History UsefulNotes / PaddiesWithPropellerPlanes

* The song "F.C.A." by Music/TheSawDoctors is about the singer joining the eponymous organization which was, at that time, the HomeGuard for the Army[[note]]Their name has since been changed to the Army Reserve[[/note]]. He doesn't think much of it, though he does appreciate the well-made boots and, especially, the farewell from his girlfriend as he leaves.

''Óglaigh na hÉireann'', more commonly referred to as the Irish Defence Forces, are [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin the Force that Defends Ireland.]] Composed of ''an tArm'', the Army; ''an tAerchór'', the Air Corps; and ''an tSeirbhís Cabhlaigh'', the Naval Service; the Irish Defense Forces boasts nearly 10,000 ([[LudicrousPrecision 9,981]], according to Website/TheOtherWiki) active personnel, and 12,348 reserve personnel; and a €1 billion budget.

In fiction, the actual Irish Defence Forces aren't terribly likely to show up, as they haven't really done much besides the UN work. This isn't helped by the fact that Ireland does not practice conscription, making it once again the OddOneOut among Europe's neutral countries; Irish people with serious military inclinations tend to go to the [[UsefulNotes/BritsWithBattleships British armed forces]][[note]]While Ireland and the UK are separate sovereign states, UK law does not treat Ireland as a "foreign country."[[/note]], which promise more "action", or to the [[LegionOfLostSouls French Foreign Legion]] if they have serious political objections to serving the British Crown. Counter-terrorism for those occasions when UsefulNotes/TheTroubles spilled over into the Republic tended to be handled by the Gardaí. However, the Irish Defence Forces can trace their lineage back to the original Irish Republican Army, specifically the part of the IRA that pledged its loyalty to the Irish Free State/the pro-Treaty side of the [[UsefulNotes/TheIrishRevolution Irish Civil War.]]

Naval Service ships use the prefix LÉ, for ''Long Éireannach'' ("Irish ship"). Traditionally, ships were named after female figures in Myth/CelticMythology and history, until the (somewhat controversial) naming of the ''Creator/SamuelBeckett''-class in 2014. The LÉ ''Samuel Beckett'' was followed by LÉ ''Creator/JamesJoyce'', LÉ ''Creator/WilliamButlerYeats'' and LÉ ''Creator/GeorgeBernardShaw''.

[[AC:Video Games]]
* ''VideoGame/Mercenaries2WorldInFlames'': Ewan Devlin, the Irish helicopter pilot you can recruit into your PMC got his start in the Irish military.

[[AC:Literature]]
* ''Out Of Range'' by Barry Foley centres around a terrorist attack on a cruise liner which the Navy must respond to. Foley had served during TheEighties, so he drew on his own experience when writing the book, albeit with some heavy ArtisticLicense.

[[AC:Live Action TV]]
* ''Special Forces: Ultimate Hell Week'' showcases some of the training undertaken by the Army Ranger Wing during Selection. Former instructors from the wing put a number of civilians through a compressed version of [[TrainingFromHell the training for a week]], going full DrillSergeantNasty. The show is BackedByThePentagon in that the details of the training are generally classified and Defence Forces assets and locations are used as part of the training.

Admittedly, the Irish Defence Forces aren't one of the best equipped forces around, or even produce their own equipment (except for ships, but this ceased in TheEighties), but Administrivia/ThereIsNoSuchThingAsNotability – although, the Irish Defence Forces are notable by military analysts for being very underequipped, even compared just to the militaries of Europe's other neutral countries such as [[UsefulNotes/FinnsWithFearsomeForces Finland]] and [[UsefulNotes/NeutralAustriansWithNoNavy Austria]].

Admittedly, the Irish Defence Forces aren't one of the best equipped forces around, or even produce their own equipment (except for ships, but this ceased in TheEighties), but Administrivia/ThereIsNoSuchThingAsNotability.

In fiction, the actual Irish Defence Forces aren't terribly likely to show up, as they haven't really done much besides the UN work. This isn't helped by the fact that Irish people with serious military inclinations tend to go to the [[UsefulNotes/BritsWithBattleships British armed forces]][[note]]While Ireland and the UK are separate sovereign states, UK law does not treat Ireland as a "foreign country."[[/note]], which promise more "action", or to the [[LegionOfLostSouls French Foreign Legion]] if they have serious political objections to serving the British Crown. Counter-terrorism for those occasions when UsefulNotes/TheTroubles spilled over into the Republic tended to be handled by the Gardaí. However, the Irish Defence Forces can trace their lineage back to the original Irish Republican Army, specifically the part of the IRA that pledged its loyalty to the Irish Free State/the pro-Treaty side of the [[UsefulNotes/TheIrishRevolution Irish Civil War.]]

''Óglaigh na hÉireann'', more commonly referred to as the Irish Defence Forces, are [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin the Force that Defends Ireland.]] Composed of ''an tArm'', the Army; ''an tAerchór'', the Air Corps; and ''an tSeirbhís Cabhlaigh'', the Naval Service; the Irish Defense Forces boasts nearly 10,000 ([[LudicrousPrecision 9,981]], according to Wiki/TheOtherWiki) active personnel, and 12,348 reserve personnel; and a €1 billion budget.

