The cost of the Gallipoli campaign in terms of human life was enormous, with the estimated loss through action or diseases contracted while on the peninsula being around 130,000. Within that total are approximately 4,000 Irish men who never returned home but their sacrifice until recent years largely went unnoticed.

In Ireland the Gallipoli sacrifice was largely forgotten in the wake of the political changes on the island brought about by the 1916 Easter Rising and the ensuing revolutionary period. The geographical, political and religious makeup of the 10th (Irish) Division did nothing to help this amnesia. In Gallipoli the legacy of the campaign is very clear and the landscape still bears the scars. The Helles Memorial and the 44 cemeteries in Gallipoli like on the Western Front honour the dead of all the nations that fought there. The Irish soldiers are remembered at various sites across Gallipoli, with the cemetery at V Beach listing the names of the majority of Irishmen who died.

In March 2010 the Somme Association achieved one of its aims by unveiling a new Memorial in Gallipoli, to commemorate the contribution made by the 10th (Irish) Division in that campaign. Services were held, attended by HRH The Duke of Gloucester and HE Mary McAleese, The President of Ireland along with representatives from throughout Ireland and members of the Royal Irish Regiment. So it is a fitting tribute to the sacrifice these men made for our freedom, that on the 100th Anniversary of the Gallipoli campaign that we made a pilgrimage back to Gallipoli to carry on the legacy.

On the 6th October 2015, a Service of Commemoration was held by the Somme Association, at Green Hill Cemetery attended by our President HRH The Duke of Gloucester, KG, GCVO, Irish Minister of State, Mr. Aodhan O'Riordan, TD, His Excellency Mr Richard Moore, British Ambassador to Turkey, His Excellency Mr Brendan Ward, Irish Ambassador to Turkey, Governor of Canakkale, Hamza Erkal, Naval and Air Attaché, Wing Commodore Bryan Hunt, David Campbell, CBE, Honorary Consul, Turkey and the Commanding Officer of the 2nd Battalion The Royal Irish Regiment.