By PRO IUNVA On Monday 10 Jun 1968, Cpl James Fagan (28) Armd Car Gp 10 Inf Gp was killed in a road traffic accident at Pano Zodia, Cyprus. He was taken to the mining company hospital at Pendayia, Xeros where he died after five hours. He was the 33rd member of the DF to…

By PRO IUNVA This article tells of the killing of Comdt Thomas P Wickham, an unarmed UN observer who was shot dead fifty five years ago on 7 Jun 1967 during the Six Day War (5 – 10 Jun 1967). Comdt Thomas P Wickham (48) was a native of Dublin and he joined the DF…

From PRO IUNVA At 0504 hours of Monday 31 May 1999, Pte William (Billy) Kedian (21), C Coy, 85 Inf Bn was killed by shrapnel when an 81 mm mortar round exploded in post 6-42 Brashit. Two mortar rounds had been fired from the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) and De Facto Forces (DFF) Compound W144….

PRO IUNVA  On Saturday 31 May 1980 Sgt Edward (Ted) Yeates, A Coy, 47 Inf Bn UNIFIL died when the Panhard APC he was travelling in overturned. He was the patrol commander and he was in the turret when the accident happened. The vehicle patrol was returning to Coy HQ at Brashit (6-16) from the…

From PRO IUNVA On Sunday 21 May 1989, Sgt Charles Forrester, died in his sleep from natural causes at Al Yatun, South Lebanon while serving with Recce Coy, 65 Inf Bn, UNIFIL. He was the 31st DF member to die while serving with UNIFIL. His home unit was the 2 FA Regt, McKee Bks, Dublin,…

Lt Col Thomas (Tom) Stapleton (Retd) died from natural causes while he was serving as a civilian UN staff member with the United Nations Mission of Support in East Timor (UNMISET) on 27 May 2004. He was undergoing medical treatment in Ireland when he died surrounded by his family, his wife Margaret, children Noni, Peter…

by PRO IUNVAOn 28 Apr 1995, Gda Sgt Paul Michael Reid (39) started a one year tour of duty with the United Nations Protection Force (UNPROFOR) in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. On Thursday night, 18 May, he and a colleague, Gda Philip Carr, were travelling in a UN jeep from Sarajevo Airport to their base…

By PRO IUNVAOn 9 May 1962, Capt Ronald McCann died from injuries suffered in a road traffic accident while he was serving with Opération des Nations Unies au Congo (ONUC) in the Congo. He was the twenty fourth of twenty eight members of the DF to die during Ireland’s first armed UN mission. Capt Ronald…

From PRO IUNVAIn Apr 1981, 48 Inf Bn was directed by UNIFIL HQ to establish a new Observation Post 6-22D west of Dyar Ntar village in South Lebanon, 6-22D was opened on 10 Apr. The OP was about 1.5 Km from Post 6-22 by road and from there it was accessible only on foot by…

By PRO IUNVA This article tells the story of how two Irish peacekeepers, Pte Thomas Barrett and Pte Patrick Derek Smallhorne were murdered in south Lebanon forty two years ago. It was forty years before the killer was brought to justice and this took a protracted campaign by military veterans and the two families. The…