We were fools to follow the British line and that’s why we ended up in Gallipoli

IN his response to my article on Gallipoli (March 23), Mark Cronin (Letters, March 25) reveals that the propaganda constructed to justify England’s invasion of Mesopotamia and Turkey during 1914/15 has done its job well in Ireland to this day.

To get to the point, Mr Cronin claims that, firstly, Turkey voluntarily and willingly entered the Great War on Germany’s side and, secondly, that Britain actually desired Turkish neutrality in that war.

Of course, these two assertions were commonplace in British publications and statements during the Great War and they formed the “official line”.