The Defence Forces have changed from a badly resourced organisation "under the thumb of the Department of Defence" when he first joined, to a well trained force today, its retiring Chief of Staff said yesterday.
Speaking at a "stand down" parade in his honour at McKee barracks in Dublin, Lieut Gen Jim Sreenan also said it was "hard to project" what will happen in Lebanon, following the deaths of six UN soldiers close to the Irish base in south Lebanon on Sunday.
But he said peacekeeping is a "high risk" business and emphasised that you "don't suddenly withdraw troops because casualties occur".
"It's hard to project what's going to happen in Lebanon. There is a danger of it falling apart; we hope and we pray that won't happen. There are risks."
Recalling how the Defence Forces have changed since he entered service 43 years ago, Lieut Gen Sreenan said it was a "post World War two" organisation at that time.
"Badly resourced, under strength, very badly equipped, badly trained, but some excellent people . . . People who weren't as well educated as our young people are today. But people who were motivated . . . to do their best," he said.
"We were under the thumb of the Department of Defence . . . if you wanted to get a few spare parts for a vehicle you couldn't do that."
Commenting on reports earlier this year of a rift between himself and Minister for Defence Willie O'Dea, he described his relationship with Mr O'Dea as "warm, positive and I hope fruitful".
"Of course it's my duty to speak out from time to time. It's not my duty to raise issues of Government policy in the media. But I have the job, and every chief of staff has the job, to represent the soldiers under his command," he said.