GERRY O'SULLIVAN:LIEUT GEN Gerry O'Sullivan, who has died aged 87, was a former chief of staff of the Defence Forces. He dedicated his entire career to the Army, and was a veteran of six separate United Nations missions.
Born in Dublin in 1923, he was the son of a Garda superintendent. After secondary school in Synge Street CBS he secured a place in the Army cadet school in 1941. Commissioned in 1943, he initially served with the Eastern Command and at Army headquarters.
In 1961 he went to the Congo as a captain. There he acted as liaison officer between the Irish contingent and UN HQ. For three months he acted as aide de camp to the Irish commander of the UN force Gen Seán McKeown.
Returning to HQ in Ireland in 1962 he served in a variety of staff capacities for eight years, interrupted by a six-month tour of duty in Cyprus in 1965. He returned to the island in 1970 as liaison officer at UN HQ with the Greek-Cypriot National Guard, a high-level posting in a delicate situation.
Back in Dublin in 1971 he found a changed situation. “The 1969 flare-up had caused a big upheaval. We had been rather run down and had to improvise and make do when required to secure the Border and deal with a refugee inflow. Once we were given the resources we quickly got to grips with the problem.”
In 1974 he was again in Cyprus, facing a much bigger refugee problem after the Turkish invasion. “Tens of thousands of people had been displaced by a sudden escalation in hostilities. I had to start from scratch, albeit with resources and an excellent staff . . . The whole experience gave me a consciousness of the terrible effects of war on civilians.”
His first command appointment was of the Second Infantry Battalion in November 1976.
In 1977 the UN appointed him military adviser to the Anglo-American mission to Rhodesia led by David Owen and Cyrus Vance, and he toured the “frontline” states with Gen Prem Shand. He met the key players – Ian Smith, Robert Mugabe and Joshua Nkomo – during the protracted negotiations, which in 1978 came within an ace of a successful conclusion at Malta. However, he saw the mission as a worthwhile endeavour that prepared the ground for the agreement that was eventually reached in London in 1980, giving birth to independent Zimbabwe.
He returned to Ireland as executive officer to Eastern Command in 1978. Two years later he was promoted to colonel and was reunited with Prem Chand, this time in Namibia. He believed that members of the Defence Forces were chosen for UN missions, not for reasons of history or neutrality but because of their international reputation as first-class soldiers.
In 1980 he was promoted to brigadier general on his appointment as general officer commanding Eastern Command, following postings to the FCA and the planning and research section.
Promoted to chief of staff in 1984, he was asked in an interview for The Irish Times if the Army was primarily oriented to security operations. He agreed that was where the emphasis then lay.
But he added: “We respond to situations as they arise and will not gear ourselves so completely to handling one set of circumstances that we would be hamstrung if required to do something else.” He was confident that the Army could cope with a range of scenarios, saying that it put “more emphasis on education and training than any comparable organisation”.
His interviewer came away with the impression of a “soldier’s soldier – a hard-working thorough-going professional”.
As well as medals for service in the Congo and Cyprus, he held a Distinguished Service Medal for his Cyprus service as economic officer. He was further honoured by the Belgian and French governments and by the king of Sweden. Most recently, in 2006, he was decorated by the Cypriot government for humanitarian services.
He retired in 1986. He subsequently served on a commission established by the government to examine pay and conditions in the Defence Forces.
He is survived by his wife Philomena and son David, who is director general of the European Commission’s trade directorate.
Gerald (Gerry) O’Sullivan: born February 10th, 1923; died June 16th, 2010