The highs and lows of peackeeping duties recalled by local veterans

Even though they are the first to admit that it “wasn't all plain sailing” on United Nations overseas peacekeeping duties, last week's vote of the UN Security Council to bring the peacekeeping operation in the Lebanon to an end next year has been greeted with sadness and shock by local members of the Defence Forces who have a distinguished record of overseas duty.

READ MORE: UN mission in Lebanon to end by 2027

Six members of the Irish United Nations Veterans Association (IUNVA) at the Post 9 Athlone branch of the association reflected on their experiences serving on overseas peacekeeping missions when they sat down to talk to the Westmeath Independent earlier this week.

All six were young members of the Irish Defence Forces stationed at Custume Barracks in Athlone and, in the case of Martin Flanagan from Priory Park, who joined the army in 1962 as a fresh-faced 17 year old and found himself being sent to the Congo two years later, he recalls how he “didn't have a choice” as to whether he wanted to go overseas or not - “In those days you didn't volunteer, you were just told you were going and that was the end of it,” he recalls.

Martin went on to complete four more overseas missions to Cyprus, and even though conditions were often tough and there was nothing glamorous or luxurious about his role as a peacekeeper with the United Nations he said he was “very proud” to represent his country overseas. “It was, and still is, a very proud tradition in the Irish Defence Forces,” he says.

“I think the Defence Forces will just fall asunder if the overseas missions are ended,” says Martin, “because they were always a very big incentive for people joining the army, so where is the incentive now? As well as giving young Defence Forces personnel an opportunity to earn extra money to perhaps secure a mortgage, overseas duty also presented soldiers with the opportunity to travel in the Middle East and experience a completely different culture."

“Very few Defence Forces personnel would ever turn down the opportunity to serve overseas,” says Jack McKervey from St. Francis Terrace, who completed six overseas peacekeeping missions with UNIFIL, two to Cyprus and four to Lebanon. He is the current secretary of the Post 9 Athlone branch of IUNVA, which has up to 50 local members, about half of whom are active.

IUNVA was founded in Dublin in 1989 by serving and retired members of the Defence Forces who felt the interests of veterans that had served their country overseas and contributed significantly to world peace were not being adequately represented. Members attend meetings locally every second month and they also provide military honours at the funerals of deceased members who have served overseas, at the request of their next-of-kin.

“Most families with a loved one who served overseas would request us to honour them at their funeral,” says Seamus Brennan from Knockcroghery, who completed one round of peacekeeping duties in Lebanon. He says it is “a very important part” of the work of IUNVA members at all their posts throughout the country. The former peacekeepers wear their distinctive pale blue UNIFIL berets for all official duties.

Jack McKervey feels the decision to bring to an end the peacekeeping mission to Lebanon is “a political one” which he believes was orchestrated mainly by US President Donald Trump, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He is adamant that it will make the Middle East and the wider world “a far more dangerous place” as there will be no international organisation to keep the brakes

on Israel's ambitions to secure more territory in neighbouring Lebanon.

“The UN always kept a very close eye on what was happening in Lebanon, and knew every move that Israel made in the region,” he points out, “so if they withdraw from the area, who is going to protect the civilian population?”

Jack says the Irish peacekeepers always enjoyed “a very good relationship” with the civilian population in South Lebanon, and were always “highly respected” for their work in protecting the areas. “Some of the children even have Irish accents due to their constant exposure to the Irish troops,” he laughs

Paul Cooley from Auburn Heights, who has a total of eight overseas peacekeeping missions under his belt, six to Lebanon and one each to Sinai and Cyprus, believes Israel wants the UN “out of Lebanon” and adds that it is the “local people who will suffer most” as a result of the withdrawal of international peacekeepers. “They will be totally exposed as the only ones looking after them are UNIFIL,” he says. Paul has the distinction of serving with the very first batch of Defence Force personnel from Custume Barracks to travel to Lebanon on the very first peacekeeping mission to Lebanon 47 years ago.

Conditions for peacekeeping troops overseas are now “a very far cry” from what they were back when the Athlone members of IUNVA embarked on their tours of duty. In fact, John Kenny says he cannot “look at a fly to this very day” after his experience as a young soldier in Lebanon. “We were always hungry and there was very little food, so if you got a plate of food that was covered in flies, and more often than not that was the case, you'd have no choice but to eat it or go hungry,” he says.

John says he met a fellow veteran recently that he hadn't seen in many years and their whole conversation revolved around “the flies in Lebanon”. The sanitary conditions for soldiers, coupled with the intense heat, also considerably boosted the fly population. “If even one fly came into my kitchen in Athlone now, I would have to kill it or I couldn't stay in the kitchen,” says John Kenny.

John can also recall a time when the food in the Irish camp was so scarce during a mission in 1979 that he was forced to “divide a hard-boiled egg” with other soldiers one morning for breakfast!

Other veterans recall the “overwhelming power” that some of their commanding offers exerted over the young soldiers in their charge, and of how this made life “extremely difficult” for those who were already battling homesickness while trying to settle into an environment that was completely alien to them.

Letters from home were always a time for celebration at the Irish UNIFIL base in South Lebanon, which is known as 'Camp Shamrock' and John Kenny can recall “grown men crying” when they didn't receive a letter. “This was pre-mobile phones, and pre the internet era, so we hadn't a clue what was going on at home until we got a letter,” he says, adding that he never realised how much a letter mean until he went overseas with the Defence Forces.

Tommy Evans from Canal Walk in Athlone, who served on two missions to Lebanon, can recall how no letters came to the camp for three months during unrest in the early 1990s and how “not a single person” would be on the streets from around 6pm in the evening until the early hours of the next day. “Comradeship was very important and was a big aspect of serving overseas, we were all there to support each other and you'd never forget the people that you served with,” he says.