The Defense forces main duty is to protect Ireland, in case neutrality fails to protect it. The Irish Defense Forces have maintained a presence in UsefulNotes/UnitedNations armed peacekeeping missions almost continuously since 1958, except for a four year period from 1974 to 1978.

Day to day, the Naval Service operates fishery patrols, though search and rescue and drug interdiction are part of their mandate. As of 2015/2016 they are also involved in rescuing refugees in the Med.

Traditionally, ships were named after female figures in Myth/CelticMythology until the ''Creator/SamuelBeckett'' was commissioned in 2014.

The first Irish military aircraft was purchased during the Anglo-Irish Treaty talks to provide Michael Collins with an escape back to Ireland, just in case. During WWII, the primary combat plane was initially the Gloster Gladiator, although eventually Hurricanes and other more modern British aircraft were added. Though Ireland was bombed once or twice (by the Luftwaffe who claimed to have mistaken Dublin for Belfast), the Irish (unlike the Swiss) never did shoot down any trespassing Nazis. The first jets were De Havilland Vampire trainers. During the 1960s, the Air Corps played a role in several well-known aviation films such as TheBlueMax.

[[RunningGag The Air Corps exists only in name.]] No, seriously, of course they do, but [[ArmedFarces Irish military humour]] often jokes about how everybody's heard of them, but nobody's actually ''met'' them, Bielefeld-style.

* ''Out Of Range'' by Barry Foley centres around a terrorist attack on a cruise liner which the Navy must respond to. Foley had served during TheEighties, so he drew on his own experience when writing the book.

* ''Out Of Range'' by Barry Foley centres around a terrorist attack on a cruise liner which the Navy must respond to. Foley had served during TheEighties, so he drew on his own experience when writing the book. However, the book itself is considered SnarkBait amongst members of the Naval Service.

* ''Film/TheSiegeOfJadotville'', a Netflix original film, is a fictionalised version of the Irish Army's CrowningMomentOfAwesome. Heavily outnumbered, they took on twenty times their number and took no losses and few wounded before being forced to surrender.

At one point a ButtMonkey of the Defence Forces (The Dubliners famously recorded a song mocking their incapability), the Naval Service dates back as far as 1946, when it succeeded the Coastal and Marine Service. Initially equipped with hand-me-downs from the [[UsefulNotes/BritsWithBattleships Royal Navy]] (the ''Flower'' class corvettes were battle-damaged relics from UsefulNotes/WorldWarII which wound up being notoriously unreliable), they finally adopted purpose-built ships of their own in TheSeventies in order to patrol the increased territorial range of Irish waters, though two former Royal Navy ships are still in service.

At one point a ButtMonkey of the Defence Forces (The Dubliners famously recorded a song mocking their incapability), the Naval Service dates back as far as 1946, when it succeeded the Coastal and Marine Service. Initially equipped with hand-me-downs from the [[BritsWithBattleships Royal Navy]] (the ''Flower'' class corvettes were battle-damaged relics from UsefulNotes/WorldWarII which wound up being notoriously unreliable), they finally adopted purpose-built ships of their own in TheSeventies in order to patrol the increased territorial range of Irish waters, though two former Royal Navy ships are still in service.

In fiction, the actual Irish Defence Forces aren't terribly likely to show up, as they haven't really done much besides the UN work. This isn't helped by the fact that Irish people with serious military inclinations tend to go to the [[BritsWithBattleships British armed forces]][[note]]While Ireland and the UK are separate sovereign states, UK law does not treat Ireland as a "foreign country."[[/note]], which promise more "action", or to the [[LegionOfLostSouls French Foreign Legion]] if they have serious political objections to serving the British Crown. Counter-terrorism for those occasions when UsefulNotes/TheTroubles spilled over into the Republic tended to be handled by the Gardaí. However, the Irish Defence Forces can trace their lineage back to the original Irish Republican Army, specifically the part of the IRA that pledged its loyalty to the Irish Free State/the pro-Treaty side of the [[UsefulNotes/TheIrishRevolution Irish Civil War.]]

At one point a ButtMonkey of the Defence Forces (The Dubliners famously recorded a song mocking their incapability), the Naval Service dates back as far as 1946, when it succeeded the Coastal and Marine Service. Initially equipped with hand-me-downs from the [[BritsWithBattleships Royal Navy]] (the ''Flower'' class corvettes were battle-damaged relics from WorldWarII which wound up being notoriously unreliable), they finally adopted purpose-built ships of their own in TheSeventies in order to patrol the increased territorial range of Irish waters, though two former Royal Navy ships are still in service.

''Óglaigh na hÉireann'', more commonly referred to as the Irish Defence Forces, are [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin the Force that Defends Ireland.]] Composed of ''an tArm'', the Army; ''an tAerchór'', the Air Corps; and ''an tSeirbhís Cabhlaigh'', the Naval Service; the Irish Defense Forces boasts nearly 10,000 ([[LudicrousPrecision 9,981]], according to TheOtherWiki) active personnel, and 12,348 reserve personnel; and a €1 billion budget.

* ''Film/TheSiegeOfJadotville'', a Netflix original film, is a fictionalised version of the Irish Army's CrowningMomentOfAwesome. Heavily outnumbered, they took on twenty times their number and took no losses and few wounded before being forced to surrender.

* ''{{Mercenaries}}'' 2: World in Flames: Ewan Devlin, the Irish helicopter pilot you can recruit into your PMC got his start in the Irish military.