A personal story of Irish army peacekeeping with John Blehein

The Ramblers were informatively entertained on Thursday night by an insightful introduction to, and observations of, Irish army life in New York. It's origins stretch back to the Young Irelander's failed rebellion of 1848. Thank you to our guest speaker, local United Nations veteran peacekeeper, John Blehein, for sharing his enthusiasm about representing Ireland and Moygownagh, by marching in the recent 2024 New York St. Patrick's Day parade, he shared many photographs of the event. John also spoke briefly about his experiences of overseas missions to various UN peace keeping deployments he participated in, throughout the Middle East. Although Ireland's military are not activaly involved in open warfare, their considerable contributions to peacekeeping can be met with danger, through sniper fire, aggression, or the untimely explosion of landmines. It is a sobering thought, that not all army personnel make a safe return journey home to share their stories.

Author: Pauline Mahon

John Blehein (far left) at the 1916 Commemoration held in Carn NS on 22 January 2016