An Cosantóir

25 SHADOW WARRIORS LIFTS THE LID ON IRELAND'S SPECIAL FORCES Reconnaissance Vehicles (SRV). Which other members of the Defence Forces can only hope of doing, someday, if they pass SOFQ. The ARW started out in the early 1980s on operations during the Troubles, conducting patrols and manning Observation Posts or OPs while watching subversive activities along the Border area with Northern Ireland, right up until the Good Friday Agreement in 1998. They are also on hand for ATCP duties with An Garda Síochána, like the operation involved in the kidnapping of Don Tidy in 1983. Most recently they would have provided snipers in air support and on the ground as Close Protection to VIP visits such as HM Queen Elizabeth II and other royals and other visiting heads of state like US President Donald Trump and US Vice President Michael Pence in June and September 2019. As some might know, the Defence Forces have an unbroken record of 62 years of peacekeeping service with the UN since 1958. Individual members of the ARW will have served overseas during the unit's 40-years of operations, but they cut their teeth as a unit in Somalia in September 1993 just before the Black Hawk Down incident in October 1993, where 18 US Rangers operating independently of UN, were killed. From there, the ARW has served as an initial entry force to missions such as East Timor 1999, Liberia 2003, Chad 2008, up to their present mission in Mali since September 2019. Two ARW teams were deployed in a response to an upsurge in violence in northern Mali, which is led by Al Qaeda affiliated militant groups. The ARW teams are conducting long-range reconnaissance patrols, with direct action. This requires speed, mobility and flexibility, the ARW have continuously trained for these types of mission. The UN's MINUSMA mission is considered by security experts as its most dangerous. Since July 2013, 216 MINUSMA peacekeepers and law enforcement personnel have been killed, and another 360+ seriously injured (as of May 2020). In February 2020, three Irish ARW SOF operators suffered minor injuries when an improvised explosive device (IED) detonated near their vehicle while conducting a patrol in eastern Mali. More ARW operatives are currently training for the UN approved German-led EU Battlegroup, which is due to go on operational standby for six months soon. If the Battlegroup were to be called into action the Irish contingent would only be deployed with the Irish government's 'triple-lock' authorisation. To date, no EU Battlegroup has been deployed. The ARW missions and operations are not well known or regularly discussed within the media, nor are the identities of ARW operatives, who remain in the shadows in order to protect themselves and that of the unit. Thus, the unit and its members are shrouded in secrecy both within the Defence Forces and to the public. About the authors: Paul O'Brien, a military historian, works for the Office of Public Works at the Royal Hospital, Kilmainham. An author of 16 books, Paul has written extensively on the military strategy of the 1916 Rising, as well as the British Army in Ireland. Two of his books, Blood on the Streets and Crossfire, were turned into the critically acclaimed drama- documentary A Terrible Beauty. He lives in Santry, Dublin with his wife, daughter and two cats. Sergeant Wayne Fitzgerald joined the Defence Forces in 1990, serving initially with the 5 Inf Bn, in his 30+year career he has worked in a number of roles within the Army and Air Corps. In 2011 he was detached to Defence Forces HQ to work on www.military.ie, and in May 2011 he was appointed editor of An Cosantóir (The Defender) The Defence Forces Magazine, until May 2020. Wayne has served overseas as a peacekeeper with the UN, EU and NATO PfP in Lebanon (1991), Kosovo (2002, 2010) and Bosnia i Herzegovina (2008). ARW Sniper team deployed with an Accuracy International .338 rifle and a MOD A3 Steyr rifle with short barrel in Chad, 2008. ARW Special Operations Maritime Task Unit (SOMTU) conducting boarding drills in the Naval Base, Haulbowline, 2016. ARW Operatives during a joint Exercise 'Ullamh' with An Garda Síochána, December 2017. ARW initial entry force on patrol in a Special Reconnaissance Vehicle (SRV) in EUFOR Chad/CAR in 2008.

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