Colonel Mark Staunton

COL Mark Staunton has 38 years service with the Irish Defence Forces. He is currently Director of Communications, Information Services & Cyber Defence having taken over as DJ6 in January 2020. Previously he had been Officer In Charge (OIC) of Defence Forces Current Operations in DFHQ J3&5 since 2017.  Immediately prior to this he Commanded the Defence Forces principal CIS Unit, DFHQ Communications and Information Services Coy from 2014 to 2017. Other previous appointments also include Senior Staff Officer Strategic Planning Branch DFHQ; G6 2 Bde HQ and Officer Commanding 2 Field CIS Coy in Cathal Brugha Barracks Dublin. He has three tours of duty as an Inf Pl Comd and Operations Officer (S3) with UNIFIL (1991, 1994, 2012); two six month deployments as a UN Military Observer in Western Sahara (MINURSO, 1997) and Cóte d’Ivoire (ONUCI, 2014) in addition to a two year deployment in The Middle East (Syria) with the United Nations Truce Supervisory Organisation (UNTSO) 2006-2008. He also served for six months as Headquarters Support Group Commander in the NATO led International Peace Keeping Force in Kosovo (KFOR) in 2021.