A military parade was held in Dublin today to mark the withdrawal of Irish troops from a 23-year peace-keeping mission in Lebanon.
Around 1600 members of the defence forces marched from Westmoreland Street to the GPO for a salute watched by President Mary McAleese and the Taoiseach, Mr Bertie Ahern.
The march past, the biggest military parade in Ireland for decades, drew thousands of people on to the capital's streets.
The march ended at the Garden of Remembrance where President McAleese layed a wreath at an interdenominational service to honour the 47 Irish soldiers who died there.
Pride of place on the parade went to the 550 soldiers of the 89th Infantry Battalion, the last unit to serve in Unifil, which returned to Ireland on November 13th.
A further 220 troops, who next month will join peacekeeping operations in the UNMEE force in Ethiopia and Eritrea, were also on the march past.
Over 20,000 Irish troops have served in Lebanon since 1978. Seventeen of them died in action, and 28 were killed in accidents. The remains of one soldier, Private Caoimghín Seoighe, who disappeared following an attack on his post in 1981, are still being sought.
The Irish served through years of bloody civil war in the Lebanon from 1978 and the period of Israeli occupation between 1982 and 1984.
In the 1990s Irish troops remained in place throughout two massive Israeli bombardments of south Lebanon, in 1993 and 1996, after attacks into Israel by the Lebanese guerrilla force, Hizbollah.
In all, Unifil lost 235 international peacekeepers from different nations. The UN mandate in the region was eventually completed last year when Israel's then Prime Minister, Ehud Barak, withdraw his troops.
The Unifil garrison is now being reduced to two single battalions, from the Indian and Ghanaian armies.
Additional reporting: PA