If a cross-section of informed citizens was asked to draw up a list of what made them proud to be Irish, our record as members of the United Nations would almost certainly be included. Primarily this is due to the sacrifices and dedication of thousands of Irish peacekeepers, members of the Defence Forces and the Garda, including 86 Irish personnel who gave their lives in the service of the UN, writes Deaglán de Bréadún
It is fitting therefore that An Post should today be launching four stamps to mark the 50th anniversary of Ireland's accession to the UN in 1955. Next month the Royal Irish Academy holds a special conference in Dublin for the anniversary with Mark Malloch Brown, chef de cabinet to UN secretary general Kofi Annan, among the speakers.
Ireland was not a guest at the banquet when the UN was founded in San Francisco in 1945 and when we applied for membership the following year, Soviet leader Josef Stalin kept us out because we had remained neutral throughout the war. He chose to forget that the Soviet Union itself had been initially neutral, until it was invaded by Hitler in June 1941.
We finally joined on December 14th, 1955, and soon became one of the organisation's most committed and conscientious members, on a par with Canada, New Zealand and the Scandinavian countries.
The first big test of Irish membership was the peacekeeping mission to the Congo in 1960. There is something very touching and naive about the photographs of Irish soldiers heading off to the equatorial jungles of central Africa in heavy bull's-wool uniforms. Ireland was going in at the deep end: this was not one of those straightforward peacekeeping operations which consists of keeping a beady eye on the peace-line between two states that have just stopped shooting at each other.
The Congo was plunging into civil war and the inexperienced Irish troops were caught in the middle. For the first time troops from an independent Ireland lost their lives in combat overseas. The implications are still rumbling today, with continuing controversy over the treatment of privates Tom Kenny and Joe Fitzpatrick, two veterans of the infamous Niemba massacre who have never received recognition: the penalty of survival.
Ireland has also been an active member of the UN at the diplomatic level, most notably in the person of Frank Aiken, who held the post of minister for external affairs, as it was then called, from 1957 to 1969, a formative period for Irish UN membership. Aiken, one of two former IRA chiefs-of-staff to serve as Irish foreign minister (the other was Seán MacBride), played a key role in the introduction of the Non-Proliferation Treaty on nuclear weapons and on other issues such as decolonisation, the struggle against apartheid in South Africa and the seating of the Beijing government as China's representative at the UN, instead of the more marginal Taiwan administration. The headline-writers in the Economist were OTT when they wrote that "Ireland bestrides the UN like a colossus", but Aiken's sturdy independence of mind established a template for small nations in the field of foreign policy.
Ireland has served on the Security Council three times and was last elected in October 2000. Not just Iveagh House and the UN Mission in New York, but virtually the entire system of government was put on an election footing for the campaign which bore fruit in spectacular fashion when Ireland topped the poll, ahead of the extremely formidable Norwegians and Italians.
The reasons for this electoral coup were manifold but it mainly reflected the feeling among African and Arab member states that Ireland was, by and large, sympathetic to their concerns. We contribute significantly from our own resources to the development of sub-Saharan Africa; we are seen as taking an even-handed view of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict; and we have no imperial baggage from the past.
Ireland's two-year term continued until the end of 2002, a few months before the outbreak of the Iraq war. When big powers such as the US and France are at loggerheads, smaller players such as Ireland can get crushed in the melee. Irish foreign policy puts a very high premium on good relations with the US but France is a major EU partner.
Ireland's UN Ambassador Richard Ryan said there should be no military action against Iraq without a decision of the Security Council but the US-led coalition pressed on regardless. Meanwhile, at a practical level back home, the Government was providing transit facilities at Shannon to US forces on their way to war-zone. It was an Irish solution to an international problem.
Looking ahead, we can expect Ireland to play a significant role in the development of the Peace-Building Commission. Approved at the recent world summit, this new body will have the task of restoring and reviving countries and regions as they emerge from conflict, and helping to place these war-torn societies on the road to normal development. It is a suitable challenge for a country like Ireland which has struggled so hard to overcome its own long, violent history. Success in this area would also do much to restore the credibility of the UN itself which was set up, after all, for the purpose of building peace.