Guarding Neutral Ireland
Guarding Neutral Ireland

Author: Michael J. Kennedy

Publisher:

Published: 2008

Total Pages: 400

ISBN-13:

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Ireland's Second World War frontline troops were the men of the Coast Watching Service. From 1939-45 they maintained a continuous watch along the Irish shoreline, reporting all incidents in the seas and skies to Military Intelligence (G2). They had a vital influence on the development of Ireland's pro-Allied neutrality and on the defence of Ireland during 'The Emergency', as through their reports G2 assessed the direction of the Battle of the Atlantic off Ireland and reported belligerent threats to the state upwards to the Chief of Staff of the Defence Forces, to the Cabinet and Taoiseach and Minister for External Affairs Eamon de Valera. Using unique Irish military sources and newly available British and American material, the history of the coastwatchers and G2 combines to tell the history of the Second World War as it happened locally along the coast of Ireland and at national and international levels in Dublin, London, Berlin and Washington. Of particular importance, the study reveals in the greatest detail yet available the secret relationship between Irish military and diplomats and British Admiralty Intelligence, showing how coast watching service reports were passed on to the RAF and Royal Navy Britain in the hunt for German u-boats and aircraft in the Atlantic.

A Military History of Ireland
A Military History of Ireland

Author: Thomas Bartlett

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 1997-10-09

Total Pages: 596

ISBN-13: 9780521629898

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This is a major, collaborative study of organised military activity and its broad impact on Ireland over the last thousand years or so, from the middle of the first millennium AD to modern times. It integrates the best recent scholarship in military history into its social and political context to provide a comprehensive treatment of the Irish military experience. The eighteen chronologically-organised chapters are written by leading scholars each of whom is an authority on the period in question. Drawing the whole work together is a wide-ranging introductory essay on the 'Irish military tradition' which explores the relationship of Irish society and politics with militarism and military affairs. The text is illustrated throughout by over 120 pictures and maps.

In Defence of Ireland
In Defence of Ireland

Author: Maurice Walsh

Publisher:

Published: 2010

Total Pages: 374

ISBN-13: 9781848890282

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Drawing from Irish intelligence records, This book fills a gap in the history of Irish intelligence and some twists and turns in Anglo-Irish relations.

Military Aviation in Ireland, 1921-45
Military Aviation in Ireland, 1921-45

Author: Michael C. O'Malley

Publisher:

Published: 2010

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781906359492

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Military Aviation in Ireland charts the history of the Irish Air Corps from its early days as the Military Air Service established by Michael Collins in 1922 to the ineffective air operations conducted during the Second World War period. Using extensive archival research, Michael C. O'Malley throws new light on the people and operations of Ireland's early aviation history. Lieutenant Colonel Michael C. O'Malley served in the Irish Air Corps, as a flying officer, from 1961 to 1999 and holds a doctorate in history from NUI, Maynooth.

Defending Ireland
Defending Ireland

Author: Eunan O'Halpin

Publisher: OUP Oxford

Published: 1999-07-22

Total Pages: 402

ISBN-13: 0191542237

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This fascinating and original book is the first to analyse the evolution of internal security policy and external defence policy in Ireland from independence to the present day. Professor O'Halpin examines the very limited concept of external defence understood by the first generation of Irish leaders, going on to chart the state's repeated struggles with the IRA and with other perceived internal and external threats to stability. He explores the state's defence and security relations with Britain and the United States and, drawing extensively on newly released records, he deals authoritatively with problems of subversion, espionage, counterintelligence and codebreaking during the Second World War. In conclusion, the book analyses significant post-Second World War developments, including anti-communist co-operation with Western powers, the emergence of UN service as a key element of Irish foreign and defence policy, the state's response to the Northern Ireland crisis since 1969, and Ireland's difficulties in addressing the collective security dilemmas facing the European Union in the post-Cold War era. It is essential reading for anyone wishing to understand the development of independent Ireland since 1922.

Soldiering Against Subversion
Soldiering Against Subversion

Author: Dan Harvey

Publisher: Merrion Press

Published: 2018-08-07

Total Pages: 191

ISBN-13: 1785371878

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During a time of high tension, terror and fear, the Irish Defence Forces faced the very real threat of the Irish State being plunged into a savagely sectarian civil war. The southern state faced a breakdown of law and order, severely challenged by manhunts, prison breaks, shoot-outs, kidnappings, bank robberies, subversive training camps, bomb-making factories, illegal weapons shipments, and border operations. Soldiering Against Subversion is the dramatic and previously untold story of the Irish Defence Forces’ critical role in defending the southern state against paramilitary forces during the worse years of the modern Troubles. Retired Lieutenant Colonel, Dan Harvey, describes the major operations via in-depth interviews with Irish Defence veterans, revealing how these brave men and women protected the state on home soil. From the kidnapping of Shergar and Quinsworth CEO Don Tidey, the manhunt and capture of INLA leader Dessie ‘the Border Fox’ O’Hare, the pandemonium as the Irish army quells a violent prison riot in Mountjoy in 1972, to the Irish navy’s efforts to thwart gun-running off the coast of Kerry, these first-hand accounts reveal the true story of the fight for the nation’s democracy.

The Irish Civil War 1922–23
The Irish Civil War 1922–23

Author: Peter Cottrell

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2014-06-06

Total Pages: 130

ISBN-13: 1472810333

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In this follow-up to the acclaimed The Anglo-Irish War, Peter Cottrell explores the Irish Civil War, a devastating conflict that tore Ireland apart. This book examines the many factions that played a part in the fighting and the terror and counter-terror operations, focusing on the short bloody battles that witnessed more deaths than the preceding years during the struggle for the Free State. Cottrell particularly focuses on the contrasting styles of leadership and the conduct of combat operations by the IRA and the National Army, providing a fascinating study for all students of Irish history as well as military history.

A History of the Irish Army
A History of the Irish Army

Author: John P. Duggan

Publisher:

Published: 1991

Total Pages: 424

ISBN-13:

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The Irish Army draws its traditions from three sources: the 1916 Rising, the War of Independence and the Civil War. This book charts the history of the Irish Army, through its evolution from a guerrilla force to the legally constituted military arm of the Irish Government, up to the present day.

Shadow Warriors
Shadow Warriors

Author: Paul O'Brien

Publisher: Mercier Press Ltd

Published: 2020-04-03

Total Pages: 142

ISBN-13: 1781177635

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In the spring of 1980, the Irish Department of Defence sanctioned the establishment of a new unit within the Irish Defence Forces and the Irish Army Ranger Wing (ARW) came into being. In the decades that followed, its soldiers have been deployed on active service at home and abroad, generally without the knowledge of the wider public. The ARW is made up of seasoned men from across the island, who are selected through tough competition. Only the best of the best make it through and are trained in an extraordinary range of specialist skills. Being one of these elite operators takes more than simply being a skilled soldier – it means believing you are the best. Shadow Warriors tells the story behind the creation of the ARW, from its origins in specialist counter-terrorism training in the late 1960s and the preparation of small unconventional units in the 1970s to the formation of the ARW itself in 1980 and its subsequent history. The first and only authoritative account in the public domain of this specialist unit, authors Paul O'Brien and Sergeant Wayne Fitzgerald have been granted access to the closed and clandestine world of Ireland's Special Forces, who train hard, fight harder and face unconventional types of warfare, yet prefer to stay out of the limelight.