I was saddened to hear that Charlie Bird, the former RTE journalist, has been diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease and I thought back to an encounter I had with him some twenty six years ago in the town of Shaqra in South Lebanon. In 1995, Shaqra was the second most important town in the Irish…
ONUC – Operation Unokat 5 – 20 December 1961 INTRODUCTION This is the first of three articles to cover the fighting in Elisabethville during Dec 1961 where battle casualties for 35 Inf Bn and 36 Inf Bn amounted to 4 Killed and 32 Wounded. The breakdown of the figures are: 35 Inf Bn had 7…
Patrick Eugene Watters formerly of Crossmaglen, County Armagh joined the Irish Defence Forces in March 1960. Corporal Watters served with the 5th Infantry Battalion (Dublin) and remained in service until resigning from the Army reserves in March 1965. During his military career he took part in overseas duty during two of the United Nations (ONUC)…
On 24 Dec, the UN Secretary General, António Guterres announced the appointment of Maj Gen Michael Beary DSM (Retd) as Head of the United Nations Mission to Support the Hudaydah Agreement (UNMHA) in Yemen and Chair of the Redeployment Coordination Committee. Maj Gen Beary succeeds Lt Gen Abhijit Guha (Retd) of India. Maj Gen Michael…
This article tells of the death twelve years ago on this day of Andrew Grene who was a senior UN civilian staff member with the UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti. On 12 Jan 2010, a catastrophic earthquake with a magnitude of 7.2 hit an area twenty five kilometres southwest of the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince…
In this article we look at the killing of Trooper Edward Gaffney, C Company 35 Infantry Battalion in action during Operation Morthor and the first Irish personnel who were captured by the Gendarmerie Trooper Edward Gaffney Today we remember the 60th anniversary of the death of Trooper Edward Gaffney, C Company, 35 Infantry Battalion…
On 10 Jan 1987, Cpl Dermot McLoughlin was killed while serving with C Coy, 60 Inf Bn UNIFIL when a UN position in Brashit village (also spelt Baraachit) was hit by three rounds of tank fire fired by the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) from Brashit compound, known as Charlie Compound. The IDF commenced firing from…
In this article we remember the killing of 28 year old Sean Devereaux on 2 Jan 1993 while working for the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) in Somalia. It serves to remind us of the dangers faced by civilian UN personnel in conflict zones. Sean Devereux was born on 25 Nov 1964 to…
When I first read of John Gorman’s story, it was in disbelief and with a heavy heart. When I met John a few weeks ago that disbelief turned to awe and admiration as in front of me sat a gentle and humble man who has spent a lifetime fighting for his friends and his colleagues…
IRISH UN VETERANS HONOURED IN KILLARNEY JUNE 4th 2019 Minister for Defence Paul Kehoe pictured after accepting the Mons Hugh O’Flaherty Humanitarian Award 2019 on behalf of the Defence Forces in St. Mary’s Church of Ireland, Killarney on Tuesday evening. Also in photo are Mayor of Killarney Niall Kelleher, Jim Casey, Chairman, IUNVA, Major General…
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