Defence Forces Review 2008

Defence Forces Review 2008
Towers in New York. Back in the medical centre, I was just in time to see the second plane
crash into the second tower. The reality of what was happening began to dawn on me. I wrote
in my diary that evening – “Today I feel the world was changed at about 15.30 Middle Eastern
time. God help us all.”
Finally, we started to say our goodbyes. On Sunday, November the 11th, the local people
unveiled a plaque on the gable wall of their church in memory of the Irish. As the Bishop of
Tyre said, “how could we forget the numerous sacrifices endured by your courageous army,
especially your 46 martyrs who offered their lives to deliver peace to our holy land” And
eventually, our last day arrived – November the 12th. As I prepared to leave, the last thing I
packed was the prayer mat I received from the woman whose baby I delivered all those years
ago. The circle was closing. I was going home.
On reflection, I experienced every human emotion – joy, anger, despair, love, hate and
forgiveness – at different times and, at some times, simultaneously, during my 23 years in
the Lebanon. My sanity and impulse to keep going were severely tested. On occasion, I felt a
sense of achievement or progress only to have it dashed by some other grotesque happening
or event. This has been a land of constant and rapid change, a place of conflict through nearly
all of recorded human history. Over three millennia, it has experienced golden ages but more
often it has been a place where man’s inhumanity to himself has been enacted with everincreasing
viciousness. Belief against belief, national against nation, tribe against tribe and
family against family, Christian, Muslim, Jew and Heathen – all have fought here. During
my brief time here, I feel it was the companionship of colleagues, helping and being helped,
giving and receiving kindness that made it all worthwhile. Assuming that one has the essential
skills and qualities of one’s craft; everyone needs to approach life imbued with what I call ‘the
four hs’ – humanity, humility, honesty and humour. Without wishing to sound sanctimonious,
if you do your work with these ‘four hs’ in mind, you will do no harm.
As a doctor and medical officer, you hope to do more than that. You hope you contribute in
some little way to the improvement of the place and the people you come into contact with. To
leave and be able to say you left it a better place than when you arrived – even if after a short
period, your contribution is once again wiped out in another political adventure motivated
by hate, power, money or all three. I say, let there be change. Heraclitus of Ephesus asserted
the essence of existence is change. Change in itself is inevitable and fundamentally good,
provided in change there is also conceived consistency.
To end, I would ask you to reflect on one of the adages of Horace. “Quid sit Futurum cras fuge
quaerere’ – forbear to ask what tomorrow may bring. One must not always be preoccupied with
tomorrow’s storms lest one forgets to enjoy the sunshine of today. So yes, let us take comfort
and pride in the Irish contribution to the Lebanon – this beautiful but shadowed land.
58