President pays tribute to fallen Irish at Gallipoli

President Mary Mc Aleese has paid tribute to more than 4,000 Irish men who lost their lives fighting for the British Army at Gallipoli.

The President is visiting the site today while on a state trip to Turkey in what is being seen as the first official recognition of the huge loss of Irish lives in the first World War.

Mary McAleese has said those who fought in the British Army overseas were diminished in the national consciousness as back at home the War of Independence against the British Empire had begun in their absence.

She said the war tested allegiances and identities leaving a legacy of fracture and fragmentation that Ireland is only now beginning to come to terms with.