REMEMBERING 4,000 IRISH SLAINING ALLIPOLI
World War commemorations continue apace and the spinoff for the tourism industry is significant. Last month marked 70 years since the liberation of Auschwitz, an event that will no doubt pay dividends for the Polish city of Krakow which lies just an hour’s bus journey from the death camp. If you plan to visit Krakow, prime city-break territory, make sure you go to Auschwitz as well. Is it upsetting? Of course. Is it still worth it? Yes.
This spring, meanwhile, and throughout the rest of the year, Turkey will play host to thousands of additional tourists (especially from Australia and New Zealand) there to pay homage to those who died in the Gallipoli campaign, 100 years ago.
While the ANZAC forces suffered huge losses on the Turkish peninsula in 1915, the Irish sacrifice in this campaign is often overlooked. And yet 4,000 Irishmen died at Gallipoli. A play currently running at Collins Barracks in Dublin – Pals: The Irish at Gallipoli – captures the essence of this Irish contribution.
But for those who want to see the place for themselves there are
plenty of options, either by travelling independently (Turkish Airlines fly daily to Istanbul from Dublin), or by signing up for an organised tour. Group Travel International (gti-ireland.com), for example, have a week-long tour in October that takes in both Istanbul and the Gallipoli area, with visits to Suvla Bay, Anzac Cove and V Beach, where many Irish died trying to land.
I made my way here on a 10-hour bus journey from Istanbul over 30 years ago. It’s a lot speedier nowadays. The main town here is Çanakkale which overlooks the Dardanelles strait with Gallipoli on the other side, a short ferry ride away. Three decades ago Çanakkale was a bit down at heel and little more than a launch-pad location for visiting either Gallipoli or the ancient site of Troy – on the same bank of the Dardanelles.
Nowadays it’s a small city in its own right, with a university and a 21st-century vibrancy. If you travel independently, then it is the best place to stay because you will also be able to visit Troy easily from here – it’s only 25km away. Troy is a huge archaeological park and a new museum is set to open there this summer.
When I visited, the most striking thing was the giant wooden replica of the Trojan Horse – it’s still there.
The other memorable thing was the waiter in a hotel, out in the sticks, on the Gallipoli peninsula. Discovering I was Irish when serving dinner, his face lit up instantly and he asked me excitedly: ‘Do you know John Logan?’ John Logan? No. And then the penny dropped – he meant Johnny Logan who had won Eurovision three years earlier and who spent a lot of time working in Turkey back then. For Johnny Logan, Gallipoli was a place of welcome, a spot he returned to time and again. But for all his fellow Irishmen commemorated on memorials on this peninsula it was a final resting place. They never saw home again.