Today, the 10th of July 2011, is a National Day of Commemoration for servicemen and women who have died in wars or in service with the United Nations. Nearly every family in Ireland will have a story that relates to family members who died in service. My own great-grandfather is commemorated in Thiepval having died in WWI and I will tell his story here some other day.
For today I will relate a personal memory from 1980. We grew up in married quarters in Collin's Barracks on the NE side of Cork city. Married quarters consisted of four large accomodation blocks which held about thirty families from throughout Ireland but I seem to remember a decidedly Tipperary bias to the families origins, there were Burkes, Lonergans and Hogans. The families came together on a weekly basis for mass in what I think is called the Garrison Chapel while the broader community (servicemen and families) came together for Passing Out ceremonies, Christmas parties and less regularly, army funerals.
My father served with the Signals Corp of the Irish Army from the early 60s to the late 80s and in that time he served abroad with the UN in the Congo, Sinai, Cyprus and the Lebanon in 1978. He came home every time he went out but not every soldier, or soldier's family, was so lucky. In 1980, in Collin's Barracks, we attended the funeral mass for Pte Derek Smallhorn and Pte Tom Barrett who were both murdered by Christian Militia in Lebanon after a period of prolonged fighting at the village of At-Tiri. I remember the formal ceremony, the dignified grief and the awareness of sacrifice. I remember the coffins, draped in the tricolor sitting on gun carriages and a slow military procession.
