From Connemara to Baghdad

Date Published: 29-May-2008

Clifden native BARRY RYAN is currently deployed in one of the most dangerous places on earth – based in Camp Falcon on the southern outskirts of Baghdad working as an agent for a company selling cars and Harley Davidson bikes to the American troops.

This is his personal account of life in one of the world’s military hotspots – as he reflects on the Ireland he left behind.

THE dry heat that had been rising from the earth has cooled and the gentle breeze retreats, as the evening grows older.

The repetitive beat of a Black Hawk’s blades have been silenced as it disappears into the distance, and the mourn-like like chant of the Muslim call for prayer, momentarily replaces the unmistakable thud of the fifty-cal, as the fading Iraqi sun sinks beneath the now silhouetted Baghdad skyline.

This is Iraq; this is the land where the ancient civilizations of Babylon and Assyria flourished, where the Persians conquered. Where Alexander the Great stood after defeating the once invincible Persian army and in turn beginning the period of Greek rule until eventually surrendering to the ever expanding Roman Empire, and under Roman rule it remained for more than 500 years.

This is where the impenetrable Arab armies conquered the land of Mesopotamia, and have occupied this territory since. War has waged here for centuries and ………………