Poppy shamrock hybrid in honour of Irish war dead

The hybrid symbol was officially launched at the Island of Ireland Peace Park in Belgium in November.

Now former Donegal Fine Gael TD Paddy Harte has reiterated his hope that the new poppy/shamrock will fully "represent all creeds and classes from the Island of Ireland who fought and died for peace."

Mr Harte was involved - with Glenn Barr - in the Messines Peace Park opened in November 1998 by Queen Elizabeth II, King Albert of Belgium and Irish President Mary McAleese and implied that Irish republicans could no longer makes excuses about remembrance.

In a letter to the local media the Lifford man asked: "Should we wear a poppy? My mother, a proud Derry city Catholic, bought a poppy every year which she placed beside the Sacred Heart lamp.

"A poppy was not strange to me but I found it difficult to wear because it might be offensive to others until I faced the reality that these young men and young women were Irish in the full meaning of the word.

"This is in the sense outlined by Wolfe Tone, the father of Irish Republicanism, who wished to replace Catholic, Protestants and Dissenter with the common name 'Irishman.'"

"What stand would Tone and his French generals have taken if French democracy had been threatened by dictators in Europe? Has present day Irish Republicanism missed the point? It's not too late to change."

The retired TD cited the example of Tom Kettle who found himself in Belgium in 1913 to purchase arms and ammunition for an Irish Rising but changed his mind when faced with the way European dictators dealt with minorities and became a recruiting officer for the Royal Dublin Fusiliers.

"And so a man shortlisted as a possible Prime Minister in a Home Rule Parliament in Ireland died in a khaki uniform in the Somme in 1916," wrote Mr Harte.

"A new emblem is now available, not to replace the Haig poppy but to give an alternative to those who do not like wearing it. It joins the poppy and the shamrock together.

"The poppy represents the dead of the First World War while the shamrock represents all creeds and classes from the Island of Ireland who fought and died for peace. America, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Britain all have their own poppies and there is no good reason why the Irish should not have one," he stated.

The veteran Fine Gael politician said that in Dublin a few years ago he was asked publicly if IRA man Kevin Barry was a hero or a terrorist.

"I said that if Kevin Barry had been five or more years older, he might have died in the trenches of the Somme and Flanders, like many who attended UCD, as he did," he explained.

"And if those UCD students who died in the First World War had been born five or more years later, their life stories might have been very different.

"They are all part of the complex history of Ireland who believed they were right in what they were doing and who should be respected and remembered for it. As a Native American proverb puts it, don't judge a man until you have walked two moons in his moccasins," he concluded.