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LAST UPDATE | 5 Apr 2024
THE LAST IRISH troops stationed as peacekeepers on the Golan Heights in Syria have returned home today.
The Defence Forces has now withdrawn troops from the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF), which monitors the border between Israel and Syria, after a decade of peacekeeping service in the area.
A total of 133 Irish troops from the 68th Infantry Group, UNDOF have returned to Dublin Airport this afternoon following a six-month deployment.
The majority of the 68th Infantry Group personnel are drawn from the 6th Infantry Battalion based in Custume Barracks, Athlone, Co Westmeath.
The group operated under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Oliver Clear and includes all ranks, consisting of 16 officers, 116 enlisted personnel and one chaplain.
Of those returning, 34 personnel were on their first tour of duty abroad.
Lieutenant Clear described Syria as an “interesting, beautiful and historic country” and said it was a great place to serve”.
“When you serve overseas that is the ultimate test of what we do. It’s the ultimate environment of where we can test our skills and show what we are capable of.”
He added: “Today is a day for saying what a professional group I was part of and what an honour it is to be a officer to serve with those people and be the representative for them front and centre.
“It’s a very proud day for me and for the Defence Forces. We’ve done a really good job in a challenging environment and done with pride.”
There were emotional scenes at the arrivals area of Terminal 1, as hundreds of excited family members waited for their loved ones to return home.
Partners, parents and children held home-made “welcome home” signs, while others waved Irish tricolour flags.
Lisa Cunningham and her three-year-old daughter, Lucy McManus, held a “welcome home daddy” sign as they waited for her partner and Lucy’s dad, Neill McManus to arrive through the doors.
Lisa, who was joined by her mother, Carmel, said it was a long six months.
Cunningham said: “It’s difficult at the start when he leaves, you find your own routine and you miss them. But luckily we can speak to him every day through video call and text messages. It makes all the difference.
“Especially with Lucy I am sure he probably feels like he misses out on a lot more. We miss him but he also misses out on a lot.
The operation will also see more than 280,000 separate pieces of equipment worth €23 million moved to a port in Lebanon where it will meet a chartered ship to return it to Ireland.
The UNDOF was established on 31 May 1974 by the United Nations Security Council Resolution 350 (1974), following the agreed disengagement of the Israeli and Syrian forces in the Golan Heights in May 1974.
UNDOF supervises the implementation of the Disengagement Agreement, maintaining an area of separation between the forces which is over 75 kilometres long.
Ireland commenced participation in UNDOF on 22 June 2013. The first mission for Irish troops in UNDOF commenced in September 2013.
In March last year, the Department of Defence said the decision to withdraw from the mission followed the conclusion of an assessment of the sustainability of the Defence Forces’ overseas commitments.
The Department said the decision would ensure that the Defence Forces have the capacity to fulfil their commitment to the EU Battlegroup 2024/2025 as well as allowing the Defence Forces to undertake a process of consolidation with regard to their overseas commitments and to prepare for future peace-keeping missions.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, Independent TD Cathal Berry said while it was good that the Defence Forces could reflect on the last decade, it was a day “tinged with sadness”.
“Yes, missions come and go. We’ve left East Timor in the past and Somalia and the Congo and Liberia, but we’ve never had to leave a mission due to a lack of manning staff before,” he said.
“And so this isn’t by choice. It’s being done out of necessity. It’s an unprecedented situation for Ireland to be in.”
Last month, The Journal travelled to the Golan Heights to report on the work of Irish troops stationed there before they left Syria.
Speaking to The Journal at the time, a senior Defence Forces officer said that peacekeeping is “evolving” and that Ireland could be changing how it is involved in the operations.
Major General Adrian Ó Murchú said Ireland may find itself working with other world organisations, using an Ivory Coast mission in which Ireland sent troops to participate in an Africa Union-backed operation as an example.
He said there are now various organisations “looking to us” to deploy smaller contingents but in “higher impact capabilities”.
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Did I read that right ?
Suspended sentence 1 month ?
@Dominic Leleu: a one month sentence suspended as long as he doesn’t molest anyone for two years. What the actual f.
What do you have to do in this country to actually go to jail?
@Sal Paradise: That is a very very good question.
@David Corrigan: Import garlic labeled as onions will get you 6 years.
@Sal Paradise: not pay your TV license would do…..
@Sal Paradise:
Don’t pay your TV licence.
That will get you more time than this sicko.
@Sal Paradise: don’t pay your tv licence and you’ll go to jail
@Sal Paradise: steal from a church! I seem to remember someone actually getting incarcerated for this.
@Sal Paradise: dont pay your tv licence – !
@Sal Paradise: smuggle in garlic or not pay your tv licence
Ah why not throw him a few €100 judge as well he might need it as he has been homeless!!
Our Judicial system is again a joke
I give up! This is a daily read in backwards Ireland.
@Sal Paradise
Dont pay your TV license
@Pl Ster: or protest against water meters being installed outside your house
@stephen darling: or intimidate workers and act like a bunch of wasters
@Conor Thorne: Last time I checked my post I have no water bill coming in my door thanks to all them wasters as you put it..But as I’m taxed to death on every part of my life I do know some of that tax is paying for the clean water coming from my tap..
