The Royal British Legion (RBL) not only receive large sums from merchants of death (like BAE Systems), they also get public funds. However, RBL internal documents have shown extensive misuse of that money across three branches in the north of Ireland. A BBC report names these branches:

…Antrim, Tandragee, and Finaghy, as well as at district committee level.

Back in April, the BBC, reporting on the Tandragee branch, found that:

…£100,000 of public money intended to provide activities for veterans, like craft, drama, and social meals to tackle loneliness, was spent on refurbishing a branch building…

The branch had received £140,000 in three grants from the Armed Forces Covenant Fund Trust (AFCF) — a charity and non-departmental government body attached to the Ministry of Defence and allocated GBP 10 million annually to support veterans.

Funds paid for a bar — despite no alcohol license

The money was earmarked for the three listed veteran support initiatives:

• £35,000 for A Golden Stitch in Time, which aimed to enable veterans with mental health issues to learn embroidering and design

• £35,000 for Stages of War, which would give veterans skills to put together a play and then stage a performance at the Lyric Theatre in Belfast

• £70,000 for Tackling Loneliness, which would provide a hot food delivery service to vulnerable veterans and provide other schemes such as a drop-in breakfast club and cookery classes

RBL headquarters found that grant funds had been handed to Tandragee Veterans Support Centre, the partner charity. Their investigation determined that they spent most of the funds on “building contractors and building material suppliers”. Inside the branch, they also found a:

…fully serviced bar with stock had been installed, although neither organisation had a license to sell alcohol.

Similar sums have been mishandled at the RBL’s Antrim branch.

In 2022 RBL head offices began looking into Antrim which had not submitted financial disclosures over a five year period. Following the investigation, they alleged that the branch sold off part of their property for £155,781, then transferred the funds to the bank account of the local RBL club. However, RBL clubs are not part of the Royal British Legion charity. They merely license the name through payment of a fee.

The RBL’s senior investigations auditor said that:

…there is a view that this failure to communicate results from the property sale not being in accordance with the requirements of Northern Ireland charity law.

Finally, a Finaghy branch managed to lose £19,801.31 of RBL money due to paying the costs of a local gospel church who were leasing part of the property.

This collection of shitshows prompted Royal British Legion HQ into:

…carrying out an internal investigation into the working practices of the Northern Ireland District Committee.

That turned up cases such as members who:

…”colluded in a plan to divert £1,000 intended for the Poppy Appeal” for two members to attend a remembrance concert but ultimately the money was found from elsewhere.

Cynicism surrounds veterans’ issues

The £1100 intended for a minibus disappeared, and another £500 was deposited in “an appropriate fund”. The RBL took the Northern Ireland District Committee under central administrative control as a result. They have replaced its staff members and appointed a new chair.

Our own Joe Glenton has previously criticised the RBL’s work in general, saying:

…what arms firms and these big charities really do is re-write, obscure, and mythologise as noble what is, in fact, the UK’s violent, counter-productive, imperialist foreign policy. Lipstick on the pig, if you like? They limit the space to critique those policies, to make them harder to challenge and to conflate criticism with disrespect for ‘the troops’.

Meanwhile, in the north of Ireland it’s hardly surprising to see a veterans cause misused for ulterior purposes. Instead of the simple act of remembrance, iconography from the World Wars is often hijacked for sectarian purposes.

Remembrance would ideally mean a pledge to move away from violence. However, you’re a long way from that idea when memorials to the fallen are paired with tributes to the most bloodthirsty nation on earth — so-called ‘Israel’. An upcoming parade seemingly intended to block an already arranged pro-Palestine march also makes heavy use of remembrance imagery.

Likewise, British politicians continue to use veterans from the ‘Troubles’ as pawns in a political game, with the right intent on covering up the past in a way that harms both victims of British army violence and veterans themselves.

With a Labour government seemingly intent on getting involved in every war going, expect the litany of grifts to continue.

Featured image via the Royal British Legion