Talk:Irish Defence Forces

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[edit] Aircraft

"The Air Corps' two maritime patrol aircraft are equipped with state of the art detection systems and assist the Naval Service in policing Irish territorial waters."
What kind of aircraft are these? Could someone who knows add it in - Wardhog 21:12, 11 July 2007 (UTC)

Presumably the author is refering to the two CASA CN-235 - see Irish Air Corps#Aircraft Pdfpdf 00:41, 12 July 2007 (UTC)
(BTW: It is customary to use that "+" tab at the top of the page and add new postings to the bottom of the page.)

[edit] NATO

I removed this from the text: The Republic of Ireland is not a member of NATO and, under Irish law, the Defence Forces cannot participated in any foreign intervention without a specific United Nations mandate.

Because the list of troop deployment at the Irish Defense Force page includes several non-UN missions.[1] Do these missions like Kfor and Sfor have some kind of UN "mandate"? Rmhermen 21:16, Mar 29, 2004 (UTC)

The quote can't be right, as the referenced website clearly says that Irish forces are deployed on EU and OSCE missions as well as UN ones. Arwel 20:35, 19 Apr 2004 (UTC)

[edit] IDF badge

What is the explanation of the letters FF on the Irish Defence Forces' badge? Do they perhaps stand for the Fianna Fáil / Soldiers of Destiny of the opening words of the national anthem (as opposed to Fianna Fáil the political party, that is)? -- Picapica 14:23, 18 Feb 2005 (UTC)

As no-one else has come up with the answer, which I have since discovered, I'll reply to myself, just for the record..! Yes, FF on the cap badge does stand for Fianna Fáil. -- Picapica 10:05, 27 Mar 2005 (UTC)

  • The Irish word Fál is a poetic name for Ireland, so Fianna Fáil in this context is probably better translated as "Soldiers of Ireland", although the meaning that the Fianna Fáil party traditionally uses is "Soldiers of Destiny".
I agree, that [Fál = Ireland] is what I learned at school. --Red King 01:06, 1 December 2005 (UTC) Clarified --Red King 17:48, 12 January 2006 (UTC)
  • The Badge Was designed in 1913 by Eoin McNeil. The Correct Meaning of the Badge is "Soldiers of Destiny" (Fianna Fáil) - "Warriors of Ireland" (Oglaigh Na hÉireann) it was the Motto of the Volunteers. (Info From Bailerweb.com) Incidentally the Correct abbreviation is DFI Badge - IDF is the Israeli's.

Stabilo boss 12:27, 12 January 2006 (UTC)

  • I will repost here what I posted on the discussion of the meaning of Fianna Fáil on the article about the political party.

':*In no way, at all, in the Irish language does Fianna Fáil mean 'Soldiers of Destiny'. The confusion arises from the Latin name for the Lia Fáil - Saxum Fatale (Stone of Destiny), given to it by Hector Boece in his History of the Scottish People (at least Keating credits him with the neologism). Fál itself comes from the name of a city in the Northern Isles the Tuatha Dé Danann visited and from whence they brought back the stone. Because the stone granted kingship, one of the names they gave to Ireland was Inis Fáil, and through this Fál became a (largely poetic) name for Ireland. Fianna Fáil is the only example of Fál ever being translated to mean 'destiny', although I am unclear about when exactly this came into common usage - whether it was an original error of translation; whether it was a mistake that was allowed to gain currency for political expediency; or whether it was a deliberate mistranslation.' Cripipper 20:44, 16 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Overall Manpower

In reading the Article I see it never says anywhere what the Actual overall Number of Men/Women in the Defence forces is. It gives 8,500 for the Army (and is that with or without reserves?) but no info on the other branches and no overall figure. I've heard varying figures over the years, I think an Army Recruiter guy once told me the overall number was 12,500, but I also read in some Encyclopaedia years ago that it was over 30,000 (Including reserves, if I remember correctly). Also, the Army article is very bare, it needs some considerable improvement.Hibernian :10-11-05

[edit] G2 & G3 & Ranger Wing

Military Intelligence dont appear to be mentioned but they have theyre own page at G2 (currently blank), nor are the Ranger Wing. I might add some historical stuff from WW2 to the G2 page if thats ok. Thanks Fluffy999 01:06, 13 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] New Statistics figures?

The CIA world fact book [2] has more recent military manpower figures for Ireland, however their new figures are in a slightly different age range from the old ones (17 to 49, instead of 15 to 49). So will I add in these new figures? (Which are slightly smaller than the current ones).--Hibernian 21:28, 27 July 2006 (UTC)

Do! Guliolopez 12:08, 28 July 2006 (UTC)

Ok, done.--Hibernian 17:44, 28 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Fair use rationale for Image:Óglaigh na hÉireann.jpg

Image:Óglaigh na hÉireann.jpg is being used on this article. I notice the image page specifies that the image is being used under fair use but there is no explanation or rationale as to why its use in this Wikipedia article constitutes fair use. In addition to the boilerplate fair use template, you must also write out on the image description page a specific explanation or rationale for why using this image in each article is consistent with fair use.

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BetacommandBot (talk) 04:59, 30 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] "Availability" numbers

These are completely meaningless, as lots of 17-49 year olds would be no use and there is no conscription.Red Hurley (talk) 10:27, 27 December 2007 (UTC)