Like most folk, I suspect, I couldn’t care less if anyone else chooses to wear a poppy, elects to sport a white one, or doesn’t bother to at all.
After all, as those who I personally feel I am honouring by wearing one on Remembrance Day sacrificed themselves to ensure, we live in a free country.
At least, that’s the theory. But it seems as though that notion is becoming an ever-more complex one to navigate. And particularly around this time of year, when we in Scottish football have our now annual debate over the role of Remembrance in our game.
So it was that at Rugby Park on Sunday, I admit I felt a great deal of discomfort as a section of the Celtic support exercised what they would argue is their right to free speech, by disrupting what the stadium announcer referred to as the ‘period of silence’, as if pre-empting that making it to the traditional whole minute may well be a long shot.
The refusal of many Celtic supporters and indeed, the club itself, to take part in the now seemingly accepted customs around Remembrance Day, whether that be displaying the poppy on their shirts, participating in the silence or displaying protest banners during it, is hardly breaking news. Though, it should be noted, the club do donate generously to the Poppy Appeal every year.
But this was something different. It wasn’t enough for those supporters, chiefly members of the Green Brigade, to not take part in the silence at Kilmarnock. They had to be seen, or more specifically, be heard not to be taking part.
Instead of standing in silence, they sang of Aidan McAnespie, an Irish catholic who was shot in the back in 1988 as he travelled across a border checkpoint in Northern Ireland on his way to a football match. Two years ago, a former British soldier, David Holden was found guilty of his manslaughter.
For those who chose to do so, the poppy has become a symbol of British jingoism, and what they perceive to be the sins of the British military. A feeling aided in part, no doubt, by the ongoing conflict in Gaza, not to mention the pageantry - and indeed, celebration - that greets the occasion at Ibrox these days.
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Neither of these interpretations of Remembrance seems to chime with my own, and my understanding that the poppy was a solemn symbol of gratitude for the sacrifices of previous generations who laid down their lives in order to protect our freedoms.
But then, as with topics ranging from the national question of independence to the conflict in the middle east, opinions on such matters seem increasingly to be determined – in Glasgow, at least - by the colour of scarf you are wearing, with dissent from the party line tolerated less and less.
It is easy, when viewing Remembrance Day through a (admittedly, possibly naïve) prism such as my own, to feel revulsion at such moments as was encountered at Rugby Park. But it is also simplistic.
After all, if we do cherish the freedoms which those who came before us fought and died to protect, then dissention and protest – no matter how unpalatable the method is to the majority – should be indisputable rights.
And while the Green Brigade protest made me and many others feel uncomfortable, they may argue that is precisely the point.
To say that all must comply with the wearing of the poppy or hold the occasion with reverence has been labelled in recent years as ‘poppy fascism’. Being seen without one on the BBC, even through forgetfulness, can make frontpage news. If you actively choose not to wear one, like Irish footballer James MacLean, whose refusal is rooted in the Bloody Sunday massacre that took place in his hometown, you are a pariah.
Haven’t we all rather lost the run of ourselves here? And lost sight of what the poppy was intended to represent?
Even still, what was particularly jarring about the stance of the Celtic support who disrupted the silence at Rugby Park, was that they were in effect demanding a level of respect for their viewpoint that they were not willing to extend to those who did wish to mark the moment with their silence.
Alas, no doubt, we will be having this conversation again in 12 months’ time, and I won’t pretend I have the answers.
Former Celtic manager Ange Postecoglou came closest to articulating my own feelings on the matter a couple of years ago, saying it was his belief that individuals have the right to protest after fans had disrupted the silence at Dens Park, but that they should do so with respect and dignity. Qualities that were lacking in the actions of those who protested at Rugby Park on Sunday.
Current manager Brendan Rodgers was put in the impossible position of fielding similar questions about the conduct of his club’s fans at the weekend, and he toed a similar line, making it plain he didn’t commend the disruption, but not exactly condemning his own fans either. Which is understandable.
A few years back, Celtic fans who did not wish to participate in the minute’s silence to mark Remembrance Day stayed on the stadium concourses until it was over. Their absence was arguably a more powerful and evocative statement of their dissent than what took place on Sunday.
Certainly, adopting such a stance once more in the future would avoid putting their club, and their manager, in such a difficult position.
Respect, after all, must cut both ways.
