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Fight for Ireland?

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Comments

  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 394 ✭✭Miadhc


    You seem to be assuming new Irish = non white. The vast majority of new Irish are of Eastern European heritage. White people.



  • Posts: 0 [Deleted User]


    I would fight for the land in which I feel at home for sure. But somehow I do not think I feel like I would be fighting for "Ireland". The older I get the less I feel I understand what that word even means. And national anthems seem weirder and weirder to me the more I hear them.

    I will fight for my homeland. But "ireland" as a concept has little meaning for me these days. Though I do cry like a baby EVERY time I listen to that time Finbar furey and Christy Dignam sing together. And I dont know why.

    I've spent the last 15 years training how to fight though. hand to hand mostly. Bo Staff and knife also. It's a simple and happy fact though that life never gives me any reason or cause to actually fight anyone that often. The less the better I feel. I know I can do it and I can do it pretty damn well. I just hope I never have to.

    It's a weird feeling to walk around the world with a skill I feel proficient in but never want to actually use. Unlike Guitar players :)



  • Moderators, Category Moderators, Social & Fun Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 24,438 CMod ✭✭✭✭Ten of Swords


    @vriesmays do not post in this thread again



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 11,395 ✭✭✭✭Furze99


    The closest home analogy would be if Boris went a bit madder than he is and decided that NI as six counties was a bit small and decided to add Cavan, Monaghan & Donegal to restore Ulster etc. If we objected to this (though logically we could give Donegal to them and save a few bob!) and then Boris invaded us with an overwhelming army etc., how would we deal with it?

    One thing that this situation does throw up sadly in Ukraine and likely similarly here, is that for all the talk of gender equality.. when push comes to shove it's the men of fighting age that are conscripted and expected to fight, 16-60 in Ukraine. And that's not just men stepping up, it's the women who expect them to. Nothing new in this of course, in previous wars lads got white feathers planted on them by the women if they thought they were shirking.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 26,820 ✭✭✭✭Strumms


    What would I fight with ? I don’t think the baseball bat, Hurley and a set of steak knives will do much damage..

    does Ireland have a cache of weapons on reserve that they could hand out to civilians in a time of war ? If so yeah, I’d rather be dead and having gave it a go then living under some Russian tyranny… but …

    Knowing this poxy country we’d probably not have enough to weapons for our armed forces…let alone to arm civilians to defend themselves, their loved ones and their country.

    but hey, there is probably some fûcktard sitting somewhere right now with a calculator and a thesaurus about to get wordy and creative as to why we should be donating more in overseas aid instead of looking to see how we ‘might’ mobilise some sort of coordinated mobile defence…if it came to that…..

    Interestingly…


    An additional €140 million has been allocated to the ODA budget, reaching over €1billion for the first time… just last year..

    cant defend ourselves but we can give away a billion Euros with a big smug satisfied grin…. Mad kip..

    with WW3, Covid, everything else…. We say goodbye to one billion euros…

    is it worth fighting for ? Maybe, I’ll go get the steak knives set..



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  • Posts: 18,749 ✭✭✭✭ [Deleted User]


    Yes. I never suggested anything about black. Racism is just discrimination based on someone's nationality. You do realise all human beings are the same race yes?



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 802 ✭✭✭rustynutz


    The Ukrainian people or fighting for the existence of their country, I'd like to think most people would fight under those circumstances, but Putin is right, we have all gone soft in the West. Looking at the defiance of the Ukrainian government refusing to leave Kiev, and their ministers arming themselves ready to fight to the death, I can't help comparing them to our gobshites in the Dail, can you imagine Meatball Martin or Leo brandishing a AK47 vowing to fight to the end? They'd have left for the safety of the US weeks ago, with their only worry being if occupation means their pensions won't be honoured.

    It wasn't always this way in Ireland though, its only a century ago that the population took on the biggest empire in the world, armed only with a handful of guns and determination, and managed to drive them out (well apart from NI)



  • Posts: 0 [Deleted User]


    This is completely off topic and has absolutely nothing to do with this thread or your post. But your first sentence reminded me of something I have learned in my years of martial arts. When you asked "what would I fight with".

