Adrian Ainsworth was awarded a MMG, not a DSM. AFAIK He crawled some distance under fire to go to the aid of a wounded soldier.
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Originally posted by Orion View Post
The claim was lodged by Comdt Adrian Ainsworth, who was one of three Irish peacekeeping personnel awarded the Military Medal for Gallantry as a result of a gun battle in the village of At Tiri in south Lebanon in April 1980.
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Originally posted by Orion View Post
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There will always be some confusion about the 46th Bn and the actions of what happened,
in At-Tiri and to those captured going behind the lines to relive O.P. RAS - O.P. BLIDA - O.P. MHAIBEB. as far as I am aware there exists, even to this day no written Battalionn history, itself an unusual fact,
as there are Battalion history's for the preceding Irish Battalions and IrishBattalions that came afterwards in UNIFIL kept in the Military Library in the Curragh.
Its also not helped by the following observation taken from:- "At-Tiri, or Bosnia Avoided: The Irish in UNIFIL 1978 -1995" by Robert Fisk, published in the Defense Force Review of2008.
"For when the UN official history 0f the events of April 1980 was published, the events of At-Tiri were heavily censored, and all mention of the murders of Smallhorne and Barrett was expunged from the record."
The relevant volumes, written by Lt.Col J. B. Ou-Prempeh of the Ghanian Army, Major S.R.S. Wirkkula of Finland and Sergeant C.J.E.D. Delawrence of Ghana, delete all mention of the Irish retaking of At-Tiri of the 12th April 1980.
They make no reference to the death of at least two of Haddad's men in that action, thus removing the reasons for the killing of Barrett and Smallhorne.
Even more disreputable however was the decision of the U.N. authors to censor out the very murders of the two Irish soldiers.
Indeed the U.N.I.F.I.L. volume records the destruction of four U.N.I.F.I.L. Italian helicopters at Naqoura, and actually states that `the most serious consequence of shelling and sniping (sic) on Saturday 12 April was the loss medevac capacity´
On another page of their report, the UNIFIL officers record the assault on Naquora head-quarters, in which the helicopters were burned, as `the most inhuman attack on a U.N.I.F.I.L. unit since the establishment of the force.´
If this resume is to be believed, then the loss of four helicopters mattered more to the U.N. than the murder of two Irish soldiers, whose names, and terrible end have simply diapered from the text.
Indeed, it may be noteworthy that the annex which lists the deaths of the UNIFIL troops - and from which Smallhorne and Barrett could scarcely be censored out yet again initially records the cause of death as `murder´. In later volumes, however this has been changed to `killed in action.´
We owe it to the memories of our murdered comrades, their families and the reputation of the organisations they volunteered to serve in, (both the Irish Defence Forces and the United Nations) that the full truth and correct record of history be known.
Connaught Stranger
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Originally posted by atiri View PostI think Michael John Daly was awarded for another incident in at tire,maybe a different time ,See below
The claim was lodged by Comdt Adrian Ainsworth, who was one of three Irish peacekeeping personnel awarded the Military Medal for Gallantry as a result of a gun battle in the village of At Tiri in south Lebanon in April 1980.
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I met Mick Jones a couple of years ago (he's on his ticket a few years now,
I believe)
A very down to earth guy..."Well, stone me! We've had cocaine, bribery and Arsenal scoring two goals at home. But just when you thought there were truly no surprises left in football, Vinnie Jones turns out to be an international player!" (Jimmy Greaves)!"
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"Let us be clear about three facts. First, all battles and all wars are won in the end by the infantryman. Secondly, the infantryman always bears the brunt. His casualties are heavier, he suffers greater extremes of discomfort and fatigue than the other arms. Thirdly, the art of the infantryman is less stereotyped and far harder to acquire in modern war than that of any other arm." ------- Field Marshall Wavell, April 1945.
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Do you have to be on Facebook to see that?'He died who loved to live,' they'll say,
'Unselfishly so we might have today!'
Like hell! He fought because he had to fight;
He died that's all. It was his unlucky night.
http://www.salamanderoasis.org/poems...nnis/luck.html
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