Colin Sheridan: The end of Unifil is the end of Ireland’s innocence in peacekeeping

As the UN prepares to end its Unifil mission, Ireland must confront difficult choices about peacekeeping, neutrality and foreign policy identity

Irish peacekeepers at Camp Shamrock. For Ireland, Unifil became the Defence Forces’ longest-running overseas mission. File picture: Hannah McCarthy

In 1978, when the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil) was first established, the word “interim” suggested something short-lived, a temporary sticking plaster to allow the blood of conflict in southern Lebanon to clot. 

Forty-six years later, the bandage and the wound have become one.