The challenge to the Government's decision to allow the US military to use Shannon airport has been taken by a retired Army commandant, Mr Edward Horgan, who is now pursuing a Ph.D programme on issues of international peace and United Nations reform.
Mr Horgan (57), a father of three, of Newtown, Castletroy, Co Limerick, served with United Nations peacekeeping missions in Cyprus and the Middle East in the 1970s. He had joined the Army cadet school in 1963 and was commissioned as an officer in 1965.
While serving with the UN in Cyprus in 1966, 1971 and 1973 and in the Middle East in 1973/74, it was his duty to be familiar with the basic concepts of international law and to explain those to the soldiers under his command, he said.
He transferred from the regular Army in 1986 to being a member of the reserve Defence Forces. He retired from the reserve force in 2001. After leaving the regular Army in 1986, he worked for 10 years as a safety and security manager and consultant in a variety of positions, including at Trinity College Dublin and Aughinish Alumina Ltd, Co Limerick.
Since 1996, he has been engaged in full- time education and research as a mature student at the University of Limerick. He achieved a first-class honours BA degree in history, politics and social studies in 2001 and was awarded a masters in philosophy (peace studies) degree by Trinity College in 2000.
Over the past 10 years, he has worked as a civilian UN volunteer on election and democratisation missions with the UN and the EU in Bosnia, Croatia, Nigeria, Indonesia, Zimbabwe and East Timor.
