REMARKS BY PRESIDENT MCALEESE AT DINNER, PRESIDENTIAL PALACE, ANKARA TUESDAY, 23RD MARCH 2010
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT MCALEESE AT DINNER, PRESIDENTIAL PALACE, ANKARA TUESDAY, 23RD MARCH 2010
President and Mrs Gül,
Honoured Guests,
Iyi Akşamlar!
Martin and I are delighted to be here with you in Turkey on the first visit of an Irish Head of State to this country of legendary beauty and fascinating history.
I thank you most sincerely for the warmth of the welcome that you and your wife, colleagues and fellow citizens have extended to us and through us to the people of Ireland. Now we understand in a very personal way why Turkey is such a popular destination for tens of thousands of Irish tourists!
Contacts between Ireland and Turkey are not simply a recent tourist phenomenon however. In the mid nineteenth century a million of Ireland’s citizens died of starvation. During that Famine, Turkey’s then leader Sultan Abdul Majid sent three ships loaded with food to Ireland. In your state archives, there is a letter of profound thanks for that generosity, signed by a large number of Ireland’s public figures and clergy. The cargo was unloaded in a port called Drogheda and since then at the insistence of the people, the star and crescent of your country forms part of the town’s coat of arms. Those symbols of Turkish kindness are to be found today on the crest of Drogheda’s football team [i]- a fitting contemporary link given that football is as much a national passion in Turkey as it is in Ireland.
Both Ireland and Turkey have experienced many upheavals of history since those far off times not least the period of the so-called Great War which for both of us coincided with the beginning of our modern independent identities. At Çanakkale in 1915-16 young Turkish men faced and faced down invading British and ANZAC soldiers, among whom were many young Irishmen. The battles were hard fought. The casualties on both sides were horrendous. The sadness and sorrow in many homes cast shadows for generations, shadows that in Ireland we are only beginning to fully come to terms with for the Irish soldiers here fought on the side of the British Empire while others back home fought to gain independence from that same Empire. Today we try to heal the divided loyalties and identities which have troubled Irish history for so long and we are privileged that in this generation we can come to Turkey from both the North and South of Ireland as good neighbours to commemorate together both the Irish and the Turkish who died here. We are very grateful to you President for your helpful support for my visit this week to that onetime landscape of cruel war and now place of rest of the dead.
President, thank you for the joy of this visit and its wonderful success. I am greatly looking forward to the commemoration ceremonies in Çanakkale, to experiencing historic Troy, to relishing the beauty of Istanbul and to encouraging in this generation, healthy, vibrant bilateral contacts between us in tourism, trade, business, European and global affairs.
Honoured Guests, I would like you all to join with me now in a toast to President and Mrs Gül and to friendship between the peoples of Ireland and Turkey.
Correction on 24th March 2010 [i] "While included in good faith on information supplied, it is now accepted that this reference to the genesis of the star and the crescent on Drogheda’s coat of arms and its link to Turkey would not appear to be based on sound historical fact.".