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An Irishman killed fighting in Ukraine had joined the United States Marine Corps immediately after the terrorist attacks in the US on September 11th, 2001.
He went on to serve for seven years, including in Iraq.
Graham Dale (45), from Raheny, north Dublin, was killed in Ukraine last Friday, though precisely details of the circumstances in which he died are yet to be confirmed.
It is understood he had travelled to Ukraine shortly after the Russian invasion last year and went on to join the Ukrainian army.
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News of his death, which is believed to have occurred during fighting with Russian forces, has only just emerged, with the Department of Foreign Affairs confirming it was aware of an Irishman’s death in Ukraine and was also providing consular assistance to his family.
“The Department of Foreign Affairs is aware of the case and providing consular assistance,” a spokesman said. “As with all consular cases, the department does not comment on the details of individual cases.”
Mr Dale wrote a book about his time in the US Marine Corps, The Green Marine: an Irishman’s War in Iraq. He was a former member of the Fórsa Cosanta Áitiúil (FCA) in the Republic and was also a volunteer firefighter in the US, after emigrating there 23 years ago.
“I couldn’t sit by on the sidelines and watch these terrible events unfold like it was a daytime TV drama,” he told The Irish Times in 2008 of his motivation for joining another country’s military. “We were under attack and I felt it was my duty to step up to the plate, roll up my sleeves and fight to defend a way of life that was now mine.”
Mr Dale had arrived in the US in 2000 and settled in Texas, where he worked as a software consultant for IBM. However, after joining the US military the following year, he was eventually posted to Iraq as a marine reserve mortarman in August 2004.
He revealed he had seen colleagues killed, trying to revive them, and was treated for post-traumatic stress disorder after returning to live in Texas when he returned from Iraq in 2005. His condition was brought about after his platoon was targeted by a suicide bomber in Iraq in January 2005.
“There have been changes to my personality. I can’t stand crowded places, or loud sudden noises,” he said in 2008. “And I hate driving – I just can’t relax, I’m always looking all around me. I expect that will be with me for the rest of my life.”
His book, which he wrote with journalist Neil Fetherstonhaugh, was based on a lengthy journal he kept while deployed in the western desert in Iraq and was published by Hachette Ireland in 2009.
A friend of Mr Dale’s took to social media to share the news of his death while serving for the Ukrainian Armed Forces, saying she did so “with a heavy heart”.
“If you knew Graham, you might already be aware that, when the conflict in Ukraine began, he flew over to offer his assistance. He eventually joined the Ukrainian army and tragically lost his life on Friday, December 8th,” she said.
“He left this earth exactly the way he wanted to. His remains are being transported back to his homeland in Ireland. He was the cigarette-smoking, Busch Light-loving marathon runner. The world traveller. The one that couldn’t ask for help for himself so he searched for ways to aid others. Graham was not just a friend; he was a brother and a protector.”
Mr Dale is the latest Irishman to lose his life fighting for Ukraine against the Russian army.
Finbar Cafferkey (45), from Achill Island, was killed while fighting in eastern Ukraine in April. He was a military volunteer with previous combat experience in Syria where he assisted Kurdish militia in their battle against Islamic State.
Rory Mason (23), from Dunboyne, Co Meath, was killed in September 2022 while fighting in the International Legion for the Defence of Ukraine as a serviceman of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the Kharkiv region.
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