AT THE END OF a dirt road some 20 minutes from the main Irish camp in Lebanon is the small outpost of Camp 6-52 where 30 Irish troops are based.
Camp Shamrock, or as it is known in the United Nations as UNP 2-45, has a lot of the comforts of military life but the spartan surrounds of 6-52 are in stark contrast.
Earlier today The Journal went there as we covered the visit to South Lebanon of the Taoiseach Micheál Martin and other dignitaries to mark International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers.
Lebanon has been scene to one of the bloodiest civil wars in recent history from 1975 to 1990. It sits on the coastline between the Mediterranean to the West, Syria to the East and Israel to the South.
There is a long history of Israeli and Lebanese fighting in recent decades – the most recent of which was in 2006 which left up to 1,300 Lebanese and 130 Israelis dead.
A difficult political and economic environment has seen protests in the streets and a massive explosion in Lebanon capital city of Beirut in 2020 has further sent the country into a humanitarian crisis.
The hills of Bint Jbeil, the area of Lebanon where the Irish troops are based, are arid rocky ground peppered with little hamlets of houses and military posts.
In the towns around the area there are yellow Hezbollah flags flapping from the electrical poles and road signs.
Large posters stand at the entrance to each village – pictures of young men in military fatigues. They are the local “martyrs” killed in the multitude of wars and skirmishes with neighbouring Israel just a short distance to the south.
The danger and risk of past decades, which took the lives of 47 Irish peacekeepers, have subsided but the tensions remain.
Much of that success is down to a new strategy from the United Nations which was introduced in 2000.
That initiative, dubbed the Blue Line, is located along Lebanon’s southern frontier with Israel and was constructed as part of a United Nations plan to monitor the withdrawal of Israeli forces in the area.
The UN has said that it is a “line of withdrawal” and not a border marking – the demarcation line stretches 120kms – part of that is policed by Irish soldiers.
Irish troops are critical components in the UN mission which monitors and observes activities along the Blue Line.
Camp 6-52 sits just a few hundred metres from that fence line where on one side Israeli soldiers watch on as Irish troops observe and patrol with the Lebanese Armed Forces. Ireland’s role is a simple one – keep watch and keep the peace.
We travelled to the site in a MOWAG – a large armoured personnel carrier used to carry troops across the rough terrain. And on arrival were greeted by the residents of the outpost – 30 Irish troops from across the island of Ireland.
The Taoiseach Micheál Martin, protected by the Army Ranger Wing, the force’s elite special forces unit, spent time meeting and greeting the soldiers and also getting a briefing on how operations are conducted.
We spoke to some of them about their deployment, their posting at the lonely outpost and how they feel being the closest platoon to the demarcation line.
One of those soldiers is Private Saoirse Sands, 21, from Portaferry in County Down – a hugely talented camogie player who has won multiple championships and an Intermediate All Ireland Championship. She was also a Gaelic Life Club All Star in 2021.
She uses one of the blast walls to practice – hitting a sliotar off the concrete.
On her first foreign trip Sands said she is looking forward to spending the next 10 weeks working at the outpost before going back to do the rest of her six month tour at Camp Shamrock.
“We’ve been here two weeks and we have started to settle in and adjust to the life.
“So far it has been quite good. I’ve been out on patrol on the ground and basically the way to deal with it is to be friendly to the people we meet and generally they will be friendly back.
“When doing anything new, like this trip, there is going to be a bit of nerves – I looked forward to it and it is what I joined up to do. Waiting to come out here was more about excitement than anxiousness.
“It can be some bit concerning coming out here from the main camp but it is a whole lot smaller and you know all the lads you are with. There is a sense of security and get to soldier here,” he added.
Corporal Christopher O’Connor from Belfast but now living in Armagh is one of the most experienced in the outpost having done five foreign deployments previously and with three trips to Lebanon.
“We mix it up doing guard (posts) and patrolling but because it is a small group of us here we not only drive the vehicles but we also have to maintain the camp.
“We are very self sufficient and we manage the cooking and all the logistics ourselves – back in the main camp we would have people doing that for us.
“The main effort here is that it is a patrolling post and we are only a few hundred metres across from the Blue Line and the Israeli post – it is a sensitive area and we are quite busy,” he said.
Another soldier, Corporal Patrick Kehoe from Dundalk, is on his fourth foreign deployment with other trips to Syria and Kosovo.
“We’re two weeks in so it is going well. It is grand to be back here in Lebanon – you kind of get used to it but it is hard missing the family at home.
“It’s the hard part – missing the kids getting up in the morning, doing the school runs, taking the wee boy for a walk and stuff like that – it is hard.
“It’s the job we have to do, I’m lucky enough that we get paid decent enough out here and it looks after the family.
“We have a great relationship here with the locals and even my Dad who was here back in the 80′s on deployment when he was in the army said that relations were very good with the Lebanese here as well.
“There is very little push back or resistance from the locals here – they are very accommodating.
“At the Blue Line with the Israelis there are very little interactions – as we patrol it is just a show of force they do really,” he said.
The overall leader of the deployment is Lieutenant Colonel Denis Hanly and he believes that the work carried out by the troops at UNP 652 is directly related to the work of Ireland’s diplomats at the UN.
“They are living in a very remote area and in quite austere conditions. They are in conditions that would be a little bit rougher than what we are living in here in the main camp.
“They have a two month rotation out there – they are very close to the blue line and they are very close to a number of flashpoints.
“Some of the villages are very sensitive areas and we need to be careful how we patrol them. The personnel at Camp 2-65 are at the very forefront of our operations.
“We are very conscious that we are sitting on a seat in the Security Council, we have our diplomats in New York doing their job and we are the other side of that equation here in South Lebanon doing our part,” he said.
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