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IN THE HIGH heat of the main Irish base in South Lebanon Fr Paul Murphy stands waiting to greet a convoy of armoured vehicles arriving from Beirut.
Soldiers dismount and walk up a short incline and when a number of them, some senior officers, see him there are hugs and warm greetings – it is a scene akin to the happiness of seeing a sibling or parent after a long absence.
The padre, dressed in the same Irish military camouflage as the troops, is only distinguished by a Celtic Cross patch on his chest.
The Journal, on a visit to United Nations Post 2-45 or Camp Shamrock as it is known, spoke to Fr Murphy about his work with the troops, how he is the only unarmed non-combatant in the base, and how when he was stabbed in a terror attack at the gates of a military barracks in Galway it only reinforced his sense of duty.
He was also mentioned back home this week as the Representative Association of Commissioned Officers (RACO) raised the refusal by the Department of Defence to recognise Chaplains as members of the armed forces.
Murphy is softly spoken but charismatic. As he walks through the camp soldiers greet him by his first name.
He hit the headlines in August 2024, when, as he drove back into Renmore Barracks in Galway, a radicalised teenage boy stabbed him. Armed young soldiers on the gate subdued the boy, saving the priest’s life.
Murphy later publicly forgave the young attacker and embraced him in court in a defining show of grace.
He has spent the past six months in the Hills of South Lebanon as the chaplain serving alongside the more than 300 Irish soldiers keeping the peace in the war-torn region.
Nightly attacks by Israeli forces happen in nearby towns, villages and hamlets. While The Journal was visiting there were reports of drone strikes, mortar attacks and other incidents.
The danger and tense atmosphere, Murphy said, has made his job to be more than just the priest in the camp – he is a listening ear, someone to chat with about problems that their comrades cannot solve and sound off on fears and concerns.
To prepare the troops, one of the services he performs, which priests outside of the military can’t do, is offer general absolution in a wide-ranging effort to give some ease to the soldiers who go outside on patrol.
“I hear confessions in my room and in in the chapel as well – one of the things that a chaplain can do that an ordinary priest in a parish can’t do is give what they call a general absolution.
“I gave that last Sunday again. So every month since we’ve come to Sunday Mass, I give a general absolution, so that, God forbid if anything happened, the lads are covered,” he said.
Murphy, who is on his sixth deployment, chatted through his role and much of it is about just being there for the soldiers but he also works in the background, sometimes receiving a tip off about a soldier who is struggling from one of his comrades or even a family member at home.
He said that the key to his job is to be a non-judgemental “shoulder to cry on”.
“One of the things I say about chaplaincy is that you loiter with intent.
“And that can be difficult – you go into a canteen in the morning, and everyone has their own little group, and the Padre doesn’t have a group, but you can actually sit with any crew. Now, I don’t know whether they want you sitting down, but you sit down.
“The other thing is that the families at home will sometimes get on to me and say that they were onto their loved one on the phone and that he didn’t sound great. They ask me to check on him.
“So the following morning, I’m having coffee with Johnny and the others, and when the others go, I walk out with him. I ask him then ‘how are you today? How are you getting on? What’s the story?’ Then you sometimes get what you don’t get elsewhere,” he said.
Murphy says he has no signs of a mental trauma following the Renmore Barracks attack but a scar on one of his arms shows the physical wounds.
He has not changed his world outlook, he said, still seeing the goodness in everyone.
“One of the things I said about that stabbing, was that just from my own experience, my own personal life and so on, and my faith, that I could contextualise what happened.
“So I mean, to me what we’re doing here is just another contextualisation of that. It’s not, that there’s nothing extraordinary in it. It’s just par for the course as such, you just get on with it.
“I think that all of my experiences throughout life guide me in terms of what I do here,” he added.
Murphy said at home he accepts that the more secular reality of life leads many of the soldiers to not engage with religion but in Lebanon it is different.
“There’s an old saying that there are no atheists in the trenches, and there’s a certain extent to which that’s true.
“It doesn’t mean that they’re knocking down your door, banging to get in on a Sunday morning, but they do appreciate it,” he added.
Before The Journal departed the camp, Fr Murphy came to say goodbye. As he headed off in the direction of a group of troops standing nearby, each one smiled warmly, happy to loiter with the padre.
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