Two Irish soldiers who were murdered while serving in Lebanon have ‘finally got justice after 40 years’
Ann Mooney
23 Dec 2020, 7:00
THE families of two Irish soldiers, who were murdered while serving in the Lebanon yesterday said they’ve finally got justice after 40 years.
Privates Thomas Barrett, 29, from Macroom, Co Cork, and Derek Smallhorne, 31, from Bluebell, Dublin, were abducted and killed while on United Nations Peacekeeping duties in April 1980.
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Private Thomas Barrett, 29Credit: check copyright
They were captured by the Israeli-backed South Lebanon Army in a car and their bodies were found hours later.
Both had been shot dead at point blank range.
His team left every fibre, every cuticle out on that field and yet, for the last 10 minutes or so, Dublin were rolling home with all the ease of a pleasure steamer. We are just stenographers in their world now, tasked with transcribing the small detail of outlandish numbers.
They are an imperious, undramatic team built to work through these days logically and without fuss.
It’s true that nobody rattles Dublin physically quite like Mayo, yet where is the comfort in that after eight years without a league or championship win against the city team? So just take some pictures and place them in plastic like the others.
RTÉ Sport Reporter
At the end of last year s championship, as the capital toasted its five-in-a-row success, we might have thought we d have seen the last of the Dublin-Mayo finals - for a few years anyway.
The summary manner in which Dublin had dispatched a tired-looking Mayo side gave the 2019 semi-final an end of an era feel.
It was assumed that Kerry would now pick up the baton and become Dublin s chief rivals for the next half-decade or so.
This may yet happen.
But after giving last year s final a real rattle and winning the National League title, Peter Keane s team proceeded to tumble through the trap-door in Munster.
RTÉ Sport Journalist
Another All-Ireland final beckons for Mayo and another Croke Park finale for Sean Rice to cast an eye over.
Now in his 83rd year, Rice still maintains a good recall of past events, that since 1951 have not been kind to the Green and Red when Sam Maguire is being handed out. A journalist with the Connacht Telegraph and Connacht Tribune for many years, Rice now writes a weekly column on GAA affairs for the Mayo News.
Through his fine penmanship, the love affair with Gaelic football still shines through.
Life began in a little place called Moneen, just outside Castlebar. There wasn t too much money around during the War years and to be honest with you, life was tough, Rice revealed when speaking to RTÉ Sport.