Irish soldiers in Lebanon: ‘It’s tough but you have to get on with it’
Soldiers before the visit of Tanaiste Micheal Martin to meet members of the 124th Infantry Battalion at Camp Shamrock in Debel during a visit to Lebanon to meet Irish troops serving with the United Nations Interim Force Lebanon (Unifil). Picture date: Sunday May 19, 2024. PA Photo. See PA story IRISH Lebanon. Photo credit should read: Niall Carson/PA Wire
Skyscrapers and minarets stretch up through a hazy smog that blunts the sunlight over lovely, troubled Beirut.
Tall cypress trees twist towards the sky along stretches of Mediterranean idyll just outside the city: sandy beaches lined with jaunty sun umbrellas, lemon groves and splashes of billowing pink and magenta bougainvillea.
The area, a sometime popular holiday and leisure destination, has seen bookings fall this year since violence intensified in the country.
Irish peackeepers stationed in the south are witnessing that violence every day.
Shelling, air strikes and machine gun fire — some munitions striking within 100m of Irish peacekeepers — are being fired daily in a tit-for-tat conflict between Hezbollah in Lebanon and Israel.
Iranian-backed Hezbollah militants have attacked targets across the Israeli border since Israel invaded Gaza after the Hamas terror attacks on October 7. And the Israeli Defence Forces have retaliated in southern Lebanon.
The fighting is exasperating conditions in a country already grappling with a caretaker government, a floundering economy and more than 1.7 million refugees in a country with a similar population to Ireland of some 5.2 million people.
On the wide motorway south from Beirut to Camp Shamrock, a large Mercedes speeds past small intermittent piles of rubbish, indicators of a stymied government and corruption.
Tattered billboards alongside it, forgotten and unused, an occasional reminder of a struggling economy.
A man and woman stand staring out to sea, alone by a pier wall, children’s seaside rides tied up and empty behind them, as their country teeters before a very uncertain future.
Poverty in Lebanon has more than tripled over the past 10 years, a new World Bank report, published on Thursday, shows.
Some 44% of Lebanon’s population lived below the poverty line in 2022, rising from 12% in 2012.
And while 33% of Lebanese were living in poverty in 2022, some 87% of more than one million Syrian refugees who fled to the country were.
An economic crisis in 2019 led to plunging GDP, hyper inflation and a currency collapse, losing some 95% of its value. US dollars are now used there routinely by many instead.
An International Monetary Fund delegation visited the country this week about a potential bailout. It said there had been some progress on monetary and fiscal reforms but they fell short of what was needed for a recovery.
Lebanon has also been struggling to cope with large numbers of refugees seeking shelter from years of bloody war and instability in the region. Some 1.5 million Syrian refugees moved across the border into Lebanon and more than 200,000 Palestinians have also fled there.
This month, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen announced €1bn in financial aid over three years to support Lebanon, with fears in Europe instability there could trigger further migration into the EU, likely through Cyprus.
Conflict in the south is putting further pressure on the country, with up to 80,000 people fleeing north to Beirut. Some 90,000 people have also evacuated the area on the Israeli side of the border.
Southern Lebanon is now “eerie”, with many people having fled the violence for Beirut, Thomas Grant, a Mowag armoured vehicle driver at the the United Nations Interim Force Lebanon (Unifil) Camp Shamrock said.
“You’re going out on five hour patrols, day and night.
“It’s fairly quiet out there at the moment. A lot of buildings have been blown up. It’s eerie.
“The last time we were here there were loads of people around. But now there’s no one in the towns. People have just abandoned them.” Hezbollah in the area are armed with assault rifles and grenade guns, but “they don’t really bother you,” he said
“But if you got in their way they probably would.”
A low frequency rumble echoed across the valley as a suspected rocket was fired close to Irish peacekeepers manning Camp Shamrock when the visited on Sunday.
Since November, Irish peacekeepers have had to retreat for cover in bunkers hundreds of times in body armour to avoid crossfire in the attacks.
But morale was high among peacekeepers in Camp Shamrock.
“My daughter cuts your wife’s hair!” Chief Petty Officer Ciaran Burns, from Togher in Cork, said to Tánaiste and Defence Minister Micheál Martin as he shook hands and spoke to Irish peacekeekers at Camp Shamrock.
Although the naval officer said he was fearful at the start of the trip, with the support of his colleagues and repeat drills on camp, he got used to frequent bunker retreats and the sound of explosions.
Commandant Áine McDonough, from Rush, Co Dublin, had to go straight into ‘groundhog’ — a military term for putting on helmets and body armour and taking shelter in bunkers due to active threats — when she got off the bus in Camp Shamrock two weeks ago.
She has been in ‘groundhog’ some 14 times since.
By contrast, the logistics officer only had to retreat into ‘groundhog’ once over two previous six month trips in Lebanon in 2016 and 2019.
This is Comdt Mc Donough’s first trip abroad since having children. Tomás is three and Donnchadh is two.
Videochat helps her stay connected to them.
“I can see them running around in the garden, I can talk to them every day. That makes it a lot easier," she said.
“And I’m on a family-friendly deployment so I’ll only be here for three months and I’ll hand over to another commandant who also has kids.
