A soldier who ran to assist an injured colleague under heavy fire in Lebanon has become the eighth member of the Defence Forces to be presented with the military medal for gallantry, reports Jim Cusack, Security Correspondent.

The award, to Plc Paul Coventry, the highest for an act of valour in peace time, arose from an incident in the village of Al Jurn in south Lebanon in September 1992, in which one of his colleagues, Plc Peter Ward, was shot dead, and another, Pte Niall Coleman, was badly injured.

The medal was presented at a ceremony in O'Neill Barracks in Cavan where Plc Coventry, a native of Ballymun, Dublin, is stationed.

Seven of the eight medals for military gallantry have been won by soldiers on duty with the UN. The other was won by a soldier who confronted a group of IRA men during an attempted mass break-out from Portlaoise Prison.