Dermot Earley. Sportsman and army leader.
Dermot Earley was born in Castlebar, Co Mayo, on February 24, 1948, one of five children of Peadar Earley and his wife Catherine (Kitty) Byrne. The family later moved to Gorthaganny, Co Roscommon, where his father took up a teaching post.
He was educated at the local national school and later attended St. Nathy’s College in Ballaghaderreen. After completing his Leaving Cert in 1965 He joined the Irish Army as a cadet and was commissioned in 1967, rising through a distinguished career to the post of Chief of Staff. His first posting was as a platoon commander in the Recruit Training Depot at the Curragh and in 1969 he was appointed an Instructor at the Army School of Physical Culture.
Dermot Earley was widely regarded as one of the greatest GAA footballer never to win a senior All Ireland medal. He first came to prominence at 15 as a member of the Roscommon minor football team in 1963, launching an inter-county career spanning 22 years. As in the Army, he was regarded as a born leader on the football pitch.
As a footballer he was equally brilliant at midfield or centre-forward. At age 17 he was promoted to the Roscommon senior side, and won the first of five Connacht championship medals in 1972. In between, he won an All-Ireland under-21 medal in 1966 when Roscommon beat Kildare in the final.
Twice an All-Stars awards winner, he won a National League medal (1979), an All-Ireland runners’ up medal (1980) and two Railway Cup medals. He retired from inter-county football in 1985. At the end of his last game for Roscommon, against Mayo, he was carried shoulder high from the field by members of the Mayo team.
He played club football with Michael Glaveys in Roscommon and was later actively involved with Sarsfields of Newbridge, Co Kildare, where he lived.
He also played rugby, and in 1974 lined out with an Army team against Wanderers in an IRFU centenary celebration match at Lansdowne Road.
After he retired as a player he managed the Roscommon and Kildare county teams. He commented on club games for local radio even after he became Chief of Staff.
Army career
He completed a specialist Diploma Course with distinction, in physical education at St Mary’s College Strawberry Hill Twickenham in 1970/71. He is a graduate of the Royal College of Defence Studies London (2001) and holds a Master of Arts (Hons) in peace and development studies from the University of Limerick (1999). He had a variety of operational and administrative roles at Curragh Command, and completed the first Ranger course, which led to the establishment of special operations training and the formation of the Army Ranger Wing.
Following a period as assistant command adjutant at Curragh Command he was appointed school commandant of the ASPC. From 1983 to 1987 he was desk officer for overseas operations and later current operations in the chief-of-staff’s branch at Defence Forces headquarters.
He participated in overseas missions with the UN, including as a military observer in the Middle East and twice with Unifil, the UN mission to Lebanon. And from 1987 to 1991 he served as deputy military adviser to UN secretary general Javier Perez de Cuellar.
He was involved in negotiating an end to the Angolan civil war. Afterwards, at a dinner in Lisbon with Angolan leaders and international statesmen, he made a “passionate speech” about what the future held for Angola. A Portuguese academic and student of the peace process handed him a piece of paper with his summary of Earley’s speech. It simply said: “You have it. Don’t f**k it up.”
While serving with the UN up to 1991 he was a member of negotiating teams dealing with the Iraqis and Kuwaitis, and was a key adviser during the setting up of the UN’s mission in Kuwait – Unikom. On return from his UN duties in 1991, he became an instructor at the Military College, and in the mid-1990s he helped establish the UN Training School Ireland in the college.
On his promotion to Lieutenant-Colonel in 1995 he commanded the 27th Infantry Battalion on the Border, and worked in conciliation and arbitration and public relations at the Curragh.
He became a Colonel in 2001 and was promoted to Major-General in February 2004. He became Chief of Staff of the Defence Forces in April, 2007, and was responsible for the deployment of Irish troops in Chad - considered the most difficult of foreign peace missions ever undertaken by Irish troops.
He became ill in 2009 and retired on June 13, 2010.
One son, Dermot jnr, also an Army officer, like his father has two All Stars. Daughter Noelle also played football for Kildare and won an All Star.
Dermot Earley died on June 23, 2010 at the Drogheda Memorial Hospital on the Curragh, Co Kildare. He was survived by his mother Kitty, his wife Mary, and six children: David, Dermot, Conor, Paula, Ann-Marie and Noelle.