“It makes it easier to juggle work and life and to keep your career on track.
“I really miss them but hopefully they’ll look back and be proud of what I did when they were small.
“It’s tough but you have to get on with it.” Comdt McDonough said the only way she can balance parenthood and work is with her husband’s support.
“It is 100% down to the support of our families that we are here,” she said.
Friendship within the camp is also vitally important to peacekeepers.
Captain Chloe McMahon from Co Limerick and Captain Ashleigh Weadick from Wexford joined the Defence Forces on the same day in 2014 and have been friends since.
“I'm just very lucky to have her by my side,” Cpt Weadick said.
“I don't think I could have done it without her. That's the friendship we have.”
Cpt Weadick, 29, organised Cpt McMahon’s 30th birthday for her at Camp Shamrock in April.
She gathered photographs and videos from home for Cpt McMahon and organised steaks on the barbeque.
“It was amazing,” Cpt McMahon said. “I thought about home on the day but I had so many close friends here. I was lucky.
“The videos that she had from back home kept that personal touch as well.”
Irish troops from the 124th Infantry Battalion at Camp Shamrock in Debel during a visit by Tániste Micheál Martin to Lebanon last weekend.
Despite widespread debate about allegations of misogyny and sexual assault in the Defence Forces following the Women of Honour documentary in 2021, both women said this has not been their experience.
“What happened to those women was awful,” Cpt McMahon said. “But my experience over the last 10 years has been nothing but positive.”
Cpt Weadick said: “There are great opportunities in the Defence Forces. Myself and Chloe were put through college by the Defence Forces. I studied logistics and supply chain management and ended up with an honours degree and Chloe studied law.”
Morale on the camp is just as important as training, Cpt Weadick said.
“If I didn’t have Chloe by my side, it would have made the trip 100 times longer. It’s good to have someone to talk to.
“This battalion in particular, there’s been serious comraderie among everyone, friendships formed.
"People who I didn’t know coming out on the trip will now be friends for life."
Following the death of Private Seán Rooney, who was killed when the UN jeep he and three colleagues were in was fired on late at night on December 14, 2022, on its way to Beirut, the protocol for peacekeepers leaving camp changed.
Pte Rooney was the 48th Irish soldier to die in Lebanon.
But after his death, more vehicles move together to reduce the risk of what the Defence Forces call a DFOM — denial of freedom of movement — when vehicles are stopped on the roads by other actors.
“We have a stronger presence on the ground when we leave the camp now,” Cpt McMahon said.
Pte Rooney’s death could “definitely” have saved other lives due to the new protocol, she said.
Company Sergeant Denis Lucey from Cork said the trip has been “very active but very positive.”
Peacekeepers have forged friendships and now retreat in groups to the same bunker during 'groundhog'.
‘Bunker bags’, packed with items for groundhog, are always ready to bring to one of 16 bunkers at the camp.
“We have bunker friends. We all go to Bunker 14 together.
“It becomes routine. Everyone knows what to do. It’s very orgainsed and it has to be. Otherwise you’d leave someone behind.
“When you go into the bunker you have to account for everyone. So the first part of the bunker is very serious. But then it’s more relaxed.
“People bring pillows, warm tops. There are no beds but there are benches.
“I always bring a book. Jimmy here brings a Rubik's cube.”
'Jimmy', also known as Company Quarter Master Sergeant (CQ) James Kelly said: “I’m almost an expert [in Rubik's cubes] at this stage!” “We didn’t know each other before this, but now we’re good friends.”
Steyr assault rifles are the main weapon carried by Irish peacekeepers, CQ Kelly said.
“We’ve had it since the '90s and it’s a phenomenal piece of kit. Very reliable and light enough.
“And we have some heavy weapons systems on the main vehicles.
“We have specialists in different units with sniper detachments and people who can use heavy machine guns if the situation dictates.
“But we’re here in a more observational role. We carry for our own personal protection.
“But you see more and more heavier weapons being brought in. Their weapons have been changing.
“They’ve had quite heavy losses along the Blue Line [a UN demarcation between southern Lebanon and Israel near Camp Shamrock].
“So their tactics and training have changed a bit. They’re using higher calibre weapons and going further and with more targeted strikes into Israel at the moment. They are very well equipped.”
Before you could constantly hear low-flying drones at Camp Shamrock, CQ Kelly said.
“But I think they were mostly taken down by Hezbollah. So now you have the more advanced drones higher up.
“They were mostly Israeli drones but Hezbollah have deployed them too in more recent times.”
CS Lucey said a lot has changed since his first trips to Lebanon in the early 1990s.
“Weaponry is one of the biggest changes we’ve seen. Before you could see what was going on physically in front of you.
“But now, with the weaponry and the drones, you might hear it but you don’t see it as much. Weaponry is coming in from further away, bombs are coming in from further away."
The new generation of Irish peacekeepers gives CS Lucey great hope for the future.
The young peacekeepers in Camp Shamrock today are “some of the best young soldiers I’ve ever come across”, he said.
“You hear stories about the young people now, that they’re soft. But I can honestly say that we have some of the best young soldiers."
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