If Michael Smith wanted firsthand evidence of the pressure Irish soldiers are coming under in south Lebanon, he got it in spades yesterday.
Irish UN troops in Tibnin spent three hours in their bunkers as an arsenal of weaponry flew over, past and sometimes at their outposts, sandwiched between the warring factions in the region.
Syrian-backed Hizbullah soldiers launched a co-ordinated attack on four compounds held by the South Lebanese Army only miles north of the Israeli border.
In direct contravention of a 1996 agreement, they fired from within yards of the Irish bases and from villages inhabited by civilians. By 7.15 a.m. it was time for the SLA and its Israeli masters to respond with matching ferocity in a two-hour barrage of indiscriminate shelling and firing.
The Irish troops, now well accustomed to these regular poundings, emerged safely from their bunkers once the fighting stopped after 9.30 a.m.
By the time the Minister arrived later in the morning, they had gathered the bullets, spent shells and pieces of shrapnel that constitute the evidence of another day of reckless conflict.
The latest escalation has already cost the life of Pte Billy Kedian, killed in an SLA attack on May 31st. But the tales of lucky escapes are mounting and senior Defence Force officials are expressing concern at the latest turn in the war between the SLA and Hizbullah.
At B Company headquarters in Haddathah, for example, Mr Smith was shown the remains of a shower unit destroyed by an SLA shell, fired after the "all clear" had been sounded. By a miracle, the message did not get through to the company; otherwise, the unit would have been full of soldiers, emerging from their bunkers, when the mortar landed.
Things should be getting better. The new Israeli prime minister, Ehud Barak, wants to pull out of south Lebanon, and the SLA is already withdrawing from the Jezzine corridor north of the Irishbatt area.
However, the disruption of the existing balance of terror has increased instability. The SLA is making a last stand, and many of its troops have nowhere to run.
"Meanwhile, the Hizbullah are like a hound, they have the smell of the blood and will follow their quarry to every corner of the Lebanon," says Col Pat Nash, commander of the Irish battalion.
Mr Smith's current visit, his fifth so far to south Lebanon, is intended as a morale-boosting trip following Pte Kedian's tragic death. But its political significance lies in the Minister's meetings with his defence counterparts in the Lebanon and Israel.
Mr Smith has little to bargain with in his efforts to get the Israelis to rein in their militiamen.
In which case, he might do well to reflect on a Lebanese saying recalled by one Irish soldier yesterday: "One kisses the hand one cannot yet bite."