Ireland and the Cyprus Commitment – 50 years on

Posted on: 14 November 2014

The Centre for Contemporary Irish History in the School of Histories and Humanities at Trinity College Dublin held a retrospective to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of Irish military presence in Cyprus as part of the United Nations peacekeeping force. The seminar entitled 'Ireland and the Cyprus commitment fifty years on: a retrospective' examined the impact of service in Cyprus on the Irish army, both on those who served and those who stayed at home, as well as on the families they left behind.

The event, which took the form of a 'witness seminar', began with a short historical briefing.  This was followed by the personal accounts of former Irish officers and men who served in Cyprus at various times from 1964 onwards. The keynote speaker was Brigadier General  James Flynn DSM, the UN liaison officer to the Cypriot National Guard in 1974 during the Turkish invasion.  While the seminar largely focussed on the experiences of individual soldiers and the professional impact on the army of the Cyprus commitment, an important contribution of the event was its consideration of practical and personal factors – such as the impact on family life of extended postings overseas, matters which remain relevant to today's defence forces many of whose personnel are engaged in international missions across the world.

Significantly, this year 2014, marks the fiftieth anniversary of the government's decision to supply Irish troops to the United Nations peacekeeping force in Cyprus. Over the following decade, thousands of Defence Forces personnel underwent six month tours of duty there in successive Irish battalions until 1973.  Irish officers and members of the Garda Siochana continue to serve in multi-national UN parties.

Although nobody knew it at the time, the Cyprus commitment was to prove a dramatic and agreeable contrast to the Irish army's previous overseas mission, in the Congo, from 1960-1964. The environment, the climate, the tasks imposed on UN forces, and political conditions in the Congo made service there a hazardous and draining experience.

This 'witness seminar' is part of the Research Seminar series in Contemporary Irish History run by the director of the centre, Eunan O’Halpin, Professor of Contemporary Irish History.