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Southern Irishmen in Brit Army post-1922

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  • 02-04-2008 9:42pm
    #1
    Ponster
    Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators Posts: 10,911 Mod ✭✭✭✭


    Another forum I often take part in is the StraightDope, a sort of question and answer forum where someone has asked...

    I thought that someone here might like to reply as there are very few Irish posters on the board who would have the real story....


    "Why do Irishmen still join the Brits in such numbers, one of the soldiers said they have always been more Irishmen in Britains army than in the Irish Defence Force?"

    http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=462160


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    #2
    OS119
    Registered Users Posts: 2,518 ✭✭✭OS119


    the saying is no longer true by a very wide margin (if it were it would indicate that that very roughly 10% of the current British Army were Irish - although 10% of the current British Army is 'foriegn' it's more a magic mix of Southern Africans, Australians and New Zealanders, Canadians and West Indians than Battalions of Irishmen.

    they join for as many reasons as there are soldiers, and the Irish Army - due to its limited establishment - can be difficult and slow to get into, as well as being a 'small pond' to swim in.

    there were (are?) also social and economic reasons to join the BA (or indeed just go to Britain as a civilian migrant) Ireland - compared to Britain - was comparitively poor, agrarian, highly (opressively?) religous and parocial. if, on top of not wanting to live in Catholic Theocracy that also happened to be dirt poor you wanted to see the world and maybe get a bit of action as well, the opportunity to join the BA was pretty much heaven sent.

    the political aspects are for everymans indvidual conscience, and the economic and social imperitives no longer exist to anything like the degree they once did, but the vocational ones do. you could liken the situation to a would-be Law undergraduate deciding which sponsorship to accept - the local, slightly comfortable firm that deals with probate, divorce, conveyancing and the odd Drink-Drive case, or the offer from Price Waterhouse or Matrix that will lead to the most rigourous cases affecting society as a whole on the most fundamental issues of Law.

    short version: Ireland is very obviously no longer dirt poor, and equally obviously no longer a Catholic Theocracy, but if your vocation is that of Soldier - and you really want to put yourself and your skills to the test, and if you want to play with the big boys toys (MLRS, Challenger 2, Warrior, AH-64D Apache etc...) then you don't join the Irish Army.


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    #3
    [Deleted User]
    Posts: 0 ✭ [Deleted User]


    Age limits in the BA are different to the PDF


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    #4
    Snakes
    Closed Accounts Posts: 20 ✭Snakes


    Having spoken to a few guys from Dublin and Cork who are in the Irish Guards, one reason they joined was because they were not allowed join the Pdf here. One guy wasn't allowed join because of a drunk and disorderly conviction he got when he was 18, so he joined the brit army instead.
    Another went over there because, in his words, he was looking for 'trigger time'. 2 or 3 of the others expressed somewhat similar views, wanting to see 'action' etc.


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