Shamrock Poppy Badge Commissioned For Irish War Dead.

In Flanders Fields
(Poem by Canadian physician Major John McCrae)

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
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.

A Shamrock Poppy badge emblem, to recognises all the Irish soldiers who fought in World War I, has been commissioned to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Great War, by the Irish branch of the Royal British Legion.

The emblem remembers the 206,000 Irishmen who took part in the fighting; 26,500 of whom, alas, lost their lives in various battles.

Proceeds from this newly commissioned Shamrock Poppy will go to Irish veterans and their families, with a segment retained to go towards the upkeep of memorials to Irish soldiers here in the Republic. Shamrock Poppies can be obtained from the Irish branch of the Royal British Legion.

The full story behind Poppy Sunday can be found HERE.

This commissioned emblem is symbolic of the greater recognition recently afforded in the Republic of Ireland, to the Irishmen who for various reasons chose to fight and die, serving as they did, in the British Army in World War 1, in the years prior to our independence.

The Irish Government previously broke with convention, by attending a Remembrance Day Sunday service in Northern Ireland at Enniskillen, Co. Fermanagh; laying a plain laurel wreath at the town’s war memorial back in 2012, and have done so for every year since then.

This year a representative of the Irish Republic is also expected to attend a service in Enniskillen on next Sunday, November 11th, as the local community marks the 30th anniversary of the notorious IRA Poppy Day bombing in the town, back on that dreadful day on November 8th, 1987.

The Enniskillen IRA Poppy Day bombing, totally disgraced and dishonoured IRA membership to it’s very foundation; this action leading to the spurring of fresh efforts by concerned Irish nationalists, towards finding an agreed political solution to what had now become a cowardly and repulsive bloody conflict.