Dáil tiff on lilies an emblem of hypocrisy?

Having taken offence at the wearing of Easter lilies by TDs in the Dáil recently, Fine Gael party chairman, Charlie Flanagan, asked the ceann comhairle to rule on standing orders regarding the wearing of emblems in the Dáil.

Last November, FG’s Frank Feighan became the first TD to wear a poppy in the Dáil for 16 years, following Labour Party TD Emmet Stagg and Fine Gael’s Paddy Harte and Brian Hayes.

Mr Feighan, chair of the British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly, said he wore a poppy inside the Dáil as a symbolic gesture of inclusiveness and to remember the Great War dead.

I do not recollect Deputy Flanagan taking offence at the wearing of the poppy by Dáil members or requesting the ceann comhairle to rule on the issue.

Charlie Flanagan takes offence at TDs in the Dáil wearing a symbol that honours those Irish who gave their lives fighting for this small nation’s freedom from foreign rule, and has no issue with the wearing of a symbol that honours those Irish who gave their lives fighting for the rights of other small nations.

Tom Cooper

Knocklyon

Dublin 16