Tributes were paid to Private Sean Rooney who died during an attack on his convoy in The Lebanon last month, at yesterday's meeting of Cavan County Council.
Cllr Patricia Walsh, the mother of two sons who have served in the area, lead the tributes after she pointed out that the regiment that Private Rooney was part of was based in Cavan from 1973 onwards.
During this week's proceedings, Cllr Walsh said that when children go off to the Lebanon to serve for six months, a mother worries and prays for their safe return. She said she was "heartbroken" to hear of Private Rooney's death and highlighted the importance of the Irish Defence Forces peacekeeping missions overseas.
Cllr Walsh added the Forces was like a family and she was under no illusion that they would rally around and support each other through what she described as "these very hard times".
Meanwhile, Private Rooney was buried with full military honours on Friday, December the 23rd last. His colleague Trooper Shane Kearney is now in a stable condition at Beaumont Hospital in Dublin after being medically evacuated from a health facility in Beirut by air ambulance.
Last week, a Lebanese military tribunal charged several people whom it believes were involved in the attack on the Irish peacekeepers in December.
