An Cosantóir

www.military.ie the defence forces magazine | 25 iNteRView eXtR actS imad lalous, mayor of ain ebel, reflecting on the Sla and the murder of Ptes Small- horne and barrett "The South Lebanese Army, dur- ing a certain period, was very much needed. Especially for the Christian villages, and for defending the area against the Palestinians. We all know that there was problems with South Lebanese Army and UNIFIL, and we know that there was some sad accidents…especially with the Irish. Some soldiers were killed in [prolonged pause] a very bad way. I remember when the Irish soldiers were killed here. The Christian villages and the Christian soldiers in the SLA were very much angry. It reached a point where it could have led to a fight within the SLA because people were not approving of that incident. It was very bad days." bassima fawaz, language as- sistant, remembers the first irish troops arriving in the village of tibnine "I remember in 1978 there was a political decision [UN Resolu- tion] 425 for UNIFIL to come to Lebanon for six months. In the six months some [Irish] officers came to my parents' house, who live in the suburb of the village, asking to rent a part of my family house. My father accepted and the Irish troops started coming in, they brought their baggage and suddenly the house is full with soldiers! I remember, I think I was about 10 years old… We were during the Israeli occupation, we had very restricted movement, we couldn't go out. We were happy seeing new faces! After, I found out my mother started to cook. She said, 'I have to feed those people! They're so young! They're so hungry!' "They (the Irish) shared our happiness and our sadness at the same time." the famous 'Rosie' from baraachit, on President mcaleese's visit to her shop "She came twice to Lebanon after she met me. I hear now she's living in Longford in a big house…anyway, sure fair play to her, no harm! She was out here in 1998, I think, maybe '99, it was the first time she came to Lebanon, and she came to Baraachit to C Company. She was there and she came down to the shop. She was there for about fifteen minutes... and there's a guy from Longford – I don't have to mention his name [proceeds to mention name – both laugh] and he says 'She spends only five minutes with us and she spends twenty minutes with you!'" [Laughter] surrounding the potential for traumatic memories to be recalled by interviewees, and a protocol should this occur. On the morning of 5 March 2018 the team, comprising myself, Sgt David 'Ned' Kelly (Admin and Records Management Sgt), Cpl Mi- chael Whelan (Air Corps Museum curator, and the most experienced MAOHP interviewer), Noelle Grothier (MAOHP lead archivist), and Lisa Dolan (archivist), departed Dublin for Beirut. We arrived at UN Post 2-45 at about 2:30am and settled in for a few hours sleep. The first day began with camp familiarisation, setting up our of- fice space and interview rooms, and a welcome from the command- ing officer. Capt Ciarán Carey (MP Det) was our point of contact for the week, and we were afforded every facility, assistance and courtesy possible. Most of our interviews were with Lebanese civilian and we were extremely happy with these, as while there is no shortage of literature about the Defence Forces in Lebanon, these interviews captured rare insights into the opinions, feelings and experiences of the Lebanese themselves, covering events as intimate as sharing a childhood home in Tibnine with the first Irish soldiers in Lebanon; harrowing experiences of civil war and occupation; expressions of sympathies and opinions that may not sit easily with some listen- ers; and local perspectives on the wider geo-political situation in the Middle East. We also captured the testimonies of two of Irishbatt's Finnish and Estonian colleagues, as well as the in-theatre impressions of some Irish UNIFIL first timers and seasoned veterans. The trip also provided an opportunity for the two civilian archi- vists to familiarise themselves with the Irish area of operations with visits to Irish/Finnish outposts located along the Lebanon/ Israel border and Tibnine, a location central to the story of the Irish in Lebanon. During these visits Sgt Owen McCarthy proved an exceptional tour guide, sharing his wealth of experience and knowl- edge with the team. This brief experience of life in the Irish AO, seeing things in action that they had previously only read about in archival docu- ments, has greatly expanded and deepened our archivists' understanding of the Defence Forces' work overseas and enhances their capacity to interpret and appraise Military Archives' overseas records. By the end of the week we were already discussing the merits and possibilities of having archivists deploy regularly to mission areas. In the immediate term, however, there was still the matter of post-interview processing back in Ireland: preserving the recordings on our server, preparing time-coded the- matic abstracts (the most time consuming part) to make them usable for research, and identifying material deemed currently unsuitable for release into the public domain. Most importantly, we left appreciating the significance of what had been achieved; that we had been involved with something that was not only a first for Military Archives but a first for Ireland and our military heritage. MAOHP Team visit the memorial to Irish Defence Forces personnel who died in Lebanon. (l/r) Sgt Owen McCarthy, Noelle Grothier, Sgt David 'Ned' Kelly Lisa Dolan and Cpl Michael Whelan MAOHP Team (l/r) Cpl Michael Whelan, Noelle Grothier, Lisa Dolan, Capt Daniel Ayiotis and Sgt David 'Ned' Kelly

• Cover