The Poppy Appeal boycott row provokes a huge online debate

Peter Irvine:

Great promotion for the town traders. The whole point of running a business is to provide a service and to make money from it.

Bigshow Mháirtín:

Will the same unionists be happy to wear the Easter lily to show support for the Irish Republicians who fought and died to secure freedom from the British?

Noel Meara:

Any wonder the town is dead. Was hoping all the dinosaurs were extinct!

Christopher Martin Hamill:

Think the DUV needs to get up to date. Always some people making a big issue out of nothing. If some shops don’t support the Poppy Appeal it’s their choice. And if the DUV want to boycott them stores then do that. No need to be telling everyone else what to do. People can make up their own minds.

Joseph Baird PT:

The poppy is NOT a political or religious symbol. It’s a symbol of remembrance for ALL soldiers from all commonwealth countries who have died in battle.

Scotchy Campbell:

I respect those who wish to respect their soldiers but people are entitled to their own opinions. This issue will always divide the community.

Noel Meara:

People who own the shops can make their own minds up. Anyone who wants a poppy knows where to get one, so what’s the problem?

Joseph Baird PT:

Of course boycotting a shop is pathetic. BUT what is also PATHETIC is the shops which are boycotting the poppy appeal

Noel Meara:

I want to also make it clear I have full respect for anyone who wears their poppy, but I don’t think people should be shunned for choosing not to.

Natasha Gilchrist:

Whether shops want to sell them or not is up to them but I do disagree with businesses that don’t allow staff to wear them after all it is a mark of respect for all those fallen soldiers.

Sandra Nesbitt:

I wear a poppy every year. We must try and respect everyones views. We all have opinions about different things, but must try and live and work together for better good ....

David McCandless:

Lest we forget

Gareth Mccartan:

Freedom is what was fought for by those soldiers, freedom to choose without consequences, freedom of speech, so the fact that anyone is urging others to boycott a business for expressing that freedom is a mockery of the poppy

Tracey Harries:

It’ll be forgotten about come Christmas; same way the flag protests and the antics of the marching season have been forgotten about. More important things going on in the world.

Peter Irvine:

‘Dromore Unionist Voice would urge the Protestant/Loyalist/Unionist people of Dromore and Banbridge District to boycott any shop or supermarket which doesn’t support the Poppy Appeal.’ Why are they not urging ALL the people of the Dromore and Banbridge 
district?