Why does Ireland need an army?

Michael

I am not from ireland but I will give you an example, the only reason I think why this question is asked is becouse of spending e100mln on two boats is ..a lot? We had same situation in my native country few years ago. Gov. wanted ( well, they dont "want" they just do it) to buy few F15 or F16 as our airforce was very weak, well it still is, dont think few f15/16 makes a big difference, many people then were asking if we realy do need an army at all? Our unemployment was very high atm so people were furius about it as money could have been spent on something else to help society advance rather than spent it to protect country from our enemies during war which..well, i dont think these f16/15 will last till next war if theres going to be one. Anyway, they bought it, unemployment lvl decreased, everything seems to be getting back to normal. My point is that things are going to get better/worse anyway with or with out boats. Ireland is realy great country which is giving a lot of opportunities to foreigns and own citizens for a better life. But i think that giving that much opportunities and easy access requires as well a lot of protection as country becomes ideal target for, as you all mentioned before, drugs/guns dealers. Which is already happening and unarmed Gardai wont stop them coming altough they doing realy good job. Sorry for my grammar;p

Starvro The Vanilla Face

Not all of Ireland belongs to the UK,

Only Northern Ireland.

You can never take too many risks. England might be caught up in a major war with about 60-70% of their troops deployed, and if Ireland was attacked in that time, the other 30% of the British army will go defend Ireland, but that still leaves the Irish army to be the bulk of the fighting.

And Ireland is closer to the Western coast then England is, maybe their watching the seas.

EDIT: I mean, Ireland doesn't need to spend a HUGE amount on an army or worry too much about it, but I think they should be there in case.

Charlie

Who is the fool that says we should scrap our neutrality?????

And support America in the Middle East!!!!!!! Muppet.

America and it's Foreign Policy,in particular its unwavering support for Israel and its Apartheid regime is the single biggest cause of grief in the Middle East.

You would have our troops put their lives on the line for what exactly?

Yes-we need an Army,but purely as a defence force and peace keeping duties.. Not to galavanting off and siding with the Americans in an unjust and provocative presence half way around the world that has bog all to do with us.

If anything,we should ship them off to break the blockade on Gaza. After all,with our history,it is something we should all be able to emphasis with.

gerbells2000

I think a lot of people aren't aware of what these boats actually do, at present the Irish navy and coast guard have 1 boat patrolling the south/west and west coast of Ireland for drugs, guns, and other illegal activity's it's not about the fear of us being invaded or anything like that it's about the protection of our waters from the drug smuggling scum of this world. No one remember all that coke that was found in the water near Cork 2 years ago??

Trevor

Of course we need to have a defence force. The defence forces have improved so much in the past few years to become a much more professional service. That is not to take from the service of those who have lost their lives in the past. I would like for the army to become more like the US marines. Use more helicopters, ship based operations, etc. We are an island nation, so having more ships would be good.
I'm not sure if it's true but during last years floods and freezing conditions it was reported in the press that the army felt frustrated that they were not allowed to do more to help the public. Wouldnt it be great if the army/navy/air corp were used more to help in disastor relief efforts. Fair play to the defence forces, gardai, fire brigade, coast gaurd and others who risk their lives doing their jobs!

simpleturtlesponge

A lot of people have seemed to cover this question very well. But if we dropped our army, who's to say we couldn't be taken advantage of by other nations?

Bridget

yes we do, who would escort the money to the banks. who would get people air lifted out of there flooded homes. Ireland would be in a bad way without the army.

rick

Strange you are asking the question now............. the headline is iro to 100 million for two new ships for the Naval Service.As pointed out by an other comment we do not have a Navy we have a Naval Service.Three of the Naval ships are pretty much at the end of their operational lives, it will take about 2 years before the new ships are built, delivered and become fully operational.By that time several other ships will also be at the end of their lives.Failings by goverment have put us in a position that over the next 5 or 6 years millions of euros must be spent on a modernisationation program to keep up with the demands of providing such an asset to the state.The Irish Naval Service provides value for money iro to search and rescue,fisheries protection,polution control , drugs interdiction, and several other tasks.Do you realy think the Customs one vessal can cover the whole coast ? Bless the Army, but maybe it could be restructured and become smaller, but of course thats a hot topic,after all..........soldiers,sailors and airmen have a vote at every election too.

face22

From my understanding and UN mandates a country can only deem itself neutral if it has the capacity to defend itself. Look at Switzerland and Sweden, mandatory service for two years and authorised holding of weapons. If Ireland wants to remain in the neutral stance it MUST have an army that can defend our country. Whether or not it really can is a different story altogether though................................

Mark Anthony

To put an end to this stupid questions here's the really answer!

