Remembering Gallipoli Campaign 110 Years Later

‘’Twas better to die neath an Irish sky, than at Suvla or Sedd el Bahr.”

In that one, to me, mysterious line of an Irish nationalist ballad is a tragedy beyond all reckoning. That line was the basis on which many Irish soldiers were temporarily forgotten or written out of Irish history, fighting in a foreign war, rather than their own. But the Irish hardly made the largest sacrifice at Suvla, and they were not alone.

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Michael Brendan Dougherty

Michael Brendan Dougherty is a senior writer at National Review Online.

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‘’Twas better to die neath an Irish sky, than at Suvla or Sedd el Bahr.”

In that one, to me, mysterious line of an Irish nationalist ballad is a tragedy beyond all reckoning. That line was the basis on which many Irish soldiers were temporarily forgotten or written out of Irish history, fighting in a foreign war, rather than their own. But the Irish hardly made the largest sacrifice at Suvla, and they were not alone.