UN troops spreading the message of peace for 50 years
President McAleese at Cathal Brugha Barracks in Dublin yesterday
IRISH troops have made friends for Ireland across the world by going above and beyond the call of duty as peacekeepers, President Mary McAleese said yesterday as she marked 50 years of Defence Forces involvement with the United Nations.
Mrs McAleese paid homage to the contribution -- the lives lost, and the many others saved -- by Irish Defence Forces peacekeeping missions over the past 50 years in some of the world's most troubled regions.
Under a rare blue sky, Mrs McAleese stood out in her pink calf-length woollen coat as she inspected a gleaming Guard of Honour from the Irish Defence Forces 2nd Infantry Battalion on the square at Cathal Brugha Barracks in Dublin.
Irish peacekeepers are today back in Lebanon, the place where soldiers first began their service half a century ago.
"The story of the ebb and flow of our service there underlines just how fragile peace is," Mrs McAleese said.
Mrs McAleese, who also praised the projects on the UN by delighted sixth class students from nearby St Louis Senior Primary School, said Irish troops have done a first class job by interesting themselves in the lives of those they protected, volunteering to help in orphanages and supporting local AIDS hospices.
She said every peacekeeper was entitled to the gratitude of the Irish people for their courage and commitment in bringing the gift of peace to strangers.
The death of one such peacekeeper, Colonel Justin MacCarthy, who died in a road accident in the Congo region in 1960 was yesterday commemorated with a portrait.
- Louise Hogan
