Born June 26th, 1929
Died January 8th, 2023
Jeremiah (Jerry) Enright was the first officer on the scene of the aftermath of the ambush of a platoon of Irish troops in November 1960 at Niemba in the Congolese province of Katanga.
When the platoon under the command of Lieut Kevin Gleeson failed to return from patrol the then Lieut Enright was given the task of leading a rescue. Two soldiers, troopers Fitzgerald and Kenny, survived the attack, but were in a state of deep shock when Enright and his platoon arrived. Eight, including Gleeson, had been killed in the attack, and a third, trooper Anthony Browne, was missing, his body not recovered until a year later.
Enright had known Gleeson very well, and had attended various military training courses with him. Although himself in shock, in the moment he showed both courage and a flair for leadership that never subsequently deserted him. He ordered his men to fire their weapons in a fusillade into the surrounding jungle on both sides of the small river, a bridge over which Lieut Gleeson and his platoon had been ordered to secure when they were attacked, in order to prepare them psychologically for what they might have to do if they themselves were attacked, which had the immediate effect of steadying nerves.
This ability to think quickly and act decisively served Enright well on his three other tours of UN duty, in Cyprus in 1965, in Lebanon with Unifil in 1981-1982, and finally as chief military observer of the UN mission on the disputed border between Pakistan and India in Kashmir from 1989 until shortly before his retirement in 1993.
His service in Cyprus came at a moment of continuing crisis on the island, as the UN-appointed mediator between the Greek and Turkish communities was struggling, ultimately unsuccessfully, to reconcile two bitterly divided groups in his bid to broker a formula for the successful continuation of Cyprus as an independent, unitary state.
In Kashmir, for three years, Enright had his most important command, attempting to prevent the ever-simmering tensions between the Indian and Pakistani armies from exploding
Potentially much graver problems faced Enright in Lebanon from October, 1981 until March 1982, when continuing violence involving the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) and Amal, a Shia group later superseded by Hizbullah, on the one hand, and the Israelis and their allies, the Christian militia known as the South Liberation Army (SLA) – effectively clients of the Israelis – on the other, was building to a crescendo before Israel’s invasion of Lebanon the following summer.
Enright was in command of the Irish battalion component of Unifil, and his then colleague, retired Col Maurice Canavan, who served under him, recalled that from time to time different groups would cross the Irish lines, issues resolved by careful diplomacy on Enright’s part, as he developed very friendly relations with the local mukhtars, or village leaders. The complexity of the situation, recalls Col Canavan, was added to by the fact that from a winter population of 30,000, a summer influx of locals living in Lebanese cities increased it by 50 per cent.
In Kashmir, for three years, Enright had his most important command, attempting to prevent the ever-simmering tensions between the Indian and Pakistani armies from exploding. The situation was so perilous at one point, recalls Rory Finegan, that a proposed visit to the area in 1991 by himself, and Enright’s son Derry – both of the younger men at that time being themselves serving Army officers – had to be aborted.
During his many postings in Ireland, he served, at the height of the hunger strikes, as commanding officer of the 27th Battalion, based at Dundalk during one of the most testing times for the Defence Forces.
His other Army service domestically included several stints with the Equitation School and as commanding officer of the Army Detention Centre with the Military Police in the mid-1970s.
Jerry Enright was a proud Kerry man, one of 10 children of Thomas and Margaret (nee O’Hanlon), a farming family from Tarbert, and was educated at Rockwell College in Co Tipperary before joining the Army Cadet School aged 20, following a period on his family’s farm after leaving school.
He was predeceased by his wife Breda (nee Loughlin), a nurse, and his siblings Sr Kevin, St Aquin, Sr Rosalie, Margaret, Fr Timothy and Jimmy. He is survived by his sister Breda, and his brothers Tommy and Danny, and by his children Margaret, Catherine, Derry, Miriam and Christine.