What do the Irish army actually do. (life, place, English)

[dizzybint]

I saw this place while in Cork in Ireland visiting. and it got me interested in what their army might do. as I never seem to hear anything about them. are they just peace keepers..

[Bernie20]

Originally Posted by dizzybint

I saw this place while in Cork in Ireland visiting. and it got me interested in what their army might do. as I never seem to hear anything about them. are they just peace keepers..

Yes the majority are used as peace keepers. The Irish have the highest number of soldiers killed in Lebanon of any group of peace keepers.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_Army

[dizzybint]

Thanks Bernie, it was puzzling me as we never hear much about them..

[Bamford]

Home Defence inckuding Anti-Terrorism, Civil Emergencies such as Floods and the occasional UN/EUFOR Peacekeeping.

Although to be honest the fact that the Irish don't have any fighter jets does make their defence force little more than a token gesture. Whilst their Navy mainly carries out a custom/coastguard type function, and has a handful of patrol boats/OPV's.

[Mr Blue Sky]

The Irish Army has been a regular and major contributor (for their size) to UN peacekeeping actions for a number of years and have built a decent reputation.

In 2006 when we were in Côte d'Ivoire they were in Liberia and there were some combined operations. They were a professional unit.

I remember they were very relieved when they found that a few of us spoke English, some of their French accents were wonderful.

[Vlajos]

What does any army do?

[dizzybint]

Originally Posted by Vlajos

What does any army do?

a job that most of us wouldnt even consider..

[viribusunitis]

Originally Posted by dizzybint

a job that most of us wouldnt even consider..

To be fair, life in an Army not constantly engaging in war is rather boring I know at least a hundred ways to clean and not to clean a tank now...

[dizzybint]

I imagine it might be at times... my son was a marine and said he would never have seen so many other countries without the army, and thankfully he wasnt in any battles.