IRELAND DOES NOT HAVE AN ARMY! Presently Ireland has a Defence Force of 8500 personal, which are the offspring of the Irish Republician Army first set up when the state was formed. Turely the Irish Defence Forces are part of our culture and history. Not only are they well trained and ready to respond to the need of the state ie bomb disposal, bank escorts, prision escort, explosive escorts, Garda and prision officer stricks, flooding, natural disaster, chemical fallout etc, etc,. The defence forces are also ambassadors of Ireland bring peace and security to people all over the world, instill the mentality of the Irish people in local communities where they serve. In conclusion the money, which was spend on the revamp of equipment for the defence forces was rasied by the closing and selling of army barracks all over the country. If you want to save money and desire to point the fingers of blame for the present economic problem, please point it where the problem really lies. The Goverment and the greed Banks! Not the security forces of our country!

Happydays

The British Empire is no longer... the Irish fast saw to that!

tommyargue

Of course Ireland needs a standing army. They do stellar work while on peace keeping and peace enforcing missions abroad and they get the height of respect from foreign commanders under whom they might serve and from the local communities they are there to protect. Irish men have fought with distinction in every war which has occurred in Europe and in the United States. We have a long and very distinguished military history which we should be extremely proud of.
Ireland has no problem at all accepting European Union money to advance our country and should the European Union need Irish soldiers for missions, then we should send them.

Anthony

Ireland is no longer Neutral. We are now part of the New World Order.The Nice and Lisbon Treaties proved this. New World Order would not accept Ireland,s NO.

Kevin

First of all the Navy is not part of the Army they a both part of the Defence forces. The Navy does a complete different job than the Army. Second of all parts of the Defence forces pay taxes and at that pay high ones. Unlike every ones else they can not strike if they pay is cut or frozen. As for the Navy it is about time that they got some new ships to replace the old ones that they have, some of them are hitting 30yrs old would you like to go to sea in one of them. The defence forces not like the gardai, nurse or any other state paid workers they do not get shift allowance or any other out of hours pay. They get a flat rate for duiteis or time spent at sea, even after that they will pay around 50% tax on it. Take the armed cashe escorts that they do, a Gardai memeber wil get may be 5 to 6 times more for over time than the Arm personnell on the same job. As for the Navy they have to spend 2 to 3 weeks of every month at sea if they are attached to a vessell. When they are not at sea they have to perform there normal working duites, all with may be doing 1 to 2 24hrs duties on board the vessell. On av they may spend 20 to 30 weeks at sea a year. They only get around 21 days leave a year. When they do get paid for sea going patrols they may come out after tax around 100 euro extra for a sea patrol. Not good pay is it.

â™¥ Nougat â™¥

I would rather see our money going to the Irish Army than to all the foreigners that come in and send it out of this country..

Recession huh.. Now how did that happen..

alin j

Because the Irish people like any other nations in the world should be free and have everything they need rather the army is the power of the country to protect the land from others who believ's Ireland is part from UK.

JAMES M

OF COURSE WE DO BOMB SQUAD NEEDED AND PROTECT OUR SHORES FROM OVER FISHING AND DRUGS

Joseph

yes of course Ireland need an army and navy to protect us and we are also one of the most respected forces in the world on peace keeping missions

globetrekker

http://www.rte.ie/news/2000/0130/kildare.html

http://www.rte.ie/news/2007/1118/ahernd.html

http://www.rte.ie/news/1999/0829/kosovo.html

http://www.rte.ie/news/2009/1119/weather.html

http://www.rte.ie/news/2008/1106/corkdrugs.html

http://www.rte.ie/news/2004/0108/liberia.html

These are just a few of the things we do every day as soldiers in the Irish Army! It also provides 10000 jobs for people who also pay tax! Stop undermining what we do and take a bit of pride in your country's defence forces.

Derek

we certainly do not need a standing army. the ranger wing is sufficient for anything we may need. however we do need a naval service for fisheries protection, smuggling etc. as an ex soldier I am amazed how many generals we have to command a force which is only brigade strength. which in the british army is commanded by a brigadier. (not general rank)

dave

What a total narrow minded point of view from misselec below.The naval service is vital to this country,ie,fisheries protection,Drug prevention,search and rescue,defence ect..We are an island nation with the biggest area of sea to patrol in the eu yet we have the smallest navy?If anything 4 new ships should have been ordered,not 2,as 4 ships are coming up to their 30th year.They're not adequitly equiped for today,even fishing trawlers are better equiped than our navy these days.

Hugh C

It's the only thing stopping the brits coming in again. You mark my words. If we abolish it we'll be looking at another 700 years of oppression from "them across the water".

neblusthethird

Is this a trick question? Seriously?

Of course we need an army. As it stands we have one of the smallest if not the smallest armies in europe and practically we have no navy or airforce. Why do irish people always have to abolish everything to save money?

We seem to have a culture of miserliness and cutting costs here and there just to save some bit of money.

Im embarrassed to be irish seeing these types of questions on yahoo and other places.

