this work responds to a found photograph of my paternal Irish family — my grandfather, great aunt, and great grandparents. Each person depicted died before I was born. Their lives were deeply impacted by the partition of Ireland into two nation states. As a result of The Irish War of Independence, my family suddenly became citizens of Northern Ireland, which was designated as part of the United Kingdom. The rest of Ireland became the Republic of Ireland, a new state independent from England. This colonial change shaped every aspect of my family’s trajectory and why I was born an American.

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Remembrance Day is a holiday in British Commonwealth member states that honors the end of World War One in 1918. It is observed on November 11th and is recognized as Veteran’s Day in the United States. This tradition was first put into practice in 1919, which was the same year the Irish War of Independence broke out. In England and  Northern Ireland, the holiday is often referred to as Poppy Day and marked by the display of  red “remembrance poppies.” In this context, the papaver rhoeas flower is an immediately recognizable symbol, and for many in the North of Ireland, it is a politically contentious one due to its connections to British nationalists. For many Irish republicans, it is seen as a partisan symbol. This divide points to decades of war in Northern Ireland between those who align with British identity and those who align with Irish identity, for those who identify as Protestant and those who identify as Roman Catholic.

 

In Don’t Forget to Remember, the delicate poppy petals are etched into with the language “don’t remember to forget.” The petals fall and swirl, eventually filling the photographic frame and covering up my family members’ bodies.