THIS week’s article about Irish peacekeeping troops is told by a former soldier.
Irish soldiers are back on peacekeeping duties in Lebanon.
The first 200 left Dublin on 23 June 2011, returning to their old headquarters in Camp Shamrock, Tibnin, which was HQ from May 1978 to March 2001.
It is located in the mountains overlooking Tyre, known as the Tyre pocket.
It was a PLO stronghold, although the military barracks in the town was manned by UN troops, including an Irish detachment.
Tyre is half way from Tibnin to the capital Beirut, approximately 100 kilometres. It was as desolate and as barren as the side of any mountain here at home.
We covered the Congo Mission some time ago, where Irish soldiers died to establish peace.
Today, the Democratic Republic of the Congo is probably more dangerous than when our first troops set foot there on 28 July 1960, and where 26 of them lost their lives. Law and order, which had been established under UN supervision, is gone.
Tribal warfare, killing, rape and whatever else you care to mention, are rife.
Was this mission a success?
Perhaps to a certain extent, but only for a short while.
The initial landing of the 32nd Battalion would be joined by the 33rd Batt a month later. Both would be replaced by the 34th Batt in January 1961.
The other units to serve in the Congo were the 1st Infantry Group, followed by the 35th, 36th and 37th Battalions, 2nd Armoured Car Squadron, 38th Batt and 3rd Armoured Car Squadron, 39th Batt.
The final group was the 2nd Infantry Group, which completed Ireland’s participation in the Congo when they returned home in June 1964.
The first group to take up duty in Cyprus was the 40th Infantry Battalion, which arrived there in April 1964.
And Ireland would have a military presence there until December 1973, when the 25th Infantry Group was moved to the Sinai Desert in Egypt as part of the United Nations Emergency Force (UNEF 11) to supervise the ceasefire between Egypt and Israel following the Yom Kippur War. Irish troops were the first UN soldiers to cross the Suez Canal in order to ensure both sides pulled back to pre-war positions.
The 26th Infantry Group relieved the 25th in April 1974.
This contingent was withdrawn from UN service and brought home, following the UVF bombings in Dublin and Monaghan, which took place on 17 May of that year.
Today, Cyprus is still a divided nation, with Turkey occupying half the island, while the UN still has a presence in the remainder.
Before all this, the first Irish soldiers to serve on a UN mission took place in 1958 when a small group of officers was sent as observers to Lebanon.
It was also to Lebanon that Irish troops would return to UN duty for the first time since the Dublin bombings, when a full battalion of 600 men travelled as part of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL).
A further 100 would join the force’s HQ at Naqoura, just inside the Israeli border at Rosh Hanikra. Naqoura town is about two kilometres from the UNIFIL headquarters and has a population of just over 20,000.
The 43rd Battalion’s first trip took place in May 1978, flying in through Tel Aviv, Israel and transported by French troops through that country, across the border into Lebanon and on up the mountains to Tibnin.
The first rotation took place in November 1978 through Tel Aviv, when the 44th went in and the 43rd flew home from Ben Gurion.
This, however, would not be the case with the next rotation – I will come to that shortly. First, let me describe briefly the conditions at this time in the Irish camp. I will just mention I served with the 44th.
Camp Shamrock was at the top end of Tibnin village. Most infrastructure had been destroyed during the Israeli invasion and roads were barely passable.
The maintenance company at the time were from Norway and they were camped in nice prefabs on the opposite side of the road to Shamrock, which was a tented base.
Our headquarters and communications centre was a few hundred yards from the camp; other parts of HQ Company were housed in other areas of Tibnin. Shamrock was set up on a hill, and the further down the hill you were, the more problems you had, especially when it rained, which was like a deluge.
We were sleeping on … let me describe it as a stretcher you used to carry footballers off the pitch following an injury.
We tried to hang our gear under the flaps of the tents, but when it rained, the water flowed like a torrent through the tents, bringing with it the horrible red soil prevalent in the area, which stuck like glue to everything.
Two months into our tour, it was agreed this camp was uninhabitable.
A number of vacant houses in the village were acquired for various purposes, while the main body of troops took up residence in Tibnin Hospital which, at that time, was only using the ground floor for patients, so the Irish were camped in the rest of the building.
This was like Heaven compared to what we left. I will not go into the toilet facilities or even shower or washing … but water was hauled by truck from Israel, so I leave it to your imagination to figure the rest, and we barely had enough for personal hygiene.
Food in Lebanon was pretty good.
The cooks did a tremendous job as they generally do on overseas’ missions.
We had a mess in which we could have a drink between 8am and 10pm. One thing about overseas service: no-one, but no-one, doubts the fact that they are in a war zone, which is highly dangerous, so no soldier of any rank can afford to lose his alertness; he has to be aware of the dangers surrounding the mission, and few, if any, ever forget that.
Our mission was to stop the Israeli-backed Christian militia, commanded by Major Said Haddad (now deceased), from infiltrating Palestinian lines and vice-versa with the PLO.
At this stage, the Lebanese army was absent from the UNIFIL area of operation.
Neither side had any hesitation firing into peacekeepers’ positions, though mostly they avoided the camps where companies were based.
That being said, 47 Irish soldiers were killed during this mission.
Communications were essential and part of my job.
When we took over from the 43rd, a lot of spadework had been completed and telephone lines were in place between companies based in the Irish area of operations, including Shaqra, Haddatah, and other Irish camps and outposts.
Most of these lines were hung on electricity pylons and were only troublesome when shot out by the militia.
Then they became dangerous because most of the pylons and cabling had been damaged during the Israeli invasion.
The repairs were carried out by signal platoon members. Luckily, we could travel by Land Rover on these repair missions and throw a metal object at the pylons, between which the cables were damaged.
When we found live ones, we just earthed them, but on occasions, this was not enough and we were thrown into the air as we climbed them to carry out repairs.
The line to Brashit ran on the ground to the company HQ because there was no alternative. This was an everyday repair mission. It was also the most dangerous.
We had to travel six miles through a wadi (valley or dry river bed) on foot. The repair team consisted of five members, including an EO (explosive ordnance) expert, who would destroy the numerous cluster bombs in our path.
It seemed that no matter how many were destroyed, there were always hundreds more. The other members of the team incorporated an armed NCO in charge (myself), and the rest were searchers looking for the breaks and repairing them. Another danger moving through the wadis were snakes, which were plentiful and dangerous and would often cross our paths.
I have just highlighted the dangers of one group of Irish soldiers. UN soldiering is neither a holiday nor a picnic; it is a very serious business indeed, and one that demands the soldier be on his guard 24/7.
You will find few who will talk of their experiences and that is the correct attitude.
Israel would not allow our rotation with the 45th through Tel Aviv; this was completed via Beirut airport on the day that Israeli troops entered Shaqra, but was held up by the remaining Irish and withdrew.
Can I finish by wishing members of the present mission the very best and a safe return to their homeland and loved ones.