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The Journal
27-05-2025
- Politics
- The Journal
French helicopter carrier visits Cobh ahead of major Atlantic invasion exercise
A FRENCH CAPTAIN of a massive helicopter and amphibious assault vessel visiting the town of Cobh has spoken about his ship's war fighting but also humanitarian mission. The Tonnerre paid a five day visit to Cork Harbour this week to rest up before they taken part in a major amphibious assault exercise on the West coast of France. The ship's name means thunder in French and it is a specialist multi-role vessel which carries helicopters and landing craft as well as hundreds of marines. At an event on the ship on Monday evening Schaar and other officers had lengthy discussions with head of the Irish Navy Commodore Michael Malone. The French ambassador Céline Place was also present and there were a number of Irish and French business leaders, county councillors as well as serving and former TDs in attendance. The French would not discuss the reports of potential purchases of armour vehicles by the Irish Defence Forces. French officials we spoke to also said they were not aware of progress with a French arms company to purchase sonar equipment for the Irish Naval Service. Capitaine de Vaisseau, or in English, Sea Captain, Adrien Schaar said that, while he is not aware of the full military cooperation with Ireland, there is a need for European navies to protect critical undersea cables and other infrastructure. France is currently laying an electric interconnector cable which will make landfall in East Cork. 'I would say most probably it is maritime surveillance – the ability to monitor what's going on around your island, around your coastline, which is a challenge that all navies, all countries have. 'Also something that is quite new, and I think is the concern for both France and Ireland, is to be able to control [what is happening] on the sea bottom – to be sure that no one is going to come and cut your cables or your critical infrastructures on the sea bottom,' he said. Captain Schaar on deck in Cobh. Niall O'Connor / The Journal Niall O'Connor / The Journal / The Journal The Mission The Tonnerre is designed to be a seabourne launch pad for a coastal invasion but has widespread pubic recognition in France for participating in humanitarian missions most recently in Haiti and in 2020 in Lebanon after the port explosion. It has also participated in missions during the Libyan and Ivory Coast civil wars also. Advertisement The ship, with a capacity for 900 soldiers and sailors, has just completed a Special Forces exercise testing the security of the French port of Cherbourg. It then headed north from a French naval base in Brest, Brittany to Ireland – it's next mission will be to meet other ships in Plymouth and head back to France to participate in a huge multinational exercise, dubbed Polaris, off the western coast. Schaar has been in command for the last two years. The Toulon native is keen to stress the humanitarian side of his work: 'I have saved more people than I've killed in this work, because most of the time we save people, most of the time we defend people. 'There are so many of these aid missions that I can't count the amount of people I have saved working on this ship.' It is understood the French ship was due to call into Dublin but as the port was full to capacity it made its way to Cobh. Regardless the Captain said, Cork Harbour's status as a cruise ship terminal, meant that the logistical restocking of stores was possible. Schaar said that the primary mission of the ship and its crew is an offensive one but they can change to deal with humanitarian crises. The Tonnerre deploying land craft. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo The ship has dedicated decks for helicopters, military vehicles and even an internal dock for two landing craft. Schaar used the example of a hurricane disaster on an island country as the example of how they would respond. 'We have the storage, we have the helicopters to take the food and bring it directly to the people in very remote places, and the landing craft to go to an island that has been slaughtered by a hurricane. 'The ship has the landing craft that can go on any shore, the helicopter that can that can land in a very remote place and so on. It's very convenient to do humanitarian assistance and even to recover our nationals in a country where there is instability, like Haiti last year,' he added. Readers like you are keeping these stories free for everyone... A mix of advertising and supporting contributions helps keep paywalls away from valuable information like this article. Over 5,000 readers like you have already stepped up and support us with a monthly payment or a once-off donation. Learn More Support The Journal
Yahoo
25-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Fitzgerald 'proud' as 14-man Antrim exit Leinster
Davy Fitzgerald said he was "extremely proud" of his Antrim players after they suffered a 3-15 to 1-16 loss to Offaly in Sunday's Leinster Hurling relegation shootout in Tullamore. Having lost Niall O'Connor to a straight red card inside the opening 10 minutes, Antrim refused to wilt and retained hopes of snatching a comeback victory when James McNaughton's 65th-minute goal brought them back to within a point. But while Offaly's third goal ensured a win for Johnny Kelly's side, Fitzgerald was buoyed by what he saw from Antrim. "We were definitely the better team in the second half," Fitzgerald told GAA+. "Playing against that wind, we ran the ball well, worked the ball well. We probably had two goal chances that we needed to take. "Offaly have improved immensely and you have to give them credit, their fight and work is good." Fitzgerald also said he did not blame referee Michael Kennedy for dismissing O'Connor for what appeared to be a stamp on Offaly's Charlie Mitchell. "Anyone that knows Niall O'Connor knows he's not a dirty player," added the former Clare and Waterford boss. "It might have looked bad, I can tell you he's not a dirty player, and he said to me afterwards, 'honestly, I didn't mean to stamp' and I said, 'fair enough, it looks how it looks'. I don't blame the referee for that exact thing." After three seasons in the Leinster Championship, Antrim will return to the Joe McDonagh Cup - a competition they won in 2020 and 2022 - for the 2026 campaign. But Fitzgerald, who joined Antrim on a two-year term before this season, does not doubt his squad's ability to bounce straight back. "There will be no fear in them boys no matter what the story is," said Fitzgerald, who led Clare to the 2013 All-Ireland title. "We held ourselves in the league, we wanted to hold on, very unlucky that we didn't. He added: "They have the potential to come right back up again, but they know what they need to do, we've had a good chat about that recently. "Antrim will bounce back. They showed massive resilience today and that's very important."