    It's amazing in person to person fighting what extending your reach by a couple of inches can do. As a silly and exaggerated example - did you ever see the scene in the Jason Bourne movies where he wins a fight by using a rolled up magazine as a weapon? In reality all the magazine did was extend his reach by an inch or two.

    There are whole martial arts dedicated to learning to use small tools in your environment to fight with. Like a rolled up News paper. There is also "Beijing Opera" which is fun to watch.

    Anyway as I said this post has nothing to do with anything :) Just where my mind went when you posted. But to answer your question more seriously - if you ever have to fight for your life - do not underestimate what you could use to help you. There is quite a few things I could do with a hurley and a steak knife.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 26,820 ✭✭✭✭Strumms


    i said to myself ..

    ” a quick google of Irish defence assets and capabilities will show me we don’t have enough and are under resourced “

    “Ammunition.

    The Defence Forces of Ireland have limited, low and no ammunition in some cases. With training restrictions in place on a number of weapons over the last few years. Leading to a training minus and a indefectibility throughout the Defence Forces.

    The Irish army personal now only complete an annual rifle table firing 40 rounds of ammunition once a year. Comparatively the British army soldiers were given 200 rounds annually to practice back in 1910.

    With the pace of warfare and combat today it is easy to deduce that Units need to store ammunition, for their weapons and not have to collect it from a central location a great distance away. This leads to unnecessary long delays in any response and increased pressure on Units with weapons but no ammunition.

    A simple system could be put in place.”



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 497 ✭✭PalLimerick


    If this went nuclear and in turn WW3 started and Ireland were invaded. 3 choices 1, Fight, 2, Run away or 3, roll over and accept the invader.

    I'd be concerned for my well being but wouldn't have it in me to run away and wouldn't want to live anyway under an invaders rule. So for me I'd be left with no option but to fight.



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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,756 ✭✭✭BrianD3


    Ireland - one of the so called richest countries in the world with a less than token military. When anyone suggests doing something about this situation, arguments rolled out include "ah shur we'd lose any conflict anyway so why bother". Or talking about how there are plenty of NATO countries between us and the likes of Russia so we'll be grand. Everyone loves the Irish -ole ole ole!

    We are a half arsed, kick the can down the road country. Anytime the government announces that it will do something by a particular date, do they ever manage to meet their target.

    Looking at the footage of the citizens in Ukraine preparing today was a real eye opener. The former president and members of Parliament carrying guns. People making molotov cocktails. Eastern Europeans (every nationality, not just Ukrainians) have a grim toughness, national pride and hands on attitude that we don't have.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,658 ✭✭✭Man Vs ManUre


    If one of us go to war, we all go to war.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 26,820 ✭✭✭✭Strumms


    Sure it will never happen, we don’t have any enemies… that’s been our attitude ..

    you plan and prepare for the worst case scenario…

    we don’t plan, we don’t prepare.

    Proper planning prevents pïss poor performance…. Fail to prepare, prepare to fail……

    those analogies have been around for a long time but Ireland… our analogy….”ahhh sure, be grand”…” sure we have xxxxxx so we’ll forget about what we might need to be safe and give away $$$$$$$$”…

    8751 active personnel and I can’t be arsed looking up what percentage are deployed on peacekeeping duty elsewhere.

    8751 trained personnel to defend a country of 5 million people and 70,274 km²

    .. marvellous.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,977 ✭✭✭ForestFire


    Tell me..... we allowed pick Khabib to represent us, in this face off I hope?!



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 26,820 ✭✭✭✭Strumms


    Our defence forces wouldn’t get close to filling Hill 16…. When you read it in those terms….



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 22,773 ✭✭✭✭dxhound2005


    The biggest threat to our country was when the IRA invited Hitler to invade Ireland and set up a quisling government here. Apart from that, we could have spent billions on a massive army for many decades, for no real purpose.

    Oh here’s to Adolph Hitler,

    Who made the Britons squeal,

    Sure before the fight is ended

    They will dance an Irish reel.

    (War News, 21 November 1940)



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 480 ✭✭NiceFella


    I found it very humbling watching the Ukrainians, most of which without basic training stepping up to the mark to fight. Takes a lot of guts considering what they are up against. They're not fighting someone remotely on the same level militarily.

