The UK had to come to Ireland's aid as a Russian submarine was 'hovering' 12 miles from Cork harbour

There are lots of cables passing through Irish waters yes, but there's also redundant cables, so even if a few were cut on purpose or by accident it wouldn't make a difference. I've said it many times, what's stopping them from going further out into the Atlantic and cutting them there?

We have a number of countries that go into our EEZ with their navies, France, UK, U.S. and of course Russia among others. While it's within Ireland's economic waters those are still international waters and don't we hear it all the time from the United States and other powers that freedom of navigation is essential when it comes to China and Taiwan? So why should it apply here? I wouldn't say the UK came to our defence, but more like looking out for their own interests. Russia couldn't give a **** about Ireland, We just happen to be in the way. They're probing around our waters, not because of Ireland but because of the UK and other states and i'm sure those cables play a part as well but while we rely on them as with others, they're not "Irish cables" they don't belong to us so i disagree somewhat when some people say we should be defending these. There's no way you could do that because as i said you could just go out further into the ocean.

The Nord Stream was more than likely done by Ukraine with help from other NATO states. They want us to buy their weapons to defend ourselves and our waters, but somehow some country managed to go into the Baltic Sea surrounded by multiple NATO members and all their defence spending, and we can't forget about NATOs spy satellites in geostationary orbit, How come there are no pictures available there? You think Ireland will be able to do so in a larger ocean what these multiple members of NATO failed to do in a small area and right next to each other? What's being pushed is over the last few years they've seen the corporations tax surplus we're getting, and they want some of that for themselves, It's not about us being able to defend or protect ourselves, it's about buying their weapons!

Yes, smaller neutral members also fund their armies, but they also have their own defence industries. We have a lot going on in this country and while i wouldn't say to defence forces members, an increase in pay. Buying trinkets which will sit in a warehouse not being a benefit to Irish citizens, it would be a constant drain of money, including basically a subscription for maintenance on any equipment we get. I've said this before, to say if we decided to get nuclear weapons(the ultimate defence) we'd have all these same countries telling "No, no! Don't be defending yourselves that much!) The reason? It's just to make money for their own defence firms, no one really benefits from that apart from these corporations and whoever has shares/stocks, their lobbyists and whoever in government who might get the promise of a kickback further down the line. I feel there are some in government who also want to be seen as the best pupil in class.

No matter what we'd buy it wouldn't last in a war and if Ireland is being attacked then the whole world would've already gone to ****! As Ireland begins to move away from neutrality, The enemies of the bigger countries who throw their weight around on the global stage, well their enemies become our enemies and all the goodwill we've built up in UN peacekeeping would have been for nothing and remember one more thing, Ireland got its place on the UN security Council by beating Canada in a vote in the UN because other countries saw Canada as an extension of U.S. foreign policy.

Sorry for the rant, guys! Have a good day, all! 😂

The same armchair military types will cry if anyone laid a finger on them and accuse the government of being too nationalist and in neighbourly.

Britain barely has an aircraft carrier, it just stalks the Russians for photo opportunities eg “escorting their planes, observing their ships”

- in reality they won’t ever fire on them - those “journals” are written by middle aged gammon Brexiters types who probably never fought in a war and cannot accept Irish sovereignty.

In fact, Britain refused to join the EU battle groups as they believed it would dilute their pretend partnership with the US

If Ireland built up its military under Sinn Féin, the Brits and their sympathisers here would cry blue murder.

SF would argue they do have a policy of defending our sovereignty and are capable of defence with lesser resources

Once again, people seem incapable of understanding the difference between having a reliable military/defence force and NATO/neutrality

🤦‍♂️

ABSOLUTELY GAS ISN'T IT?

The Times and CSO pulling "charged" stats out of their arse, with the clear purpose of trying to address numbers issue in the force.

Doesn't say that the IT workers have a 39 hour week and have weekends off and that Rank and File Garda will need to work 6 days a week including weekends covering 16 hour shifts! It's absolute BS! (No mention of the Mode or the Median either for obvious reasons).

Also doesn't mention the low life's you've to deal with and that you will mostly likely be seriously assaulted.

Hardcore tip: a statistic can be made look any way the person presenting it wants you to think.

Also how effective is a Garda on or after Day 5 of 16 hour shifts? Surely they're exhausted after that.

The situation "on the ground" doesn't lie. And that is the public sector services that we rely on are not funded or administered very well. They're all funded to be "just enough to get over the line"

Quite an assumption you've made there that IT workers have a 5 day/39 hour week.

In my experience a lot of tech companies expect a varying degree of unpaid overtime.

Also, you mentioned earlier about IT workers being on 100-150k after ten years.

I'd disagree with that too, certainly outside Dublin.

And generally the only developers I see getting to the higher paid positions are those putting in the longer hours. That mightn't necessarily be in the office, but they'll be upskilling in their 'spare' time as tech changes rapidly.

Irelands Marine Territory is different to Irelands Territorial waters (owned by the state), our territorial waters (defence) is only just over 27,000km2 and is legally only allowed to extend out as far as 12 nautical miles (13.8 miles) from the coast maximum, anything after that is the EEZ and International waters.

It wasn't hovering, it was swim bladdering

Though in fairness that doesn't have quite the same ring to it.

Ask your parents.

Russia is not a threat to Ireland,I am surprised that they still have an embassy here.

We don't have any credibility.

We are seen as a tax haven for the world's tax dodging multinationals.

We have a prime minister that puts his big fooking foot in his mouth with regards simply things like the release of kidnapped children.

We have a justice minister and parliament trying to shoe horn in probably the most draconian measure against free speech in the world right now and this is supposed to be a modern open democracy.

We have chancers arriving at our main airport after dumping their identification documentation and they are given a hotel room.

We have Ukrainian refugees earning more in social welfare benefits and state supporters than someone on average salary in Ukraine.

We have fook all air defenses, a Navy that has fook all and no man power for the few boats we have.

We make a song and dance about buying a few replacement transport aircraft for our air command and the only reason they can do fishery patrol is because of EU funding.

We make a show of sending some special forces to a foreign country to help evacuate citizens, but they have to cadge a life off some other country.