Salute WWI dead, but not with red poppies

Not only does the symbol help to sanitise an imperial bloodbath, it also legitimises contemporary warmongering

An estimated 40,000 young Irish people died in the Great War

In August 1914, war erupted and swept across old imperial Europe. Millions long-colonised under the ruling classes in the British, Russian, German, Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman empires were sent to war.

They were never consulted about this decision; only a few had read the vaguest scraps of propaganda to explain why. By the end, four years later, 15 million of them were dead. Under the pitiless supervision of a ruling class, the young of ...