JIM CONNOLLY died on January 22nd at St. Vincent's Hospital, Dublin, following an operation. He was my best friend and my Best Man - we married sisters. We joined An Garda Siochana together in 1952, and we joined the United Nations Field Service in 1956. Throughout more than 35 years' service with the peacekeeping forces our assignments coincided five times, most latterly in the former Yugoslavia. Inexorably, in these circumstances, our lives and those of our extended families were intertwined.
Jim was an utter perfectionist in everything he did nothing was left to chance. Such was his reputation in this regard that in latter years he was invariably entrusted with the arrangements for such events as the Secretary General's visits, when the loss of the luggage or the standard of conferences, transport or accommodation were as much as one's job were worth, if inappropriate.
To the minorities among the staff, the nationals of Third World countries who oftentimes felt marginalised, and the locally employed staff, Jim was a father figure. No problem, he felt, was insoluble, even if it meant doing it another way.
A Christmas card he received recently from Homs in Eastern Syria read: "You will not receive a card from my father this year, as he died in October." Mohammed Uugla will be known to many military observers who served in the Golan as the foreman of the maintenance crew which serviced the observation posts. Such was the bond Jim made with the staff and with their families. To paraphrase Kipling: he could walk with kings and never lose the common touch.
Jim never lost sight of his roots. He followed the fortunes of his alma mater, St. Jarlath's, and the Milltown GAA Club with the enthusiasm of a schoolboy. He kept a cottage at Drim which he enjoyed for breaks and he was in constant touch with former colleagues from An Garda Siochana. He and his loving wife Anne always kept open house, no matter where in the world they were stationed. Tourists, students clerics, etc. could "claim kindred there and have their claims allowed".
To his wife Anne, his daughter Susanne, his sons Paul and David, and his brothers Tom, Michael and Jarlath and sisters Mary and Joan, our most sincere condolences at his most untimely death.