The Journal
23-05-2025
- Politics
- The Journal
Irish Lebanon commander: 'This has been ten times worse than anything I experienced before'
FOR THE LEADER of Irish troops in Lebanon, Israeli drone strikes and dynamic war fighting made his ninth peacekeeping deployment his most challenging yet. The last time The Journal met Lieutenant Colonel Shane Rockett was in Camp Shamrock in the hills of Lebanon as an Israeli drone buzzed overhead. Before that we met him in the Glen of Imaal as his troops prepared to deploy . Today he returned to Dublin Airport with the last group of his troops from the 125th Infantry Battalion as they completed their peacekeeping mission in Lebanon. They have now been replaced by a new battalion of Irish soldiers. The Tipperary man led the troops on what he said was the most dynamic and active trip of his career since he joined the Irish Defence Forces in 1994. As the soldiers he led embraced loved ones in the arrival hall of Terminal One he spoke about his feelings about being back on Irish soil. He speaks of the 'kinetic' atmosphere on the ground in Lebanon – a slang term soldiers use to describe a situation where they are under fire or there is a largescale bombardment. 'I'm very relieved. My main priority as a commander is to make sure we get everyone back home safe and sound, and we've done that. 'It was probably the most kinetic tour of duty I've been on in my career. And I've had nine tours of duty today. One of those was my first tour back in 1995 and 1996 during Grapes of Wrath, which was another Israeli operation in Lebanon, which was, at the time, a bad situation, but this trip was 10 times worse,' he said. Operation Grapes of Wrath was a 17 day invasion of Lebanon by Israel as they targeted Hezbollah – it was designed to stop missiles being launched into Israel from south Lebanon. Lt Col Shane Rockett at Dublin Airport today. Niall O'Connor / The Journal Niall O'Connor / The Journal / The Journal Just days before Rockett and his team handed over their mission to the 126th Infantry Battalion, Israeli troops fired on a UN post in Sector East and attempted to intimidate an Irish patrol with a targeting or range finder laser from a weapons system . 'This is part of military operations abroad. Laser activity on military operations is not something new to us. 'We've been monitoring it for the time that we've been out there. There was no threat to Irish troops at that time. We report these things as a matter of course – it's occurring daily out there, and it's something that we deal with,' he added. Advertisement Rockett had revealed in an interview during The Journal's visit to south Lebanon in March that troops were dealing with a bad reaction from the local population. It emerged that disinformation from multiple sides, but particularly from Hezbollah and Israeli sources, was causing the issue. 'You have one side, like the Israeli side saying that the UNIFIL troops are hiding or protecting Hezbollah out there, which is not the case at all. 'Then you've Hezbollah saying that we're spying on behalf of Israel. That is also not the case. The UN and UNIFIL are neutral. The Irish Defence Forces are neutral out there and we don't take sides,' he added. Rockett spoke about how his troops operated in Lebanon as they established operations as the ceasefire took hold. 'I think the Irish have a unique way of deploying as peacekeepers overseas. We bring a calmness to a situation, and the locals certainly appreciated that for the six months that we were there. 'We were able to establish our operations and work closely with the Lebanese Armed Forces to make sure that we were able to add to the safe and secure environment in the area of operations,' he added. Rockett said the operations were complicated by the amount of random shelling and bombings by Israel and the activities of Hezbollah. 'It's tense and unpredictable there and every day something is happening. 'The ceasefire is fragile, but we have to have faith in the ceasefire. We have to have faith in what comes after, which is hopefully a peaceful process where the people of Lebanon can get back to doing their normal business,' he added. The Journal / YouTube One of the peacekeepers arriving back through Dublin Airport today was Company Sergeant John Rooney who is the uncle of Private Seán Rooney who was murdered in a Hezbollah controlled area while deployed in Lebanon in December 2022. Today, as he was surrounded by his family, John said: 'I wanted to go over there and make my family proud and I wanted to make him [Seán] proud. 'Seán always looked up to me and I know he is looking down and he is proud of me and I am proud of him.' Readers like you are keeping these stories free for everyone... A mix of advertising and supporting contributions helps keep paywalls away from valuable information like this article. Over 5,000 readers like you have already stepped up and support us with a monthly payment or a once-off donation. Learn More Support The Journal
