John Coulter with one of his Irish Daily Star columns. It featured in Newshound on 5 August 2014.
Republicans need to remove their balaclavas and fully embrace the true heritage of their war dead.
It's not a case of rewriting history, merely recognising that republicans need to honour those Irish nationalists who fought against Germany in World War One.
Today marks the centenary of the start of that conflict which saw tens of thousands of republicans serve and die in battles across Europe and beyond.
At 11 pm on 4 August 1914, Britain – which included Ireland under the Empire – formally declared war on Kaiser Bill.
A decade ago, I urged the Provos to form an Irish Republican Association to maintain discipline and social contact among IRA members.
Today, in memory of those thousands of republicans who fought and died against Germany, I am launching the Irish Republican Legion along with the Order of the Green Poppy.
At 11 o'clock tonight, I want all Irish republicans to pause for a minute's silence and remember the thousands of nationalists slaughtered during World War One.
Many of them are not buried in Ireland, but in the numerous Commonwealth war cemeteries dotted across the globe.
And we should also remember the thousands of Irish republicans of US descent who fought and died for the Allies when America entered the Great War in 1917.
Numerous republicans find it obnoxious to wear a traditional red poppy on Armistice Day to remember Ireland's Fallen.
They see it as a symbol of British imperialism, yet they seem to airbrush out of history the thousands of republicans who fought in Irish regiments against German tyranny.
If republicans can wear their Easter lilies with pride to recall the Irish Volunteers who fought and died during the failed Rising in 1916, then I want republicans to make and wear green poppies to remember the republican Fallen of the Great War.
Sinn Féin makes a great noise about wanting to remember republican dead during the contentious Tyrone Volunteers day in Castlederg, and the recent hunger strike commemoration in Derrylin.
Thousands of Sinn Féin members and supporters have also marched in recent days to remember the victims of the Gaza conflict. So why can't republicans tramp the roads of Ireland as a mark of respect to Ireland's Great War republican Fallen?
Republicans like to lecture Unionists that there should be no hierarchy of victims in the Irish conflict; that an IRA volunteer killed by the SAS is on the same level as an innocent civilian blown to bits on Bloody Friday.
Yet these same republicans seem to be suffering from selective memory disorder when it comes to respecting their kith and kin who died wearing an Allied uniform.
Look at the dozens of decades which passed where Ireland's Victoria Cross heroes lay in unmarked graves across the South simply because they fought for the Empire. This has been one of the most disgraceful episodes of Irish military history.
If republicans cannot bring themselves to become involved with the commemoration events organised in Ireland by the Royal British Legion, then joining my Irish Republican Legion is the only viable alternative.
The various organisations in the broad republican family must not allow these Great War dead republicans to become the Forgotten Fallen.
Likewise, Unionism must also return the serve by recognising the human sacrifice of republicans during World War One. It wasn't just Orangemen and Carson's UVF who signed up in August 1914.
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Can we just not stop commemorating/celebrating soldiers? A green poppy - must we always imitate our old masters?
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