The Clare Champion Clare news, sport, entertainment and local notes
MANY tributes were paid during the week to Kilrush-born Michael D Shannon, retired colonel, UN peacekeeper and former president of the Irish Peace Institute (IPI). He had a distinguished army career and, between the army and the UN, he worked abroad in over 20 countries. As a young man, he was with the UN in the Congo in 1961. His military career also took him to Cyprus and the Lebanon. He recalled that the late General Bill O’Callaghan, who was a native of Buttevant and was well known in Clare after serving as OC of the Clare FCA 22nd Battalion, was first commander of the 7,000-man-strong UNIFIL force in South Lebanon. Michael also served in Central America during the political upheaval there in the early 1990s. Their headquarters were in Honduras and he was deputy UN chief there. They had 300 military officer observers working in five countries, including Nicaragua, El Salvador and Honduras. He was also in South Africa …
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