Proud history in the United Nations

Ireland has had a long and varied membership of the United Nations Organisation. From the very outset, Ireland adopted a relatively independent stand on international matters, which helped our standing among the nations of the world and led to Irish soldiers being accepted as members of peacekeeping forces. For peacekeeping operations, member nations provide armed soldiers and they are placed under the command of the United Nations.
We had not been members long when Ireland made its first contribution to a United Nations mission. As early as 1958, 50 officers served as part of the UN observer group supervising the border between Israel and Lebanon. The first peacekeeping mission in which armed Irish soldiers took part was that to the former Belgian Congo in 1960. There was great excitement in the country as the troops prepared to depart.
This was Ireland’s first involvement in any foreign operation and most people saw it as a major step forward as a nation. There was further excitement when Lieutenant General MacKeown was appointed force commander.
Over a period of four years more than 6,000 Irish soldiers served on the mission to the Congo but unfortunately not all returned alive. It proved to be the most costly exercise for the army since the Civil War as 26 soldiers lost their lives. Nine of these men died in one infamous incident, the Niemba Ambush.
Since then, Irish troops have served with the UN all over the world – over 30,000 in the Lebanon alone, in Suez, the former Yugoslavia, Cyprus, Iran, Afghanistan and as far away as East Timor. Currently, there are Irish troops on UN duty in Europe, Asia, Africa and the Middle East.
Ireland has also played an active role in the administrative side of the UN. On three different occasions, Ireland has been elected to sit on the supreme ruling body of the UN – the Security Council. Apart from the five permanent members US, UK, France, Russia and China, 10 other member countries are elected for two-year terms on the Security Council. Ireland was elected a member in 1962, 1982 and 2002.
Conor Cruise O’Brien, better known in his later years as a controversial politician, acted as special envoy of the Secretary General Dag Hammershold during the Congo crisis. Ms Patricia O’Brien is an Under Secretary General for legal affairs and former President Mary Robinson resigned her office to take up the position of UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. Frederick Boland became the first Irish ambassador to London when Ireland was declared a republic and when we joined the UN, he became Ireland’s first permanent representative.
He was elected president of the United Nations General Assembly in 1960 and was in that position when, during the Cold War, USSR head of state Nikita Khrushchev took off his shoe and started banging his table. In trying to bring him to order, Boland actually broke his gavel, he banged it so hard.
We might think we have always been in the UN but it is worth remembering that when Ireland first applied to join, Russia vetoed our application because of our neutrality during the World War II. Eventually, we were accepted and joined the United Nations on December 14, 1955 – 56 years ago this week.