Well bonfire night is out of the way for another year, although the fireworks seem to get louder and louder each year. For a while I thought Saddam Hussein was in my front garden. However, we move on to the next date that is marked down in the calendar. This of course is November 11^th, Remembrance day where we remember all those who gave their lives so that we can be free. Many of us wear the poppy. In my school days spent in a catholic convent in Liverpool, we were all given crucifixes on a chain to wear round our necks. This was to remind us that Jesus Christ died for us on a cross. The Christian church decided that because it could not accurately date the crucifixion, it would steal the pagan feast of Easter. This is why we have Good Friday falling on a different date each year. Originally Good Friday was the day on which the moon was worshiped. It was always the nearest Friday to the full moon.

Anyway that is a very long time ago, back to the nuns at St. Vincent’s. Just before Easter a very large crucifix was erected just outside the school chapel in the porch way. In letters large enough for blind kids to feel and read, an inscription above the cross read, “Remember, Jesus Christ died for you!” Looking back now I believe there should also have been an image of a dying soldier along side that cross, with an inscription that might have read. “So did I!”

We were never given poppies at school that I remember. The nuns were quite right to mark and remember the fact that Jesus Christ died for them. However, he was not the only one to make the ultimate sacrifice. Thousands and thousands of soldiers, sailors, and airman gave their lives so that the nuns could be free to follow their religion, and so that all of us can be free from tyranny.

Tom Glassey, on the banks of the Silverburn River, breathing the air of freedom sacrificed by the last breath of all those brave men and women that fell.