5,000km away... but never far from our hearts

IT'S a phrase that is bandied about, but the news that Ireland's UNIFIL mission to southern Lebanon is winding in 2027 really is the end of an era.

- BY MICHAEL O'TOOLE

The mission to Lebanon - known in the Defence Forces simply as 'The Leb' - has been an integral part of Irish fabric for almost 50 years.

It may be 5,000 kilometres from Ireland, but southern Lebanon has been in the hearts and minds of countless Irish people since June 1978.

That was when the first Irish soldiers were sent there as part of the United Nations plan to keep the peace between Israel and Islamic fighters in Lebanon.

Since then, apart from a few years in the noughties, Irish soldiers have been a constant presence.

Some 32,000 individual Irish tours of duty have been served there in that time - and that meant multiples of that figure back home have been keeping a nervous eye on the news, while their loved ones have risked all for peace in towns and villages with exotic names like Tibnine, Bint Jbeil, At-Tiri and Braashit.