'That young fellow came to literally kill a soldier.. and I took it with good grace'

MILITARY chaplain who was stabbed in a frenzied Jihadi attack has revealed that Irish peacekeepers in war-torn Lebanon call him a legend for escaping the incident with his life.

- BY MICHAEL O'TOOLE

And Fr Paul Murphy said the teenager who attacked him outside Renmore Barracks in Co Galway last year wanted to kill the first soldier he saw - and the padre willingly accepted it was him instead of someone else.

"That young fellow had come to literally kill a soldier, and I took it," Fr Murphy said.

"I took it with good grace, I suppose you might say."

He was speaking this week at Ireland's Camp Shamrock in southern Lebanon, where the Defence Forces have served since 1978, with 48 peacekeepers losing their lives.

He also revealed that he offers a monthly general absolution to Irish UN soldiers in case the worst happened. He said: "One of the things that a chaplain can do that an ordinary priest in a parish can't do is give what they call a general absolution. So I gave that Sunday again.

"Every month since we've come on Sunday Mass, I give a general absolution so that, God forbid if anything happened, the lads are covered in that sense."

He added: "In old terms, they're covered. It's an insurance policy that you don't even have to pay for."

BATTALION