An Cosantóir

www.military.ie THE DEFENCE FORCES MAGAZINE | 29 T he original 2 Infantry Battalion was raised in Roscrea in February 1923 and following the end of the Irish Civil War, was transferred to Finner Camp and disbanded in May 1925. Six months later, another 2 Infantry Battalion was raised and stationed in Dublin from 1927. During the Emergency Years, the battalion was headquar- tered in the RDS as part of the 2 Infantry Brigade. In 1942 it participated in the massive Blackwater Exercise which involved a 150-mile march across the country, a month of divisional level exercises in County Cork and then a march back to Dublin. By the 1950s, the battalion was based in Cathal Brugha Bar- racks in Portobello. It marched again to the Blackwater in 1956 as part of Exercise Youghal and from 1957 carried out border security patrols in the face of the IRA 'border campaign', based out of Dundalk Barracks and Cavan. Members of the battalion served throughout the deployment to the Congo from 1960-1964, serving largely with A Company. Particularly notable was the assault on 'The Tunnel' on De- cember 1961, when A Company went into action shortly after deploying in Elizabethville. Pte Andrew Wickham (25) of Bal- lyfermot was platoon radioman and was shadowing his platoon commander when both were killed in action. Of the 25 Distin- guished Service Medals (DSMs) awarded to members of 36th Battalion, four were awarded to members of 2 Infantry Battal- ion (Lt JJ Norton, Lt PJ Feeley, Cpl D Mannix and Pte J Murray). In June 1971, another overseas fatality occurred when Pte Brendan Cummins died while serving with UNFICYP. Members of the battalion served throughout the deploy- ment with UNIFIL from 1978-2001, again serving largely with A Company. Cpl Gregory Morrow and Pte Thomas Murphy died under particularly tragic circumstances at Tibnin Bridge on 27th October 1982. Despite particularly heavy ATCP and overseas commitments, the battalion continued to hone conventional infantry skills, for example its partici- pation in Exercise Shannon in 1983. In the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Corporal (and subsequently promoted Sergeant) Mi- chael Carruth won the Gold Medal in Welterweight Class, Ireland's first Gold Medal for Boxing. In late 2003, the 27 Infantry Group drawn largely from the 2 Infantry Battalion was deployed to Kosovo. In March 2004, ethnic violence exploded throughout the region leaving 19 people dead, 600 injured and thousands displaced. Throughout this period, the 27 Infantry Group remained on the frontline quelling the disturbances in a manner that received widespread acclaim, from the interna- tional media in particular. 2 Infantry Battalion was amalgamated with the 5 Infantry Battalion as part of the Defence Forces reorganisation of 2012 and remained in Cathal Brugha Bks as the newly titled 7 Infan- try Battalion. The 2 Infantry Battalion Association for veterans was formed shortly after the 2012 reorganisation.

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