Comments on: McAleese’s Gallipoli visit wins praise from Australia http://www.irishecho.com.au/2010/03/09/mcaleeses-gallipoli-visit-wins-praise-from-australia/2194 Australia's Irish Newspaper Mon, 23 Jan 2012 03:33:59 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3 By: Irish at Gallipoli. De Valera Resigns. Brian Friel. | Today In Irish History http://www.irishecho.com.au/2010/03/09/mcaleeses-gallipoli-visit-wins-praise-from-australia/2194/comment-page-1#comment-8703 Irish at Gallipoli. De Valera Resigns. Brian Friel. | Today In Irish History Mon, 09 Jan 2012 10:59:38 +0000 http://www.irishecho.com.au/?p=2194#comment-8703 [...] 1918: Final evacuation from the ill-advised Gallipoli invasion which saw the death of 3,500-4,000 Irish soldiers fighting either in Australian, New Zealand or British uniform. An estimated 44,000 allied soldiers died. As with most Irish who fought in WWI, their sacrifice received scant recognition by parochial Irish government until 2010. [...] [...] 1918: Final evacuation from the ill-advised Gallipoli invasion which saw the death of 3,500-4,000 Irish soldiers fighting either in Australian, New Zealand or British uniform. An estimated 44,000 allied soldiers died. As with most Irish who fought in WWI, their sacrifice received scant recognition by parochial Irish government until 2010. [...]

]]> By: iorarua http://www.irishecho.com.au/2010/03/09/mcaleeses-gallipoli-visit-wins-praise-from-australia/2194/comment-page-1#comment-388 iorarua Mon, 15 Mar 2010 20:41:30 +0000 http://www.irishecho.com.au/?p=2194#comment-388 President McAleese’s Gallipoli gesture may well be ‘reconciling the two [Irish] narratives, as Jeff Kaldea claims, but I suspect it has a lot more to do with the imperial realpolitik of being a 21st century European nation. Also, if it’s a good thing to ‘reconcile [Ireland’s] two narratives’ about World War I, then why haven’t we done the same in Australia? Somehow, I can’t ever see Quentin Bryce ‘commemorating’ the defeat of Australia’s WWI conscription referendums, which successfully prevented tens of thousands more young Australians being sent to the killing fields of Europe against their will. Nor can I ever see Kevin Rudd saying ‘sorry’ for the mass persecutions, jailings and deportations of dissenters under the draconian WWI War Precautions Act. Nor can I ever see any Murdoch or Fairfax journalists acknowledging that Australians protested the war in Europe every bit as much as, indeed even more than, the Vietnam War 50 years later. President McAleese’s Gallipoli gesture may well be ‘reconciling the two [Irish] narratives, as Jeff Kaldea claims, but I suspect it has a lot more to do with the imperial realpolitik of being a 21st century European nation.

Also, if it’s a good thing to ‘reconcile [Ireland’s] two narratives’ about World War I, then why haven’t we done the same in Australia?

Somehow, I can’t ever see Quentin Bryce ‘commemorating’ the defeat of Australia’s WWI conscription referendums, which successfully prevented tens of thousands more young Australians being sent to the killing fields of Europe against their will. Nor can I ever see Kevin Rudd saying ‘sorry’ for the mass persecutions, jailings and deportations of dissenters under the draconian WWI War Precautions Act. Nor can I ever see any Murdoch or Fairfax journalists acknowledging that Australians protested the war in Europe every bit as much as, indeed even more than, the Vietnam War 50 years later.

]]>