Syrian conflict drives out most Irish residents

With the UN Security Council recently extending the mandate for its Golan Heights peacekeeping force by six months, Irish troops will be in the "area of separation" between Syria and Israel until at least June 30th.

However, within war-torn Syria, there are believed to be only a handful of Irish citizens. Before the ongoing armed conflict began in 2011, there were about 125 Irish citizens registered as living in the country, but it is thought many more were living and working there.

In 2012, Syria was in the throes of rebellion as demonstrators took to the streets to protest the rule of President Bashar al-Assad.

The vast majority of Irish nationals left, though Naji Chaoui believes many stayed until 2013, more than 20 months into the revolt-turned-war. The honorary consul of Ireland in Damascus, Mr Chaoui organised business link-ups and assistance for Irish citizens. Now he said there are "very few" and they are mainly working with international organisations, "as well as some Irish spouses and their Irish children".

The backbone of the Irish community in Syria centred on agencies such as the United Nations and the European Union. In the western Damascus suburb of Mezzah, where the UN's decades-old Golan Heights Disengagement Observer Force is based, Irish accents have been heard since the 1970s.

In early 2009, Cork man Mark Dougherty was passing though Syria. "As a cook, I had come to the Middle East to check out the food. After my first day in Damascus I decided to stay, the city had left such a wonderful impression on me, as it did to almost everybody who has been there," he said. "As a foreigner, we were free, outside the socio-political reality of the life there. You didn't have to look hard to see the injustices, the poverty and corruption."

In January 2011, civil unrest was quickly followed by armed conflict. “I think it was Assad’s first speech which polarised the country,” said Mr Dougherty. “Friends of mine who I believed were deeply apolitical overnight turned into either ardent Assad supporters or angry opponents of the government. For such a confusing time, people were quickly convinced they knew who the bad guys were.”

When Mr Dougherty left Syria in June 2011 to visit his fiancée in Turkey, he expected to go back within a month: "I haven't been back since then."

In 2012, two Libyan-Irish men went to Syria to help rebels organise around a unified force. Mehdi Harati, who lived in Dublin for 20 years, and Sam Najjar, from Rathfarnham in Dublin, founded the rebel group Liwa al-Umma in northwest Syria.

“Seeing the people there suffering and revolutionaries struggling without international support, we decided it was up to us to help,” said Mr Najjar. “2012 was a different time and the revolution has morphed into something very different, spurring me to advise young men thinking of travelling to Syria to fight to not do so.”

As the conflict took a fundamentalist turn in 2012, groups such as Jabhat al-Nusra and Islamic State, swelled by fighters from Europe, North America and elsewhere, came to dominate the opposition.

A report by King’s College in London last December found 26 Irish citizens had gone to Syria since 2012 – the second-highest per capita of any country. Attention has turned to jihadists returning home.

A Garda spokesperson said: “We seek to promote engagement with communities to counter the threat of radicalisation and devote appropriate resources to investigate individuals who are assessed to pose a threat.”

Risk of injury

Away from Damascus at Golan Heights, 138 members of the Irish

Defence Forces

are working. But their work is not without danger.

In November 2013, a brigade of Irish soldiers on patrol came under brief but heavy fire from local opposition forces. In August 2014, Irish troops were involved in rescuing 35 Filipino peacekeepers from an assault by rebels.

Serious injuries to Irish peacekeepers have so far been uncommon, however.

“Since our initial deployment, only one soldier received soft-tissue injuries during an operation.

“This incident involved the soldier moving from a standing to seated position of an armoured personnel carrier while travelling at speed,” said Comdt Seán Ó Fátharta.