Members of the Irish Defence Forces earlier this year during the annual Arbour Hill ceremony in Dublin to commemorate the 1916 Rising. Photograph: Alan Betson
Now that Catherine Connolly is our 10th president, her role under Article 13.4 of the Constitution as supreme command of the Defence Forces comes into sharper focus. Although she has been sceptical and critical in relation to increased defence spending by Nato states, the plain fact is that Ireland’s Defence Forces has been allowed to atrophy over the last 40 years to a shameful extent.
At the beginning of this year we had an army with about 7,500 full-time members. As of August 2024, our first-line reserve numbered 167 members and the second-line reserve, the successor to the FCA, has 1,456 members – out of a theoretical established streng
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