Lieutenant General Lieutenant general (Lt Gen, LTG and similar) is a three-star military rank (NATO code OF-8) used in many countries. The rank traces its origins to the Middle Ages, where the title of lieutenant general was held by the second-in-command on the ...

William "Bull" O'Callaghan,

BSD The Berkeley Software Distribution or Berkeley Standard Distribution (BSD) is a discontinued operating system based on Research Unix, developed and distributed by the Computer Systems Research Group (CSRG) at the University of California, Berk ...

( ga, Liam Ó Céallachgáin; 3 July 1921 – 26 December 2015) was an

Irish Army The Irish Army, known simply as the Army ( ga, an tArm), is the land component of the Defence Forces of Ireland.The Defence Forces are made up of the Permanent Defence Forces – the standing branches – and the Reserve Defence Forces. The Ar ...

officer.

Early life

O'Callaghan was born in Buttevant, County Cork, and joined the

Irish Defence Forces The Defence Forces ( ga, Fórsaí Cosanta, officially styled ) derives its origins from the Irish Volunteers. Whilst the Irish for ''Defence Forces'' is , as Ó Cearúil (1999) points out, the Defence Forces are officially styled . is used in ...

at age 17 in 1939.

Military career

O'Callaghan graduated from the Military College at

Curragh Camp The Curragh Camp ( ga, Campa an Churraigh) is an army base and military college in The Curragh, County Kildare, Ireland. It is the main training centre for the Defence Forces (Ireland), Irish Defence Forces and is home to 2,000 military personnel ...

, County Kildare. He is most notable for being the Force Commander of the

United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon ( ar, قوة الأمم المتحدة المؤقتة في لبنان, he, כוח האו"ם הזמני בלבנון), or UNIFIL ( ar, يونيفيل, he, יוניפי״ל), is a UN peacekeeping m ...

from 1981 to 1986; a neutral United Nations

peacekeeping Peacekeeping comprises activities intended to create conditions that favour lasting peace. Research generally finds that peacekeeping reduces civilian and battlefield deaths, as well as reduces the risk of renewed warfare. Within the United N ...

force during the

Lebanese Civil War The Lebanese Civil War ( ar, الحرب الأهلية اللبنانية, translit=Al-Ḥarb al-Ahliyyah al-Libnāniyyah) was a multifaceted armed conflict that took place from 1975 to 1990. It resulted in an estimated 120,000 fatalities a ...

. O'Callaghan was a

County Cork County Cork ( ga, Contae Chorcaí) is the largest and the southernmost county of Ireland, named after the city of Cork, the state's second-largest city. It is in the province of Munster and the Southern Region. Its largest market towns are ...

native who had the unique distinction of holding the two most important United Nations appointments in the Middle East during a particularly tumultuous period in the 1970s and 1980s, when he was the Force Commander of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) from February 1981 to May 1986 and the

United Nations Truce Supervision Organization The United Nations Truce Supervision Organization (UNTSO) is an organization founded on 29 May 1948 for peacekeeping in the Middle East. Established amidst the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, its primary task was initially to provide the military com ...

(UNTSO) from April 1978 to June 1979 and again from May 1986 to June 1987, commanding multinational troops in Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Egypt and Jordan. In an interview in April 1982 with United States magazine ''People'', with UNIFIL having suffered 145 combat casualties in its previous 4 years, 35 of them fatalities, O'Callaghan said: "Peacekeeping is not about firing shots. Its about not firing and stopping those who are. We must look for trouble at the 4 points of the compass, and then we look behind our backs."

Legacy

Irish cadets in training compete for an award named in his honour; the "Lt Gen William Callaghan Sword" is awarded to the cadet who displays the best tactical ability.
Irish UNIFIL commander, Lieutenant General William O'Callaghan (1921–2015)

Honours and awards

Lieutenant General O'Callaghan was a recipient of the: Distinguished Service Medal (Ireland), Distinguished Service Medal, French

Legion of Honour The National Order of the Legion of Honour (french: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur), formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour ('), is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleon, ...

,Duggan, John P. (1991) A History of the Irish Army, Gill and Macmillan, Dublin and Lebanese

National Order of the Cedar National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, ce ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:OCallaghan, William 2015 deaths 1921 births Irish Army generals United Nations military personnel Irish generals Military personnel from County Cork