Ian Malone
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Lance Corporal Ian Malone (8 December 1974–6 April 2003) from Dublin in the Republic of Ireland, who was killed in the Iraq War, was a member of the British Army's Irish Guards. He was the first Irish death in the conflict.
Twenty-eight year old Ian Malone came from a working class background in the Dublin suburb of Ballyfermot. (There is a long tradition of Irish people from Dublin joining the British Army.) The eldest of a family of five, Malone was educated by the De La Salle Christian Brothers Catholic school. He served in the FCA, the Irish Army equivalent of the British Territorial Army. He applied to join the Irish army permanently, but aged 22 was deemed too old, as the Irish Army at that time was only recruiting seventeen and eighteen year olds. After considering joining the French Foreign Legion, he decided to join the Irish Guards, a regiment of the British Army created in 1900 by Queen Victoria in thanks for the number of Irish people who fought in the British Army in the Second Boer War and which still attracts many recruits, both Catholic and Protestant, from the Republic of Ireland.
Malone was promoted to Lance Corporal in October 2000 and served on Operation Agricola in Kosovo. He was a valued member of the Pipe Band after completing a Piper's Course in April 1999. He also served with the Battle Group in Poland, Canada, Oman and Germany.
In November 2002 Lance Corporal Malone was one of a number of Irish soldiers in the British Army who were interviewed on a Radio Telifís Éireann documentary series, True Lives. Regarding his membership of the British Army, he said: At the end of the day I am just abroad doing a job. People go on about Irishmen dying for freedom and all that. That's a fair one. They did. But they died to give men like me the freedom to choose what to do.
Malone was deployed on Operation Telic in an armoured infantry section with Number 1 Company, Irish Guard, as part of the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards Battle Group within 7 Armoured Brigade. Lance Corporal Malone was shot in the head by a sniper on 6 April in Iraq during the Irish Guards advance on the country's second largest city, Basra.
In the immediate aftermath of his death, the Malone family issued the following statement: "Ian was a wonderful son, full of life and vitality, fun and wit. His family and girlfriend are devastated to learn of his death. He had so many friends and so much to live for. He loved the Army and lived for the excitement and challenges that being a soldier brought. He was proud to be an Irishman and proud to serve in the Irish Guards. His family takes some comfort from knowing that he died doing the job he loved."
The removal of Lance Corporal Malone's body to a Catholic church in Ballyfermot was attended by hundreds of people, including Charlie O'Connor, a local TD (MP) representing the Fianna Fáil-Progressive Democrat government, whose father had served in the Irish Guards. His funeral on 24 April 2003 drew mass crowds, including senior politicians from the opposition such as Gay Mitchell, TD. An honour guard of the Irish Guards in their full dress uniform was provided, though the coffin was not draped in the Union flag. Pipers from the British and Irish armies played traditional Irish laments at the funeral Mass. The Garda Síochána (the Irish police force) was formally represented, as was the Irish Defence Forces. While the President of Ireland, Mary McAleese could not attend, she sent a personal message of condolence to the family of Lance Corporal Malone.
