Our troops went to Lebanon as part of the UN peacekeeping force in 1978 and are pulling out next month. On Tuesday, the story of the 31,400 who served there, Peacekeepers by Comdt Dan Harvey, was launched by the Minister for Defence,Michael Smith, at the National Museum of Ireland, Collins Barracks, Dublin. The Minister said that while war was as old as history, peacekeeping was a new phenomenon. He hoped that in all the trials, tribulations and pressures, it would be the peacekeepers who wrote the story.
The author, a nephew of the late Jack Lynch, served three tours in Lebanon. He said many of the world's military historians were engaged in counter-factional proposals - the what-if question. What if the Allies hadn't landed on D-Day? What if the Irish had won at Kinsale? He was not one of them. Why he asked, are the Irish so good at peacekeeping? Experience and adaptability, he said, made us good at it but our Irish nature made us naturals.
The Chief of Staff, Lt General Colm Mangan, who was among the guests, told Quidnunc the Irish are good at talking down a situation, and are good negotiators. But people know, and this was shown in Lebanon, that, at the back of it all, we mean business. In December, 200 troops leave for new peacekeeping duties in Eritrea.