Commandant Áine Gilmore is the logistics manager of Camp Shamrock. She is the highest ranked female soldier currently deployed to the Lebanese base, and one of the most senior Galwegians on site.
The Ballygar native is a key manager of the whole operation, responsible for coordinating and auditing all supplies, munitions, fuel, water and movements in and out of the base, and its satellite outposts, and ensuring a blizzard of documentation is kept up-to-date.
She is a senior decision maker for the battalion’s commanding officer, as her daily reports on the unit’s available manpower and materiel influences how sustainable short- and long-term military objectives are.
The St Brendan’s GAA stalwart has spent 20 years in the Defence Forces, alongside a high-profile footballing career at senior level from 1999 to 2010, including winning an All-Ireland for Galway in 2004. She is married to fellow All-Ireland winner Ja Fallon from Tuam, and they have two children: Paudie (4 ) and Annie (2 ).
The 41-year-old veteran is on her first overseas mission since having children, and has availed of the army’s new, family-friendly option of 16 weeks away, rather than the full, 28-week deployment. Back home, she is a company commander in the Renmore-based 1st Infantry Battalion.
“I suppose [soldiering] is not the most traditionally female perceived role. However, women tend to be very successful in the army. I suppose we are quite good at multitasking, which I would definitely say all women are,” she says.
As many female soldiers are not up to the same physical levels of strength as the fittest male soldiers, Gilmore says women in the battalion are therefore used to operating under an extra level of pressure all the time.
“So I think that allows us to be able to learn, and to become comfortable, adapting under pressure. So it helps us with the kind of diverse roles that we could find ourselves in. And, you know, that’s a strength, as an army officer is a very diverse role, and it can be different every day.”
Gilmore is the commander of a logistics and support element totalling 133 personnel in Galway, but in Lebanon she has responsibility for the camp’s catering, transport, communications and training with a much smaller cell of experienced logisticians. She supervises all vehicle movements; a sensitive role in this area of operations where “all parties” i.e. Israeli Defence Forces, Lebanese Armed Forces, UN and other groups need info on who is going where and when, so potentially fatal misunderstandings do not occur.
This senior officer gets up at 5.30 am every morning for physical exercise, then prepares her daily report for the CO. This includes non-routine movements, and rations, water and fuel levels. She inspects equipment, and prepares for periodic UN audits on everything from bullets to beds.
Gilmore admits her schedule is not exactly family-friendly, but reliable wifi in the camp these days means communications with her husband and children, and wider family back home, is much easier than on previous deployments in Africa.
“You know, this job does require a certain amount of personal sacrifice, and we couldn’t do it without supportive family back home,” she says. “For me, it’s just a fantastic honour to go overseas, especially with the first [Galway] battalion being the mission lead.”
