Serving at home and overseas

Athlone resident Pat McCrossan has become enshrined in the community, and particularly the military community, since he moved to the town almost 50 years ago. He had a long career with the Defence Forces which saw him complete almost a dozen overseas tour of duty, including a number of tours to Lebanon with Pat being kidnapped for seven hours on one trip. Despite his retirement, Pat's connection with the military in Athlone continues to this day and for the past seven years he has been Chairman of Athlone ONET. Pat has been resident in Athlone for almost 50 years, and with his wife, Chris, has raised a family of six children. He began life in Donnyloop, which is a rural part of Co. Donegal. "The nearest village to us in Donegal was Castlefin, and it was the middle of the country then, and an all farming area, and there was no army in the family, except for some uncles of mine who were in the British army during the First World War," said Pat. Pat was one of eight siblings in the family, and one of his brothers, Eugene also became a member of the Defence Forces, although he too is now retired from Custume Barracks. There was little employment for young people in Donegal in the 1950s, and at 13 years of age Pat went to Scotland to pick potatoes and he worked in many different locations there. "There was nothing else here, and I was getting six or seven pounds a week in Scotland and I slept in the farms and was well fed with plenty of the spuds that I was picking," said Pat laughing today. "I did enjoy the time there, but it was a hard life." Pat spent five years in Scotland, and then returned home to work on a large farm in his native Donnyloop in 1961. However he was still young, and wanted to see more of life. "I was ploughing a 20 acre field with a tractor, and said to myself, 'There must be something better in life, than this,'," said Pat. "I walked to Castlefin, and got on a bus to Athlone, to join the army. There were about 15 other lads on the bus intending to join up that day. There were hundreds joining the army then." Although he had been around rural Scotland in the late 50s, Athlone town appeared large, and like a city to Pat when he joined the army in Custume Barracks in 1962. He was just one month in the army when he heard that his father had died in Donnyloop at the young age of 52 years. Pat had previously lost his mother, at the young age of 38 years. A year after joining the army, Pat went on his first tour of duty to the Congo as part of the 39th Battallion. Pat, who is a redhead, wasn't impressed with the sun either at home or abroad and avoided it as best he could. "I wouldn't stay out in the sun, because I don't really like it," he said laughing. "But at night in the Congo, it got really cold, and we had to light a little fire to stay warm." When Pat went to the Congo, it had been after the Niemba massacre and Jadotville incident, and most of the troubles had died down, except for some skirmishes here and there. Then later in the 1960s, he travelled with the army to Cyprus on a further UN tour. Back in Ireland, Pat was stationed in Finner Camp, Donegal, for a period during the troubles, and had to divide his time between there and with his now growing family in Athlone. He was on army duty in many of the work strikes that took place in the republic, including on one of the postal strikes of the 1970s. Pat went again to Cyprus in 1972, and later in that decade, Lebanon UN tours started, and Pat did six trips to that country. "It was dodgy enough there, and there was incidents happening every day of the week, and I was kidnapped at gunpoint, and held for seven hours by the South Lebanese Army, before being released, and that was my first trip to Lebanon," said Pat laughing. "They had the idea, I suppose, that we shouldn't be going around carrying weapons. The last time I went to Lebanon was in 1991, in the middle of the Gulf War, and I saw the firing of scuds into Israel." Pat was promoted to the rank of sergeant in Custume Barracks and he held that role until his retirement in 1996. Pat and Chris's two sons, Clive and Brian are now serving members of the Defence Forces in Athlone, and one of their nine grandchildren, David Turner, is also training as a recruit. Pat and Chris have four daughters - Wendy, Karen, Tracy and Nicola. Pat joined the Organisation of National Ex-Servicemen and Women (ONET) shortly after retiring from the army. ONET is a limited company with charitable status that looks after the welfare of ex-service personnel of the Defence Forces. The main objective of ONET is to provide accommodation to homeless, elderly or disabled members in need of such, and any other assistance that may be required. They also promote a spirit of comradeship between serving and retired members, as well as providing information about entitlements. Membership of ONET is open to people who have served in the Defence Forces, FCA, Irish Red Cross or Civil Defence, providing they have had at least one year service, and been honourably discharged. Pat has been a member of ONET for almost 15 years, and over the past seven years, he has been considered a popular Chairman of the Athlone branch. "I'm very proud of the work we have done in ONET, locally, particularly the opening of Custume House on the Dublin Road, and we help out our own members as much as we can," said Pat. "We were trying for many years to acquire the house and to make use of it, and it was the former residence of the General Officer Commanding of the Western Brigade (GOC), and it was lying idle out there on the Dublin Road. It is working well now, with house manager, Aidan Byrne, and we have a few residents there." ONET has other such houses for homeless ex-soldiers in other parts of the country, most notably Bru na bhFiann in Smithfield, Dublin, and houses in Letterkenny and Limerick. ONET holds a successful flag day in Athlone every summer, and also sells their little badge in a few shops around the town. Five of the local members travel to a national golf classic in the Curragh each year, as part of the fundraising. Pat does caddy in the golf tournament alongside other members, Seamus Furey, John McManus, Paddy Costello and Colm Shine. "We have had two successful conventions in Athlone over the past 20 years, which brought hundreds of people to the town for a weekend," said Pat. "Our last convention here in 2007 was a great one, and it was the first time the Army got involved in marching with ONET. The members and the army marched from Custume Barracks to Ss Peter and Paul's Church." Pat and Athlone ONET broke new ground in recent times when members of the group paid tribute to those killed in world wars by laying a wreath in Cornamagh Cemetery. ONET laid the wreath at the Drummer Flinn monument, and each member wore a poppy during the short ceremony. Rain fell very heavily on the morning of November 11, but the nine ex-soldiers and lone piper, Les Kiernan were lucky, in that the rain held off during the ten minute ceremony, which began at 11am. The timing of the ceremony (eleventh hour, eleventh day, eleventh month) signified the time when hostilities ceased on the western front of World War 1 in 1918. "I've enjoyed being in the chair of ONET for the past seven years, but I miss a lot of our members who have passed on, like Paddy Woods, Mick McDonagh, Danny Martin and Mossy Burke, and sadly many others," said Pat. "I have spent more than 50 years involved in the Defence Forces in different ways, and I particularly enjoyed every day of my 35 years in Custume Barracks and am very proud of my time there and of the great work of all my comrades."