IRISH Ambassador Dan Mulhall was among the special guests who marked the centenary of the Battle of Gallipoli in Coventry over the weekend.
On Sunday they gathered for the special Echoes of 1915: The Munster Fusiliers and Gallipoli Remembered event, which was held at The Albany Pub in Earlsdon as part of the Earlsdon Festival.
There they paid tribute to the 1,000 soldiers who were killed in the horrific Gallipoli Campaign of World War I, which took place on April 25, 1915.
Organisers planned the event to honour the particular contribution of Irish soldiers to the campaign, many of whom were signed up the British Army’s 1st Battalion Royal Munster Fusiliers.
Before taking part in the landings at Gallipoli in 1915, those Irish soldiers had spent two happy months in Coventry as they trained with the 86th Fusilier Brigade of the 29th Division of the British Army.
Their time in the area saw them lodging with local families in Coventry between January and March of that year, before setting off to war.
As part of the celebrations in Coventry on Sunday The Albany was transformed into a ‘soldiers room’ and presentations made 100 years previously were re-enacted by members of the Coventry Irish association, with help from Ambassador Mulhall.
Pupils from the nearby Hearsall Community Primary School were also among the guests, with the school choir providing some added entertainment on the day.
See this week’s Irish Post for full coverage of the event
