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• Permanent Defence Force
  • Army
  • Naval Service
  • Air Corps
• Reserve Defence Force
  • Fórsa Cosanta Áitiúil (Army Reserve)
  • Naval Service Reserve (Slua Muirí)

1 Role

The Republic of Ireland's favourable geographical location, between the United States and the European Union, makes any external threat or invasion unlikely. The state also has a long-standing policy of non-belligerence in armed conflicts that included neutrality in World War II. For these reasons, the Republic's military capacity is relatively modest. However, the state has a long history of involvement in United Nations peace-keeping operations. Functions of the Defence Forces include:

• Preparation for the defence of the state against armed attack.
• Assisting the Garda Síochána ( police force), including the protection of the internal security of the state.
• Peace-keeping, crisis management and humanitarian relief operations in support of the United Nations.
• Policing the fisheries, in accordance with the state's obligations under European Union law.
• Miscellaneous duties requested by the Government such as search and rescue, air ambulance provision, providing air transport for ministers, assistance in the event of natural and other disasters, ensuring the maintenance of essential services, and assisting in dealing with oil pollution at sea.

2 History

The Defence Forces trace their origins to the Irish VolunteersThe Irish Volunteers were a paramilitary organization established by Irish Nationalists in 1913 "to secure and maintain the rights and liberties common to the whole people of Ireland", and to enforce the imminent Home Rule Act. The Volunteers were formed founded in 1913. This organisation was succeeded in 1919 by the Irish Republican ArmyThere are several paramilitary groups which claim or have claimed the title Irish Republican Army IRA , and advocate a unitary Irish state with no ties to the United Kingdom. All claim descent from the original 'Irish Republican Army', the 'army' of the I (IRA), the guerrilla organisation that fought the War of Independence. Shortly after the creation of the 1922 Irish Free StateThe Irish Free State ( Irish language:, Saorstat Eireann was ( 1922 1937) the name of the state comprising the 26 of Ireland's 32 counties which were separated from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland under the Irish Free State Agreement (or A, the IRA were succeeded by the modern Defence Forces. The Irish title Óglaigh na hÉireann, that had previously been used by both the Irish Volunteers and the IRA, was adopted by the Defence Forces as a claim of continuity with these organisations. Today this Irish title is also claimed by the Provisional IRAThe Provisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA) is a paramilitary group which aimed, through the use of violence, to achieve three goals: (i) British withdrawal from Northern Ireland, (ii) the political unification of Ireland through the forced overthrow and and a number of smaller militant groups for the same reason.