By Robert Service
In 1898, one hundred and fifty thousand men and women set off for the Yukon territories in search of freedom and gold. They created a city in the snow that supported opera houses, theatres and countless saloons and bordellos. In just 3 years an amount equivalent to €50bn passed through their hands. They lived a short life of extraordinary opulence and hardship, and by 1904 their community had ceased to exist.
Robert Service witnessed this phenomenon and rendered it vividly in song, songs which Gerry Conneely now uses to weave a tale of wonder and romance.
