An Cosantóir

lebanon | 17 Rinnakkain (Side-by-Side) A BY 2/LT OLLI NURMI (PIO, FINNISH CONTINGENT) PHOTOS ARMN NEVILLE COUGHLAN mutual co-operation in crisis management missions in Europe, Africa and the Middle East and many of the personnel that are now being deployed to Lebanon have experience of previous co-operation. Commandant Bernard Markey, chief of staff of the Irish-Finnish battalion to the UNIFIL mission in Southern Lebanon. The main body of the battalion will consist of an Irish and Finnish mecha- nised infantry company and an Irish reconnaissance company. The Irish and Finnish defence forces have a long history of group of ten Finnish staff officers had the opportunity of being integrated with the Irish members of 106 IrishFinn Battalion for two weeks before the deployment of our joint battalion, has an excellent grasp of Finland's history and actually owns a rare copy of the Marshal of Finland CGE Mannerheim's memoirs dating from 1953. He is also able to greet his Finnish colleagues in their own language. This is not surprising as Comdt Markey, who is embarking on his 11th overseas tour of duty, has experience of working with Finnish peacekeepers over three decades and recalls becoming acquainted with the Finnish love of sauna while serving in Lebanon in 1993. Speaking of his experiences, Comdt Markey says of the Finns previous experience of working with the Irish when he served with the UN mission in Chad. According to Lt Cdr Ahnberg, co- operation between the two nationalities even back then was exemplary. He says he also found the sense of humour of the Irish and Finns to be very similar. In Lebanon Lt Cdr Ahnberg will take that we are people of few words but once you become friends with a Finn the friendship lasts a lifetime. One Finnish officer, Lieutenant Commander Kari Ahnberg, has charge of leading the IrishFinn battalion's CIMIC team, with one Finnish and two Irish peacekeepers under his command. He says that one of the main benefits to the Finnish staff officers from partici- pating in the MRE was getting to know their Irish colleagues before deployment to the area of opera- tions. He also says it gave the Finnish officers the opportunity to observe the high standard of profes- sionalism of the Irish military. Both Comdt Markey and Lt Cdr Ahnberg believe More photos at: www.flickr.com/photos/dfmagazine/sets/72157629905023817 it will be beneficial to everyone involved to work in such a close multinational environment and both also believe that language will not form a barrier between the Irish and Finnish. Comdt Markey went as far as to say that linguistic problems would be a poor excuse if problems arose in our co-operation. Based on these officers' experiences there is no rea- son to doubt the effectiveness of this Irish-Finnish joint operation and they are both determined that there will only be one Irish-Finnish unit and not separately functioning national contingents. www.military.ie THE DEFENCE FORCES MAGAZINE

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