Morning View: Remembrance season reminds us of the horrors of war

This weekend, many of us will take time to remember those who died in the service of their country, particularly in the first and second world wars.

Unfortunately, the poppy and the Royal British Legion are often portrayed as divisive and treated with hostility. This year, vandals claiming to represent a socialist republican group attacked the legion’s offices in Dublin with paint bombs.

It is human nature to believe that our political opponents are motivated by bad faith. But it’s worth emphasising that the poppy is rarely worn as an aggressive display of identity or even to celebrate the British military. Most of us wear it with genuine respect, as a way of acknowledging sacrifice and mourning loss.

Far from glorifying war, remembrance services and other events make us take a solemn and sober look at the pain and waste of human life that it causes.

Across the island, there have been heartening attempts to acknowledge that the poppy memorialises people from all backgrounds, particularly from the first world war. Leo Varadkar, for example, wore a poppy embossed on a shamrock, in order to remember the Irish dead from that conflict.

Of course, there will always be critics who view the emblem as mawkish or ill-intentioned.

They underestimate the grip that the world wars, in particular, have on our collective imagination and the importance of taking time to contemplate the horror of war. It reminds us that a nation must only take up arms as a last resort.

In his latest poetry collection, Michael Longley recalled the war poet Ivor Gurney and described the “face dissolving blood ponds of Passchendaele”. Thankfully, most of us will never experience such dreadful scenes, but we will remember our forefathers who did with sorrow and pride.