Remarks by President Mcaleese at Green Hill Cemetery, Çanakkale
Turkey, 24th March 2010
Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen
Some say graveyards are sad places, other say they are peaceful. However, few have referred to them more memorably or with such haunting eloquence and statesmanship, as the father of modern Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, when he said, in 1934, of those who died in Gallipoli:
“Those heroes that shed their blood and lost their lives… you are now lying in the soil of a friendly country. Therefore rest in peace. There is no difference between the Johnnies and the Mehmets where they lie side by side here in this country of ours… You the mothers, who sent their sons from far away countries, wipe away your tears. Your sons are now lying in our bosom and are in peace. Having lost their lives on this land, they have become our sons as well.”
These truly remarkable words, by a remarkable statesman and soldier, written when the searing memory and bitterness of that so called “Great War” was still fresh and raw in peoples’ minds, is a testament not only to the man, but to the generosity of spirit of the Turkish people. We in Ireland – and in many other countries – can learn from the underlying sentiment of forgiveness and compassion which resonates down through the decades from these generous and inspiring comments. Only a soldier who has witnessed at first hand the traumatic heat and horror of battle could have uttered such gracious and healing remarks.
The distance of time and historical perspective can allow us to question the folly of that war and the appalling waste of countless wonderful, courageous young men on both sides. The Irish who fought for the British Empire here were not only destined to be overwhelmed by those who opposed them but to have their memory doubly overwhelmed, for they fought in a campaign that was lost and so long overlooked and back home fellow citizens were taking on the might of that same Empire to secure Irish independence. Those fortunate enough few who returned alive from Gallipoli returned to considerable ambivalence even hostility about their role and their sacrifice.
Distance of time and changing historical context now allows us to make up for that deficit of remembrance and in doing so to contribute to the much needed healing of memory on our own divided island. So we come today to honour our Irish dead those who fought in British uniforms those who fought in ANZAC uniforms and to honour those whom they fought, the young Turkish men who defended their homeland. Each one deserves our prayers, respect and remembrance. Within the hallowed boundaries of this Cemetery they now rest, each individual story a challenge to the world’s citizens to find ways other than war to resolve our problems.
Francis Ledwidge was an Irish soldier and poet who died in France in 1917. In his poem “The Irish in Gallipoli”, he called on Ireland to weep for her sons who lie here
“but not for sorrow….. angels once again
Come back like exile birds to guard their sleep.”
We none of us are angels but we have come to guard their sleep and their memory.