To answer your question Yes we need an army. Most people in the world take pride in their national armed forces because without them your country cannot claim independence as it could be walked over by any other army if you had no armed forces. You would have nothing to stop internal disorder in the country or a complete breakdown of law and order. If you look at countries like mexico and pakistan the only thing holding those countries together is their armed forces. Can you imagine what would happen if there were no armies to restore law and order or even help out in times of national disasters or major emergencies.

Think about it.

Chosen Man

Because the Army earns a lot of money for the Irish economy when it is deployed as part of UN Peacekeeping Forces across the globe.

The new ships are required to combat illegal imports - drugs and guns - and the naval branch of the services have proved very successful in this endeavour in recent years (see the Examiner archives, and Court Records).

The ships will also be used to protect what is left of Ireland's fishing grounds, and the new oil rigs due in the next few years.

Finally, Ireland is at peace at the moment, this situation cannot be guaranteed to continue. Being prepared is better than being invaded/destroyed.

On a lighter view point:
Lichtenstein is about the size of Dublin and doesn't have a sizable part of its population trained in the use of War Clubs, sorry, I meant GAA Hurley Sticks, and the Leinster rugby crowd.

JBF

Yes, they do. The Irish navy (for whom the vessels are for) protects Irish coastal waters from illegal fishing and other activities. The Army at home maintains internal security and is a significant and respected contributor to U.N. peacekeeping operations.

Of course we need an army, for a number of reasons.

As some of the other answers suggest, when the Gardai threaten to strike, the army are on standby.
But also prison officers, fire brigade, bin collectors, to name a few. The army have covered all these proffessions when on strike over the last few years.

Our navy might not be big, but if you follow the news, you would see how much they do in regard to patrolling our seas keeping illegal fishing vessels away, but more importantly, a large number of drugs have been seized before they reached our shores.

Lastly, and probably most importantly, the army bomb disposal teams have never been busier. Criminal gangs are at war with eachother using pipe bombs and many other devices, and the fact that we do not hear too much about it shows how good of a job they are doing.

These are just a few examples, so please dont be so naive, of course we need an army!

Shane O

Yes of course we need an Army ! We need the new vessels to patrol our costs to stop foreign countries stealing our fish stocks, smuggling drugs and weapons into the country. The gardai are not armed so we need the army for protection on bank runs etc
If the Gardai went on strike the Army would have to step in again, we also do huge amount of work as peace keepers in the likes of Chad etc

Niall

The Navy boats are necessary for a number of reasons:

They protect Irish Waters from boats illegally entering Irish waters and clear our waters of fish.The Fishery Industry brings a lot more than â‚¬100 per year and these boats will probably last 20+ years.

Also if our coast was not properly patrolled it would become a very easy access points for importing drugs into Europe.

The Army as some people mentioned already provide emergency cover for the Gardai, assist with dangerous prison transports and can be called upon in a national emergencies.

Ireland's political standing is vastly improved by having an Irish Army for peacekeeping duties around the world and as a neutral country they have the trust of locals in area's of unrest.

Wise Guy

We need an army to respond to national emergencies if the Gardai can't cope , when there was talk of the Gardai making an illegal strike over a pay dispute the Government warned it would give the army special powers to arrest and detain and keep law and order in the country.

Also , you need army bomb disposal experts to deal with dissident bomb threats whenever they arise , or the army may need to be called in in times of widespread flooding , especially when it happened last year.

Every country should have an army

Liam

Every nation needs an army the same way every country needs a language.

Here are a few reasons why:

It was foolish of Lichtenstein to abolish their army, they are completely defenceless.
- ANY country without an army is utterly defenceless in the face of invasion/war or any form of national defence.

It would be foolish from an economic perspective, as detailed by several other answers here regarding the massive amount of illegal foreign fishing in Irish waters.

And as you all know, Ireland is prone to invasion - speaking of which, what was it that allowed Ireland to overcome every one of those invasions?
- A brave patriotic army.

WHERE would Ireland be without people to stand and defend it's land?
- Ireland wouldn't exist.

Don't just assume that in modern society, what with the E.U., U.N etc., that a western European country can't be invaded or be dragged into a war.

If such a notion of dismantling our national army was put foreward in times of national struggle for independance, that notion would of course be ridicule, and still is.

The answer to your question is: Yes, of course we need to have defence forces, for all the above reasons and more.

And to clear some shite up:

Ireland is not part of the British Empire; the British Commonwealth; or any ties with Britain other than Northern Ireland, and with the progression of the peace process, that will all be fixed.
- In the words of IarnrÃ³d Ã‰ireann: Were not there yet, But were getting there-
and in the words of the people of Ireland: Tiocfaidh Ãr LÃ¡.

@ You Do Not Know Me:
You really ought to choose your words carefully, and learn the truth before voicing your opinions about this.

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