One of the officers who led the moves for representation for military personnel - in the face of opposition from superiors - has been chosen by the Government to be the next Chief of Staff of the Defence Forces.
Maj-Gen Dave Stapleton is also the only Irish officer currently serving as the head of a United Nations mission. He is Force Commander of the UN Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF), which was set up to observe the truce between Israel and Syria on the Golan Heights.
He was chosen at yesterday's Cabinet meeting to succeed Lieut-Gen Gerry McMahon, who retires on August 22nd. Maj-Gen Stapleton is currently based in Damascus, where he heads a multinational force of 1,500 observers on the Golan Heights. His role is to act as senior information and liaison officer between the two governments, as well as commanding his force. He has been living in Damascus with his wife Maureen since his appointment to UNDOF in June last year. He served before with the UN in Syria during the Yom Kippur war.
The Stapletons and their family of three daughters and one son were living in Damascus in 1972 during the Israeli-Syrian conflict. Their apartment was badly damaged in an Israeli air raid, and Mrs Stapleton received an eye injury when a bomb landed nearby.
The family was evacuated back to Ireland. When Mrs Stapleton recovered she accompanied her husband when he returned to finish his tour of duty.
Maj-Gen Stapleton was seen by fellow officers as a likely candidate for the position of Chief of Staff. Because of that it was seen as a brave move when he became one of the founding members of the officers' staff association, the Representative Association of Commissioned Officers (RACO), becoming its first president. The moves for representation arose because of low pay in the Defence Forces compared with others in the public sector, particularly the Garda. There was serious opposition to the idea of staff representation in the forces, and officers who founded the association faced possible disciplinary measures and damage to their careers.
Maj-Gen Stapleton, who is from Clonmel, Co Tipperary, joined the Defence Forces as an officer cadet in 1955. He served with the UN in the Congo in 1962, in Syria in 1972, in Lebanon in 1983 and 1985, and in Namibia in 1989. The tours of duty in 1972 and the early 1980s took place during periods of intense conflict when UN casualties were at their highest.
Before his appointment to UNDOF he was Quarter Master General of the Defence Forces. He had previously held posts in the operations section at Defence Forces Headquarters in the Military College in the Curragh and was director of the Supply and Transport Corps.