AN P N  E I AN N   A A   H  T A O

Classical scholars may be few and far between among islanders and holiday makers on Coll, but no one visiting Cill Ionnaig can fail to notice the Greek inscription on one of the war graves there. This is the memorial of a young Greek scullion who perished on the Andorra Star in 1941. Translated, it reads: The whole world is the tomb of famous men.

The quotation is from a renowned funeral oration (Thucydides Bk II. 43) spoken by the great leader Pericles for those Athenians who fell in the Peloponnesian Wars, and so pays high honour to the very young man whose final resting place is on Coll. (We are indebted for this translation to Dr George McLennan who contributes our Gaelic article.)

FMR