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Today,
Sunday 10th, is Remembrance Sunday and I, like thousands
of my fellow citizens, will attend one of the many
commemorations that will take place across the country
- indeed across Europe and many Commonwealth countries.
In the lead-up to Remembrance Day the BBC showed a
documentary (Somme Journey) featuring David
Ervine and Tom Hartley. Already I have heard negative
comments from people within both communities. There
are those who feel that, once again, Ervine was seen
to be fraternising with a republican - and at a place
that is regarded by loyalists as sacred ground. Others
have expressed doubts about the wisdom of a republican
like Hartley visiting the war graves of British soldiers
in the company of a leading loyalist.
I
am well aware that the majority of those who contribute
to The Blanket will see no redeeming features
in the journey taken by Ervine and Hartley just as
they saw no redeeming features in Alex Maskey’s
gesture last July when he laid a laurel wreath at
the cenotaph, or earlier this week when he hosted
a visit from the Royal British Legion. In the past
I have been as critical of Sinn Fein as many republican
contributors to The Blanket, albeit for different
reasons, and I remain cynical about Sinn Fein’s
motives in relation to the so-called peace process.
However I have no problem supporting the gestures
made by Maskey and Hartley.
Remembering
those who paid the ultimate sacrifice for what they
believed in, or for what they believed was their duty,
is nothing to be ashamed of. Rehabilitating the memory
of those fellow Irishmen so cruelly airbrushed out
of history and out of the Irish national psyche is
most certainly nothing for a modern-day republican
to be ashamed of. Remembering those who paid the supreme
sacrifice is not a specifically British thing, and
it is certainly not a specifically protestant or Unionist
thing (though you will find a few rednecks who will
think the contrary). In the aftermath of the Great
War, memorials were erected in many towns and cities
across Europe.
To
remember the dead is a human reaction, not a political
or sectarian one. It is international rather than
national. Remembrance Day is not (for me, at least)
intended to reinforce my sense of Britishness and
the poppy is not intended to be a symbol of my British
identity. I regard Remembrance Day simply as a day
to remember those who gave their lives in the service
of their country. For many of us, it is a personal
thing. We remember those of our own loved ones who
answered the call of their country. This is a natural
thing to do and need not be regarded as either political
or sectarian. Nor should it be done in a selective
way. The 10th and 16th Irish, as well as the 36th
Ulster, divisions are equally deserving of our remembrance.
Remembrance
Day in relation to the Great War obviously has a special
meaning and significance for loyalists. In a small
Province of some 1.5million people the loss of thousands
of young lives was deeply felt throughout the country.
Even if there had been no constitutional and political
reasons for the formation of the UVF and the 36th
(Ulster) Division, the sense of loss would have been
just as great. This sense of loss was felt as much
in England where the young men of the shires joined
their local regiments - many of which suffered a similar
fate to that of the Ulster Division. It was felt as
much in West Belfast as on the Shankill or East Belfast,
In Dublin as well as Belfast or Ballymena. The late
Vera Brittain summarised the period of the Great War
as the period of “the lost generation”.
As
I said at the beginning of my article, the poppy for
me is about remembering people. It is not about victory
or defeat. It is not about sides or causes and it
is certainly not about glorifying war. It is about
ordinary people for whom war was an intrusion into
their lives. It is about remembering the courage and
the sacrifice made by ordinary men and women for doing
what they believed was their patriotic duty.
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