@Zippy: no you got raw sewage in the sea well done now excuse me I have to go fill my swimming pool. It’s my right thx to you
@Zippy: What has a water bill got to do with this case on here ? Just asking
@Conor Thorne: You’ll receive your excessive use bill in the post. Clown.
@Ian Breathnach: there is no excessive yet you absolute mope
@Zippy: Taxed to death….yet here you are !!
@Conor Thorne: so you think not paying water charges leads to raw sewage in the sea?
@Alan Scott: Sorry your right has nothing to do it with just responding to some ridiculous comment from a clown!
@Tommy Roche: responding to your good self
@Thomas Maher: please don’t encourage conor to reply could be never ending someone put credit in his phone!
Is this article missing something? What have I just read….A teenager sexually assaults a vulberable girl with a disability and gets away with it? If i was that girls parent’s id ask for a retrial . Absolutely horrendous
@Andi O Donoghue: and he skipped the original court hearing
@Andi O Donoghue: definitely seems to be some complex family relationships involved in this. No mention of the vulnerable girls parents at any point. I imagine there is much not being told here.
@Christine Ahern: Third paragraph under ‘the accused’s history’
@Andi O Donoghue: Why ask for a retrial? He admitted his guilt. The issue is with the sentence handed down, which can be appealed by the DPP.
@Joe Bloggs: hold on here he was a kid himself, he was abused himself, he was homeless for many years.
He is an adult now of 24 , working and living in his own home. He is a low risk of re-offending, why take that away from him when he has stability after years of instability.
Another situation where a judge is not competent and should not be a judge
Ahh wasn’t he great helping the Garda out like that and true model citizen…
So one dude the other day got 20 years for what he did.
This guy walks free.
What is the craic with these Judges?? No consistency at all.
Disgrace
Holy jaysus if this doesn’t warrant a jail term what does?
My jaw hit the floor reading through the details of what he did. What an absolute disgrace.
Is there a list of judges in the country where it can be seen which were appointed into the position?
Some people have questions to answer
The justice system in this country is an absolute disgrace. That judge needs to be struck off.
@Lindsey O Connor: sure it was years ago. What does it matter now? Everyone has moved on, to be sure, to be sure.
He skipped court is thst the legal definition
This is how judges make money, they leave these cunce on the streets to reoffend and wait for them to appear again and again in front of them! Judges and solicitors make a fortune out of this policy.
@Macus Mc Mahon: Judges get paid a salary, regardless of appearances.
I certainly would have to question the Judge’s morals and his abilities to hear this case as this fella reached to the bottom of any moral standard’s when he invaded this poor girls life. I hope the DPP will intervene and give this S, Bag a proper sentence
You have to stop paying your bills thats only way people get locked up
He was a kid himself and a victim himself of abuse. He has rebuild his life, has found stability. Prison would only have a negative impact on him.
I have had to read this three times, what the actual f**k is going on in this country. How can someone who abuses a girl with severe disabilities not be a considered a risk to society ????? Shame on the judge, absolute disgrace.
Cut his balls off
@Sean Considine: grow up ffs
@Paul O’Sullivan: if it was your child you wouldn’t be asking anyone to grow up
@r-k: well I think it’s a juvenile to say ‘cut his balls off’
Dublin Teenager 15 who pleaded guilty, slashed throat of a woman (who survived), had access to online porn since age 11 and wanted to kill someone and felt entitled to do so based on his own reality and content absorbed.. It’s all related and out of control now. How many more violent sexually motivated child crimes have to happen. How many more Anna, Boy A and B tragedies.
This is a very sad case of neglect and many mitigating circumstances. I wouldn’t be so quick to judge. A child’s actions and behavior are not equal to adults and still developing and learning. This is possibly another case where a child at the time was likely over exposed by adult and inappropriate material, vid games, all sorts and re_enacting (complete lack of controls and regulation in Ireland), commits serious offences against another child. So many cases since Anna Kriegel, the likes of which were not happening in previous generation (before we had so much technology, over exposure, video games) . This could happen to anyone’s child (become the victim or actual perpetrator) and children can be easily led by other children. Society is not blameless. Children’s minds are being warped and sadly children and it seems very young males, teenagers committing violent crimes. Earlier this week a child was convicted of attempted murder, after planning it based on online content how to kill someone. More attacks in Courtown and other places. No where is really safe now. Education in schools and immediate regulations and enforcement to prevent children having access to adult over 18 content is needed urgently before it gets even worse. How many more children need to be injured or lives ruined (prison or sex offenders list) and parents of both destroyed before any action is taken?
What an utter travesty. What possible mitigating circumstances could warrant this animal getting a month of a sentence for the rape of a minor with intellectual disabilities. The fact that he disappeared prior to sentencing for 4 years could be seen could be viewed as part of the rational for a reduced sentence is simply mind boggling. Shame on the seriously broken “justice” system that exists in this country.
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