It promises to be crowded around the cenotaphs on Sunday. In addition to the many unionists who annually attend, the ranks will be swelled by the presence of a number of nationalists. Alex Maskey led the way last year as Belfast mayor, when he laid a laurel wreath at a separate ceremony. Current mayor Martin Morgan will go one better this year and attend (not for the first time, he says) the Remembrance Day ceremony proper.
Like much in Irish life, the recent call for nationalists and republicans to join in Remembrance Day ceremonies had its origins in Dublin Four. The claim was that Irishmen who had died in the First and Second World War had been airbrushed out of Irish history, and that this was an omission that must be rectified. The campaign, championed frequently by people who detested Irish nationalism, was largely successful. This weekend the Taoiseach, the President and the leaders of most southern political parties will attend ceremonies honouring Irishmen who died in both world wars.
When questioned, nationalists who attend remembrance ceremonies or wear the poppy often cite family reasons. A relative, a grandfather or a great-uncle will have died in battle and they feel the need to mark that sacrifice. The respect shown, they imply, is something personal – a tribute to the dead relative as family member, rather than as a soldier in the British armed forces.
But of course Remembrance Day ceremonies are very obviously public and political, not personal. That's why politicians and heads of state attend them. Dance around the issue though we may, the fact remains that Remembrance Sunday on these islands honours those who died as soldiers in the British armed forces. For unionists, the logic of such honouring is clear. They consider themselves British and naturally wish to honour those who died in British military uniform, fighting for Britain. Nationalists, in contrast, don't see themselves as British, have no wish to serve in the British armed forces, and consider the British army an unwelcome presence on this island. And yet some nationalists declare their admiration for those Irishmen who joined the British armed forces and fought and died under the Union flag. The logic of such honouring is considerably less clear.
It might be argued, and is, that these men deserve honouring since they gave their lives in the cause of liberty and in opposition to tyranny. The facts suggest otherwise. At the heart of Remembrance Sunday is the First World War. That's where the poppy comes from, that's where "We will remember them" comes from. Except that the First World War was a four-year period of cruel, sustained slaughter between two imperial powers. Millions of men were killed and maimed for no worthwhile cause whatsoever.
As the crowds gather on Sunday to honour those who died, they will remember the poetry that glorifies death in battle. They will do their best to forget the poetry of such as Wilfred Owen, who cursed those who propagated "the old lie": "Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori" – It is a sweet and fitting thing to die for one's country."
The Second World War was indeed fought against a tyrannical regime. The Irish Free State, for its own reasons , chose to remain neutral in that conflict, and has since suffered the opprobrium of Britain for so doing. As so often before and since, Britain's outrage is selective. Portugal, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland also sat out the war, yet we rarely hear British condemnation of their neutrality. But then Britain has always found it easier to think of Ireland as its back yard, rather than an independent state with a right to forge its own foreign policy.
As for some of the other conflicts in which British forces have been involved, and which will be remembered fondly on Sunday as well – the Falklands affair, actions in Iraq, the conflict in Ireland: some Irishmen happily identify with Britain in such wars.
Most don't.
The human mind is a funny thing, capable of moral gymnastics that would make Olga Korbut look arthritic. People who spend three hundred and sixty-four days a year arguing for the resolution of political differences by exclusively peaceful means – many of whom would describe themselves as committed Christians – every year in November spend a day paying homage to Mars, the great god of war, and saluting those who fell in his service.
Can there be a set of beliefs that makes less sense? Well yes, there is one. That's the belief held by some nationalists, that attending a British military commemorative ceremony will win them the respect of unionists.
