As the signs of Christmas start to appear ever earlier, we realise that we are moving inexorably towards the end of another year.
Coming into it, we knew that 2016 was going to be a year of remembering in Ireland.
For what we term “both sides” of the community; it was the centenary of both the Easter Rising and the Battle of the Somme, and to be honest by and large the remembering has been dignified and responsible.
Who would have thought, though, that we would come into November with a picture of Nigel Farage and Donald Trump grinning at the camera as a result of a new friendship born out of success by both of them. Who’d have thought at the start of the year, that Britain would vote to get out of the EU and the United States would elect Trump as their president.

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What will historians make of it all in 100 years time? There are even predictions that the year 2116 won’t even come to pass, with some interpreting the turmoil in the world as a signal of the end times.
I suppose we could get the pollsters to do a survey to see if it really is the end of the world, but they can’t get anything else right, so no hope there either!
But, if the planet does survive another century, I think that people in the future will look back on 2016 with different feelings than those we are experiencing at the moment; after all, just look at the way we selectively look back at our own past.
Even the dignity of the poppy as a simple symbol of remembering has been dragged into controversy.
Footballer James McClean has refused to wear a poppy on his football jersey for his club, West Brom, at this time of year. As a young Irish Nationalist from Derry, with all the back story of his home city, he has explained his reasons very articulately. Not only do I support his right to do so, I admire him for having his convictions; I certainly admire him more than some of the players who wear the poppy and stand in silence while probably not even thinking of the significance of what they’re doing.
But McClean gets abuse for his stance; and this week a former British soldier described this abuse as “poppy fascism”. Apart from the irony of poppy and fascism appearing in the same phrase, the soldier has hit the nail on the head.
McClean played for the Republic of Ireland in Austria on Saturday (an opponent from the birthplace of Hitler on Remembrance week-end, you couldn’t make it up.) He scored the winning goal and was voted man of the match; which prompted one bright spark to take to Facebook and laud McClean’s performance particularly “in the week that’s in it.”
What? McClean was morally justified in what he did, the fan who used his performance in a football match to stick two fingers up to the Poppy was disrespectful to say the least; just like the morons who hail McClean in a song which refers to him hating the f***ing Queen.
There’s also a video doing the rounds of fans from Northern Ireland parading in their own little ceremony in a room full of flags (bottles of Buckfast et all on the table) because they didn’t think the ceremony at Windsor Park on Friday was enough “in your face.”
They disrespected the poppy just as much as their supposed yob enemies.
I don’t know what it is about the poppy and football. Even 10 or so years ago, I don’t remember such organised, strong acts of remembrance at matches, but this seems to have taken on a life of its own.
There’s a danger across the UK now for the poppy to be used as some sort of symbol of Britishness.
I find that sad. It’s not some sort of badge to glorify or even support war, either. Far from it.

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The vast majority of people who attended dignified remembrance ceremonies up and down the UK last week wore the poppy because it remembers the sacrifice of young men and women who died in war.
I hate war. Powers that be sending young citizens to their death in battles over land, or to impose their ideologies over somebody else’s.
And still it goes on; the sight of young people re-building their lives with prosthetic limbs or images of coffins coming home remain an indictment of the leadership of Tony Blair.
Remembering the sacrifices made by, mostly, working class young people isn’t an endorsement of war; these are the very people who should be remembered as a manifestation of why war is so horrible.
Notwithstanding all this, we cannot ignore the fact that our two tribes look at this differently; Unionists and Nationalists have different views on the significance of the poppy.
Such difference shouldn’t exclude respect for the other’s point of view, however.
And anyway, there is a growing acceptance that Protestants and Catholics, Unionists and Nationalists, fought together, particularly in World War One.
I saw an image recently where the Irish tricolour and the Union flag were side by side with people remembering both traditions who had died in that war.
I personally wouldn’t go that far.
For starters, the Irish state didn’t exist when thousands of Irish people were slaughtered at the Somme.
It is a fact that many northern Nationalists who went off to fight went south to join regiments in the 16th Irish division rather than join those in the 36th Ulster division.
The point is, in 1914 to 1918, and particularly at the Somme Irishmen put aside their differences to fight a common enemy and the blood the split was the same.
There is growing recognition of the sacrifice made by southern Irishmen by the powers that be in the Republic, after it had been denied for many years.
We must give credit to those, including some in Fermanagh, who have organised events where people have learned in a safe space about what 1916 meant to everyone.
Our most recent history, with the “Troubles” here, is still causing division as different narratives, (to use a popular phrase), vie for attention.
Despite our fixation on the past, Ireland in 2016 is a very different place; hopefully when future generations look back through the prism of history, they will see that we accepted and respected difference and moved forward into a brighter 21st century.