11 Nov 2023 15:39:29
When I go to a game all I want to see is 11 v 11 playing against each other and us winning. Pure and simple and nothing else.
The game's now far too politicised and it's taken away the reason I want to go. If anyone objects to what's going on in Ukraine, Ireland, Palestine or wherever go and see your MP. Once politics enters through the turnstiles the game loses its purpose.
11 Nov 2023 17:28:03
This needs sorted sooner the better.
11 Nov 2023 18:01:17
The game is always political, look at the English league at the moment, every compeating team has to have the poppy imprint on the jersey. To me personally the point of UK WW2 so that their people have freedom of choice! Look at the abuse McClean gets for choosing not to wear it.
11 Nov 2023 18:14:01
The poppy got politicised by tony Blair.
After the Iraq war backlash and the anger directed towards the armed services when they returned, Blair changed the poppy to symbolise soldiers harmed or killed in all conflicts.
This made it hard for people to disagree with the current combatants or combatants of dodgy wars like Ireland. Now if they criticised, they criticised the beloved veterans of WW1 and WW2.
This change is why lots of Celtic fans and Irish nationalists oppose the poppy. If it went back to the way it used to be, I reckon most people wouldn't have an issue.
11 Nov 2023 19:44:31
Weejoe
Don’t mention the poppy ff$ you’ll get that feckr JFP started.
11 Nov 2023 19:54:13
The origin of this symbol is often traced to a poem by a Canadian poet named John McCrae, after the death of a friend in Flanders (after experiencing a chlorine gas attack first-hand) . This was early in the war, before the patriotic fervor turned to (often impotent) rage; but I defy anyone to tell me this is not a political poem:
We are the dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie,
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
The protestors on the street today took up that "quarrel with the foe"; took up "the torch" and held "it high. " They did not "break faith" with the war dead of this nation or any other.
11 Nov 2023 21:24:08
Cav
My mother and father were both born in 1923. They would have been 100 this year God rest them both.
If anyone has a right to wear a poppy tomorrow it’s me given family lost do but I won’t be wearing one because as we all know the poppy has been hijacked.
As James McLean said if wearing a poppy was in remembrance of the brave men and women who gave there lives in WW1 and WW2 I’d wear one every day.
But for me out of respect to James McLeans community and the people of Derry, the illegal war in Iraq and Thatcher’s invasion of Argentina and her letting 10 men die on hunger strike I’ll respectfully decline.
11 Nov 2023 22:38:54
That's my view as well, JFP. Perhaps that wasn't clear. The poppy represents--and always has represented--British (& "commonwealth") militarism from its inception. It was always tethered to the phony nationalism that rich and powerful men use to get young, mostly working-class men to die for their bull causes. You mention three of the most egregious examples of this in recent times: the abhorrent colonial occupation of Ireland has obvious and direct parallels to the Israeli occupation today, as ordinary Irish people easily intuit, to their great credit, and as the majority of our fans also understand. This last anti-colonial struggle will end the same way.
Happy centenaries to your kin, mate. 1923. Wow.
12 Nov 2023 01:00:02
Surely the Poppy printed on front of football top is a weird action .
I aLways thought the Poppy signified a voluntary contribution in memory of Brit’s service people who were killed or maimed in battle . All EPL teams have them printed on shirts, which takes a way the voluntary individual contributions
Than God we will soon have no more Poppy sellers as individual purchases will probable be replaced by company buying .
Poppy sellers have no shame, I see many in Newry where the army murdered hundreds.
12 Nov 2023 07:52:47
JFP and Cavalcanti
Very good posts that very much resonate with me. ?
☘️ ☘️ ☘️.