    Its an interesting question. I'd like to think I would do the same for ireland. But in Irelands case if fought against a military as sophisticated as Russia, it would be hopeless and you'd have to figure that you'd rather die than be occupied by them.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 14,105 ✭✭✭✭Zebra3


    The biggest threat to our country was when the potato failed, and despite there being 2-3 times enough food in the country to feed the population of 8 million, Britian's genocidists shipped vast quantities of food out of the country and left over a million to starve.

    Surprised you haven't heard about it.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 129 ✭✭helto


    It really does show how brave the men and women of 1916, the PIRA etc were. Sometimes we take it for granted, we should be more grateful to them.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 465 ✭✭Rootsblower


    I’d fight for my country and people. I have 2 shotguns and would do my best for all the use I’d be. Was talking with the wife about this last night at the diner table. She reckons it would be people around my age(mid 40’s) who’d have to do the fighting as the soft Irish youth would run a mile. Anyway, if the Russians invade little ole Ireland it’s a foregone conclusion that we’d be overrun within the week or less but I would say it would be a costly occupation. We got rid of what was probably the most powerful empire ever, more powerful comparatively than the Russians and arguably more savage too. Plenty of people around the country with a shotgun or rifle to fight a guerilla war against an invader.

    Godspeed the poor Ukrainian people up against a Goliath. Fair play to their PM in body armour and AK-47 ready to fight. Couldn’t see MM or LV doing similar.

    Heard today it’s general mobilisation for all Ukrainian males 18-60. If this is true where’s all the “men have to do better crowd” calling for equal rights to death for the ladies. Won’t be looking for a quota to be cannon fodder I suspect.



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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,604 ✭✭✭Amadan Dubh


    I struggle to see how someone would fight for an EU army but also fight for Ireland; the EU,the longer time goes on, aims to break down nation identities and mush them into one homogenised European identity.

    To fight for Ireland would be to fight for an Irish identity, culture, people, land etc but the EU is working, non-violently, to dismantle all that would be fought for.

    So I am assuming that any pro-Irish military people appearing online in recent weeks are also in favour of reforming the EU in its current state or abandoning the project altogether.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,560 ✭✭✭boardise


    There was no genocide in Ireland in the 19th century.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 22,773 ✭✭✭✭dxhound2005


    I think you have given up on the EU. No point in reform, you want Irexit.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,602 ✭✭✭realdanbreen


    Do you even know what it is to be Irish or know anything about Irish history? How do you think we got our independence from what was at the time the greatest empire in the world!

    But hey you stay put and let us do the fighting!



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 10,026 ✭✭✭✭pgj2015


    You cant say Irish people are too soft now to do what the Ukrainians are doing, until we are in the same situation. If that ever happens and it might some day. I think Irish people are very proud people who might surprise you if we are ever invaded again.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 26,820 ✭✭✭✭Strumms


    Pride won’t resist an invasion though…

    we have a small and under resourced Defense force… why ? Probably because we thought we’d never need them..

    we have / are…

    not enough personal weapons for the not enough bodies…

    an island nation with no fighter aircraft, not a single one.

    7 or 8 maritime patrol vessels to protect about 3400 kilometres of coastline and 880,000 km squared of marine territory…from warships positioning…

    Mowag tanks that wouldn’t number close to enough if there was an invasion so…on average about 3 per county.

    if the military don’t have enough weapons and are under resourced, the fûck will the ordinary citizens have a chance…



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 206 ✭✭Amenhotep


    No fuuucking way ... I'd be the first dodging the draft so to speak...



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 11,441 ✭✭✭✭rossie1977


    Irish fought invaders for 800 years..

    Ukraine has almost 10 times our population so comparison is completely unfair. Kiev itself almost as many people as the whole of the Republic



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,595 ✭✭✭Mr. teddywinkles


    Just about to say this. Good ol Michael D. Quote some poetry on a shetland pony like in the film braveheart, painted face n all and lead us into battle. 🙂



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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 10,026 ✭✭✭✭pgj2015


    The question is would you fight for Ireland, not what chance would we have. We would be given weapons like the way Ukraine are being given them from other countries.

    And pride in being Irish might make a lot take up arms against an invader.



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