Stolen Valour

This story was in our headlines recently - a top police officer who lied about his past record to gain career advancement. In the United States this is known as stolen valor and is a federal crime which comes with a prison sentence.

This is a lesson that would serve Northern Ireland well - various commercial brands have been revived here in recent years, whiskeys especially. This allows the companies who have renewed these defunct trademarks to effectively also acquire the emotional heritage of those brands too. 

Various "organisations" here have appropriated names from the distant past. You'll see their brand names, and their laying claim to the imagery, insignia, accomplishments and events of that past, on flagpoles during July - during the season when the original men, who would also serve with unimaginable courage in the Great War, are annually commemorated. My grandfather's cousin James Thompson was one of them, killed at the Battle of the Somme aged just 20. Below is my grandfather's memorial poem about him.

Valour stolen generations later by those with little or none. We live in a very messy society.