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Irish Examiner
6 days ago
- Politics
- Irish Examiner
TD who served with Unifil warns end of UN Lebanon mandate would be 'catastrophic'
A TD who served as a peacekeeper in Lebanon has warned that a threatened discontinuation of our Unifil mandate would have a 'catastrophic' impact on Ireland's reputation. It comes amid growing concern in Government that the UN's peacekeeping operation in southern Lebanon, which Ireland has been involved in since 1978, may not have its mandate renewed next month. Recounting her 'eye-opening' experience with the Irish Defence Forces in Lebanon, Carlow-Kilkenny TD Catherine Callaghan said: 'The region is so volatile, can you imagine the impact it will have on the men, women, and children who call Lebanon their home and who, for generations, have felt protected and reassured by the UN presence?' Carlow-Kilkenny TD Catherine Callaghan said: 'If the Unifil mandate is not renewed in eight weeks' time, Ireland will have to leave Lebanon, but other nations can stay under Chapter 8 of the UN Charter. This would have a catastrophic effect on Ireland's peacekeeping reputation.' More than 340 Irish peacekeepers are currently deployed to Lebanon, but there are concerns that the US will move to effectively end or scale back the operation through reduced funding when the Unifil, or United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, mandate comes up for renewal on August 31. 'If the Unifil mandate is not renewed in eight weeks' time, Ireland will have to leave Lebanon, but other nations can stay under Chapter 8 of the UN Charter,' Ms Callaghan said. 'This would have a catastrophic effect on Ireland's peacekeeping reputation.' The Fine Gael politician, who was a member of the air corps, also warned that current members of the Defence Forces are now reluctant to wear uniform outside of barracks. 'Unfortunately, what has been the case in the last while anyway, is that the majority of the press that the Defence Forces has received has been in a negative,' she said, citing a number of high-profile court cases. 'From speaking to serving members, they have got out of the habit of wearing their uniform if they're going downtown, they wouldn't want to be recognised.' Tánaiste Simon Harris talking to Irish Defence Forces troops serving on the Unifil peacekeeping mission during his visit to Camp Shamrock near the Israel-Lebanon border in March of this year. Picture: Niall Carson/PA Calling for a 'day of appreciation', Ms Callaghan added that 'there's probably an educational body of work that could be done to inform people, more generally, of the important role of Defence Forces'. 'It will always have a special place in my heart for the way that it helped me as an individual, and then as well, for the experiences that I had with my colleagues,' she said. Detailing her own tour of Lebanon, she said Defence Forces members there were 'always very aware of the risk to your security', but that there was a 'real camaraderie' between the troops. 'We were way up in the valleys and the hills of southern Lebanon. You're very far removed from towns and cities. Beirut is completely different to where we were stationed. So it's really rural. 'You're acutely aware that there are people that you're there to protect, that if the UN forces, if Unifil was not there in Lebanon, that life would be much more challenging for the citizens of Lebanon.'
BreakingNews.ie
07-06-2025
- Politics
- BreakingNews.ie
'Putin shouldn't have a veto': TD says triple lock debated must avoid misinformation
Fine Gael TD Catherine Callaghan has said the current debate over changes to Ireland's triple lock needs to be grounded in facts and not misinformation. Ms Callaghan is a member of the Oireachtas Committee on Defence and National Security. Advertisement Ms Callaghan, a TD for Carlow-Kilkenny and a former member of the Defence Forces who served in Lebanon, has said that under the current triple lock system, countries like Russia and leaders like Vladamir Putin have the power to veto Ireland's participation in peacekeeping. 'We don't believe that Putin or others should have a veto on whether our troops can be deployed on peacekeeping missions. 'Currently members of the UN Security Council bind Ireland's hands on peacekeeping missions, when these are decisions that should be made by our Government and the Dáil." Ms Callaghan pointed to the fact that no new peacekeeping missions have been approved by the UN Security Council since 2014. Advertisement "This has meant that Irish peacekeepers have in some instances been delayed from engaging in missions to disrupt human smuggling and trafficking and maritime drug seizure operations," she added. 'This shows the absolute need to reform the UN Security Council which Ireland will continue to push for, but with that unlikely in the immediate future, we need to act in our own interests as an independent country in accordance with International Law and the UN Charter. 'In recent days, I have heard opponents of the proposals currently being examined by the Oireachtas Committee on Defence and National Security claim the UN General Assembly can approve peacekeeping missions and there is no need for a green light from the UN Security Council. 'But this is simply not the reality of how the system has worked over the last seven decades. While the General Assembly can make recommendations about deployments, it cannot compel countries to act. Advertisement 'Only once in history has the General Assembly invoked a Resolution to recommend a peacekeeping operation - and that was nearly 70 years ago when it established the first UN Emergency Force in the Middle East in 1956." Ms Callaghan is a member of the Oireachtas Committee on Defence and National Security. Ms Callaghan added: 'The context back then was absolutely unique where it had the consent of the parties involved - Egypt, France, Israel, and the UK - and the recommendation was in line with the priorities of four of the permanent members of the Security Council. 'The reality for the last nearly 70 years has been that every Defence Forces peacekeeping deployment has only ever taken place on the basis of a Security Council mandate. This underscores the rationale for removing the Putin veto." Ireland Neutrality 'completely unaffected' by triple lock... Read More She said removing the triple lock has "nothing whatsoever to do with military neutrality". Advertisement 'We value our neutrality and we are remaining militarily neutral. Ireland was militarily neutral for decades before the advent of the term 'triple lock' around the time of the Nice and Lisbon Treaty debates and it will continue to be neutral if these changes are passed through the Oireachtas and become law.' In an interview with in April, Minister of State Neale Richmond said: "Ireland's triple lock mechanism for deploying troops abroad is an archaic tool that is hindering our ability to be a global force for good whilst surrendering our sovereign decision making to the veto powers of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council. "Given a UN mandate can be vetoed by any of the five permanent Security Council members, we are effectively giving the likes of Russia and China a veto of where and when we send our own troops."
