LIEUT GEN TADHG O'NEILL:LIEUT GEN Tadhg O'Neill, who has died aged 82, was a former Defence Forces chief of staff. An artillery officer, he served at home and overseas on a number of UN missions.
After serving in 1960 with the 32nd Battalion in the Congo – the first Irish UN peacekeeping force – he did a tour of duty in Cyprus. In the 1980s, he served in Lebanon, first as senior operations officer and later as military assistant to the force commander of the UN interim force in Lebanon (Unifil).
O’Neill was born in Castlecomer, Co Kilkenny, in 1926. He entered the cadet school at the Curragh in 1946. Commissioned two years later, his career started with the Southern Command in Ballincollig, Co Cork. He spent some years in Kildare and at McKee Barracks, Dublin. He later served in Army headquarters before being appointed officer of the 2nd Field Artillery Regiment at McKee Barracks in April 1981.
On promotion to colonel, O’Neill was appointed commanding officer of the 2nd Brigade, Collins Barracks, Dublin, in May 1983. He was appointed second-in-command and executive officer of the Western Command in September 1983 and promoted to brigadier general in 1984.
O’Neill became chief of staff in January 1986. Later that year, in an address to an FCA summer camp in Co Clare, he condemned the “murderous obscenities” of the IRA and said Sinn Féin and the IRA were “one and the same thing”. He also condemned the IRA’s threat to kill anyone doing work for the North’s security forces. Calling for extra finance for the FCA, he said men who served in the force “would not get into the clutches of Sinn Féin or the IRA”.
In response, Sinn Féin issued a statement which alleged that O’Neill was attempting to “justify the introduction of internment”.
O’Neill travelled to Lebanon in 1986 following confrontations between Unifil troops and the Israeli-backed militia. He had a “full and frank exchange of views” with his Israeli opposite number.
In 1987, O'Neill and other officers lobbied the government to establish a review body to examine its defence policy. This followed an article in Jane's Military Reviewdescribing Irish policy as a "parasitic neutrality" whereby Ireland relied on the Nato umbrella for its external defence while declining to contribute to that defence.
In spring 1989, four Irish soldiers were killed within a month while on duty in south Lebanon.
O’Neill went to Lebanon to review the situation on behalf of the government. He consulted the Unifil military police and had talks with the Amal militia and Israeli army. He made a point of visiting every military post occupied by Irish troops, and witnessed two spontaneous demonstrations by Arab villagers in support of the presence of the Irish battalion.
On his instructions, new security measures were put in place. Arising from his report, the government renewed the mandate of the Irish component of Unifil.
O’Neill retired in 1989. His wife, Émer, and daughters, Émer, Niamh and Orla, survive him.
Tadhg O’Neill: born October 16th, 1926; died September 17th, 2009