Book description
Irish troops have served 40,000 individual tours of duty over four
decades in Lebanon. All over Ireland, in almost every family, there is
a father, a brother, a sister, son, daughter or cousin who has come
under fire in South Lebanon. Forty-seven Irish troops died in Lebanon
and thousands more have returned with physical and psychological
injuries. Blood, Sweat and Tears tells the true story of the Irish at
war. Clonan brings the reader on a tour of duty in Lebanon from 1995
to 1996. His vivid account brings you from a rain-swept Dublin Airport
on a dark October night to the massacre of 118 innocent men, women and
children in the village of Qana, South Lebanon in April 1996. The
reader is taken on patrol with the Irish army and shares in their
black humour, their fears, frustration and pain. It is through this
odyssey that the heartbreaking nature of peacekeeping operations as
seen through Irish eyes is laid bare like never before. Blood, Sweat
and Tears is above all a story of personal loss, loneliness and the
psychological trauma of military service in a time of war. As the
narrator comes to terms with the slaughter of innocents around him, he
will ultimately be confronted with the loss of those closest to him at
home in Ireland. 'Tom Clonan brings to life the sights, sounds, smells
and characters of southern Lebanon. His beautifully written book is in
turns funny, gripping and heart-breaking.' Â- Lara Marlowe
