Irish EU force chief attains Army’s most senior rank

THE man in charge of Collins Barracks, Cork has been given the most senior rank ever attained by an Irish Army officer and at the same time appointed guardian of 50,000 refugees who have fled fighting in Darfur.

Patrick Nash, a native of Ahane, Co Limerick, but who has spent most of his military career in Cork, flew out to Paris last Monday to take up his appointment as the head of a EU force, after being elevated to the rank of lieutenant general. He will have 4,000 troops under his command, who will fly out to Chad shortly.

In the eastern part of Chad, refugee centres have been set up to cope with 50,000 people who have fled Darfur, Sudan in fear of the brutal Janjaweed. That militia have killed an estimated 450,000 civilians in the last three years and raped thousands of women.