A former member of the Irish Defence Forces took a career break from his job as a signalman to fight against ISIS, it has emerged.
Joseph Cleary, who served for nearly 20 years in the Irish Army, participated in operations with the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) in Syria in 2015.
It was the same year Co Louth woman Lisa Smith travelled to the Middle Eastern country to join ISIS after leaving her job on the Government jet.
Cleary’s bosses were unaware of his journey to Syria, which was discovered following a series of Facebook posts.
Soldiers were seen discussing his trip in a Dublin barracks which led to a probe into his activities overseas.
It is believed the Army veteran contacted the now defunct page Lions of Rojava while still in uniform in order to facilitate his travel to Syria via Iraqi Kurdistan.
The former signalman’s LinkedIn page says he now works for Constellis, a private security company in Iraq which was formed from the remnants of notorious firm Blackwater.
It is unclear if Cleary was court-martialled over his six-month stint in Syria but he is believed to be the first serving Defence Force member to have travelled there during the country’s eight-year civil war.
Smith, a 38-year-old mother of one, was detained by Kurdish-led forces in Eastern Syria after leaving ISIS’s last enclave Baghouz.
Like Cleary, Smith served in the Defence Forces for several years, initially in the Army before transferring to the Irish Air Corps where she eventually landed a job on the Government jet.
France, Britain, Germany and America all had citizens fight in opposing sides in the Syrian Civil War, but Cleary is unique as he was a serving soldier when he joined a foreign militia.
Smith is believed to be the only Irish woman who participated in the war. Several naturalised Irish citizens fought with ISIS and rebel groups in Idlib along with a dozen Irishmen who joined the Kurdish YPG in the fight against ISIS.
The Defence Forces were unable to comment yesterday.
