Irish troops prepare for Golan Heights deployment

The 130 men and women of the 48th Infantry Group of the Defence Forces, who will depart shortly for United Nations duties in Syria, marked the formal end of their mission training with a colourful passing out parade today at Finner Camp in Donegal.

The group will deploy next month on the Golan Heights between Israel and Syria as the Force Reserve Company of Undof, the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force, providing it with an armed Quick Reaction Force, should the need arise. Undof operates in a buffer zone between Syria and Syria’s Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, observing adherence to a ceasefire agreed in 1974.

However, the buffer zone has largely ceased to exist as it was defined in 1974 at the end of the Yom Kippur War. The more recent civil war in Syria has seen the Syrian Army cede territory to a motley selection of anti-government armed elements, resulting in several UN installations being over-run or abandoned.

As a result, Irish troops replacing the Defence Forces’ 46th Infantry Group with Undof will operate, like them, substantially on the Israeli-occupied sided of the zone. Nonetheless, the deployment is probably the most risqué of Ireland’s overseas peacekeeping missions.

Recognising the dangers inherent in the mission, the minister of state at the Department of Defence, Paul Keogh, told the soon-to-be-departing group that the Government did not lightly send them overseas. However, the Defence Forces had a “vital role” to play as peacekeepers, even if no mission was without danger.

“Your committment, service and loyalty to the traditions of the Defence Forces on overseas service contribute extensively to the high regard in which Ireland is held throughout the world,” Mr Keogh told the parade.

The formal ceremony was attended by many family members and friends of the soldiers, together with dignitaries who included Major General Ralph James and other senior Defence Forces officers, plus foreign military representatives, including defence attachés of the United States and Russia.

To music provided by the Army No1 Band, the group was led on parade, through intermittant sunshine and hail, by its commanding officer, Lt-Col Mark Prendergast, his second-in-command, Comdt Paul Kelly, staff officers, platoon commanders, and non-commissioned officers.

The deployment will include a de-mining contingent of engineers, mechanised infantry and cavalry using Mowag armoured personnel carriers.

“The humanitarian crisis in Syria is a growing threat to regional stability and a major human tragedy,” said Mr Keogh, adding that Ireland remained committed to supporting Syria and its neighbours and the 48th Infantry Group would maintain “the outstanding reputation of the Defence Forces as committed, conscientuous, professional and humane peacekeepers”.