Colonel praised as a peacemaker of distinction

FORMER MILITARY and foreign affairs analyst Col Edward Daly (Ned) Doyle combined the virtues of “the strong and the gentle” and was a “cool head in a time of crisis” mourners were told at his funeral in Dublin yesterday.

“He lived and worked for justice and for fair play and still he was gentle, humble, warm-hearted, obliging and very approachable,” said Fr John Wall, parish priest of the Church of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Clondalkin.

Col Doyle, who became Army director of signals and subsequently military correspondent of The Irish Times, was the first private in the Defence Forces to rise to the rank of full colonel.

Fr Wall, who officiated at the funeral Mass with Defence Forces’ chaplain Fr David Tyndall, described Col Doyle s a “Christian gentleman” and a “fine human being”.

He spoke of his 44-year career in the Army and with the UN. He joined up in 1940 and because of his "obvious abilities" he was invited to do the "officers' training course where he met future editor of The Irish TimesDouglas Gageby and they became lifelong friends".

Col Doyle worked as a “peacemaker with distinction through his prominent involvement with the UN” – in the Congo, Cyprus, Lebanon, the Golan Heights and Sinai.

As a young officer of the 2nd Brigade Signals he met his future wife Betty, a Red Cross volunteer, in 1944 at a dance in Greystones and they had a “wonderful partnership”. His wife predeceased him.

Their youngest son Martin spoke of his father as “the original renaissance man”, whose core value was that integrity “cannot and must not be compromised”.

Col Doyle also believed that three things were needed for peacekeeping: “You have to understand people, you have to understand context – the context of the conflict – and you must understand the issues of the day.”

He taught Maths at Kevin Street College and “there were very few people who could share knowledge the way he did”.

Col Doyle’s six children, Ciarán, Patricia, Etain, Brendan, Geraldine and Martin, his brother Seán, grandchildren and other relatives were joined by many current and retired members of the Defence Forces.

These included acting chief of staff Maj Gen David Ashe; deputy chief of staff Maj Gen Pat O’Sullivan; Brig Gen Denis Murphy; Brig Gen Jerry Flynn; Lt Col Tom Roche, Air Corps; Col Con Ryan, director of CisCorps; Lt Col Peter O’Halloran; former chiefs of staff Lt Gens Noel Bergin, Jim Sreenan and Jim Parker; and Brig Gen James Sanderson, retired, president of McKee Barracks Officers’ Association.

Former UN colleagues who attended included retired UN commander Gen Bill Callaghan; Frank McHugh; Con O’Callaghan; Dick Heaslip and Vincent Savini of the Irish UN Veterans’ Association.

Current and former staff of The Irish Timesincluded editor Geraldine Kennedy, foreign policy editor Paul Gillespie, foreign editor Paddy Smyth, security analyst Tom Clonan, Deaglán de Bréadún, Sheila Sullivan, Angela Long and David Shanks.

The mourners also included former director of the National Lottery Ray Bates; Professor Eunan O’Halpin, TCD; Maria Gageby; Brian O’Dwyer, St Joseph’s CBS; and Paul Dubsky.

After the ceremony a colour party under Comdt John Murphy carried the casket, covered with a Tricolour and Col Doyle’s cap and gloves to the hearse, for burial at Newland’s Cross cemetery.