Enda shows no sign of feeling heat on frontline

If Enda Kenny was feeling the heat he did not show it as he swirled into southern Lebanon — which is more than could be said for three of the soldiers in the honour guard waiting to be inspected who passed out in the sweltering 34C heat as the Taoiseach arrived.

The Russian-operated MI8 troop carrier helicopter Mr Kenny travelled in from Beirut blasted a storm of dust into the air, but it was the dust refusing to settle from the banking probe controversy back home which saw him take evasive action in the arid surroundings of the Israeli border danger zone.

The first visit to the peace keeping forces since Bertie Ahern in 1999 generated much excitement in the outpost of 181 Irish soldiers adjacent to the flash-point triangle encompassing the demarcation line of the Lebanon-Israeli war, the occupied Golan Heights and the refugee-strewn Syrian border.

Military top brass laid on a special welcome in the canteen-bar area where a podium had been set up with mike stand so the Taoiseach could address the 50 or so soldiers who had assembled to hear him.

But Mr Kenny decided to take the military by surprise and give his rallying call from the wrong end of the mess room as the troops strained to hear his warm, and heart-felt sounding, words of thanks for the sacrifices they make on the UN’s front line.

Mr Kenny was then presented with a Mayo jersey, to which he exclaimed “Jaysus!” when he saw it being carried towards him.

Though as one wag present noted, it was unlikely that Mayo could ever win anything even in Lebanon.

Mr Kenny signed the jersey which will adorn the bar wall, along with a jersey signed by former Chelsea star Damien Duff, and other such memorabilia, like the list of events for the Mid-Summer Games of last year which saw the Irish do battle with the Finnish troops they share the camp with.

For the record, the Irish won on wellie throwing, but the Finns were top at wife carrying — how this event was conducted in a camp with 5% women soldiers, was, sadly, not recorded.

The Finns and Irish appear to get on fine, but some cultural differences have emerged. After surviving the blistering heat all day, the Irish guys find it odd that the Finns want to spend the evening in the several saunas they have built around the camp, especially as bashing each other with branches is all part of the Baltic way of doing downtime.

But most of the troops lay off the booze, usually observing a self-imposed two-beer limit per evening. As one soldier put it: “It’s more health camp than party central.”

After receiving a briefing from the top brass, Mr Kenny swept past the camp’s small library, which boasts everything from chick-lit to the biography of Chuck Norris, on his way to a lunch with the lads. However, rather than sit with the ranks as Barack Obama and David Cameron are always keen to be photographed doing when they visit their troops, Mr Kenny was at a wedding-style top table as he ate prawn delight, chicken ballotine risotto and a meringue tower.

But after lunch it was the dog’s dinner Mr Kenny has personally made of the Oireachtas banking inquiry which dominated the menu.

Fittingly, Mr Kenny was perched on a rather slippery looking slope as he was questioned about the mess without really giving any answers.

Mr Kenny would not be drawn on the fact one of his ministers, Alex White, has effectively accused him of misleading the Dáil over the ousting of former garda commissioner Martin Callinan.

The Taoiseach said he did want to get involved in the Labour leadership contest, as if that battle somehow gave the contenders the right to effectively call Mr Kenny a liar. Most curious.

Then came the emotional centrepiece of the visit as the sacrifice the Taoiseach had spoken of in the canteen was thrown into vivid focus as he laid a wreath at the memorial to the 47 Irish peacekeepers who lost their lives in Lebanon between 1978-2000.

Head bowed, Mr Kenny stood in front of the monument as all 47 names were read out before the camp chaplain called for support from God: “Until the shadows lengthen, and the evening comes, and the busy world is hushed, and the fevered life is over, and our work is done.”

Then a lone piper pierced the still air with a lament to the fallen.