskey is better looking 

Maskey led a wreath and not at the same time as the pomp and triumphalist ceremonial activities that Ritchie partook in. His was a wreath not a poppy, it was to acknowledge that yes, men did die, Irishmen among them and they deserve to be remembered. About that I think we can all agree. The point is she is wearing a poppy that represents just British servicemen and all wars that they fought in. There is a clear difference and yes it is pandering to maintain her votes.

[thebigfella]

Again, the difference between this and Alex Maskey laying a wreath at the City Hall?

For a start Alex Maskey is better looking 

Maskey led a wreath and not at the same time as the pomp and triumphalist ceremonial activities that Ritchie partook in. His was a wreath not a poppy, it was to acknowledge that yes, men did die, Irishmen among them and they deserve to be remembered. About that I think we can all agree. The point is she is wearing a poppy that represents just British servicemen and all wars that they fought in. There is a clear difference and yes it is pandering to maintain her votes.

FFS do you ever read the shite you write?

[deiseach]

Again, the difference between this and Alex Maskey laying a wreath at the City Hall?

The difference is that Maskey's wreath-laying was part of his official duties as Lord Mayor. It was part of the job description. Margaret Ritchie chose to wear hers. Although given the overwhelming pressure on people to conform as exemplfied by the whole Donna Traynor incident, I'm not sure she was entirely free to choose. And that is the crucial point

[Banana Man]

Again, the difference between this and Alex Maskey laying a wreath at the City Hall?

For a start Alex Maskey is better looking 

Maskey led a wreath and not at the same time as the pomp and triumphalist ceremonial activities that Ritchie partook in. His was a wreath not a poppy, it was to acknowledge that yes, men did die, Irishmen among them and they deserve to be remembered. About that I think we can all agree. The point is she is wearing a poppy that represents just British servicemen and all wars that they fought in. There is a clear difference and yes it is pandering to maintain her votes.

FFS do you ever read the shite you write?

That was a great contribution there lad, so you got anything to add there to start a discussion or can you not crawl above profanities?

[funtime frankie]

Maguire, I'll try and answer that question. First of all I'm not speaking for Maskey and I sure as jaysus am not speaking on behalf of any stoop.

Many posters on this site have quite correctly referred to the fact that many Irish men have died in conflicts whilst serving the British crown.Because these men have died in conflict doesn't necessarily warrant them worthy of remembrance. In my opinion the only Irish men who died whilst fighting in the ranks of the British army and who are worthy of remembrance are those who died in WWI, thereafter, any Irish who died in the service of Britain, to me, are nothing. They have made their choice to serve Britain and in so doing have become part of the same machine which was responsible for the naked terrorism on our streets. 

My reasoning for highlighting the dead of WWI is to do with the fact that many of those men were advised by Redmond and Co that in fighting in the trenches that they were serving the cause of Ireland. Is it fitting to recall the memory of these men by wearing a poppy? I don't believe that it is.

To quote from the ballad, "The Foggy Dew,"

"Had they died by Pearse's side
Or had fought with Cathal Brugha
Their names we'll keep where the Fenians sleep
'Neath the shroud of the Foggy Dew."

The poppy is promoted by the Royal British Legion. This symbol embraces all the British war dead and it is worth recalling that this war dead includes those who murdered innocents in Croke Park, Derry and Ballymurphy. In contributing to the Poppy appeal one is assisting this organisation in its work. Personally, I have no desire to help pay for a guide dog for a Para who lost his sight in Crossmaglen or assist in paying for a wheelchair for an SAS man who lost a leg on the Falls Road. I have seen and experienced at first hand the terror that these people have inflicted and they most certainly do not have my admiration. What I don't understand is why so many Irish people feel this need to fall over themselves to contribute to this nonsense.

I believe by not wearing a poppy but yet laying a wreath at the cenotaph that Maskey was highlighting this important difference.

Ritchie's act on the other hand smacks of nothing else other than grandstanding. I laughed when I read last week that she issued a statement that it was OK for nationalists (deliberate small n) to wear a poppy. Who made Ritchie the spokesperson for nationalists?

By issuing such a statement it goes to show how out of step this woman is and let's remember by wearing a poppy she was honouring those same British soldiers who held this nation in the grip of fear and terror. Let's also remember it was only in the recent past that they withdrew from our streets and that they are still housed in barracks in Ireland.

I believe that we should recall the memory of the dead of WWI. However, the poppy is not an acceptable emblem and our act of remembrance should be disassociated from the British act. I honestly believe that it is a slur and an insult on the memory of those who have died in the service of this country to include those from here who have died in the service of Britain post WWI in the same act.





 

[Applesisapples]

Margaret Richie was out today wearing her poppy.

ROLL ON EASTER

She was at Casement was she wearing it there?