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Front Cover
Athletes pictured at the recent
Defence Forces Boxing Championship
2014 by Sgt Karl Byrne.
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editorial
Sgt Wayne Fitzgerald - Editor
H
ello and welcome to our December and January issue, which has 44 packed pages.
On a special note, An Cosantóir celebrates its 75th Volume in 2015, so we have
dedicated our annual wallplanner to this with many of our front covers reappearing
in print from December 1940 to November 2014, we hope you like it.
As ever this issue starts with your photographs On Parade. Next In Focus features some
Veteran's news that's followed by another movie reel of photos from WWI aviation films
made in the 1960s that involved Air Corps personnel. Page 10 has been utilised again this
month to bring you a short piece on the recent 2 Bde Biathlon Competition in Gormanston
Camp. Our first main feature is The Spanish Cross of Military Merit; Lt Col Stephen Ryan (3
Inf Bn) and Coy Sgt Mitchel Bohan (7 Inf Bn) were awarded with the Cruces del Mérito Militar
with white distinction for their heroic actions in an attack on Spanish UNIFIL Peacekeepers
in June 2007. Next up we have an introduction to IUNVA Post 5 based in Cavan, and then
how a primary school in Newbridge celebrated the 100th anniversary of the Great War with
their military re-enactment. Then we have two pieces on UNIFIL, starting with the Irish
UNIFIL Association's visit to the recent UNIFIL Reunion held in Soesterberg, Netherlands,
that's followed by a complementary piece on the history of Dutchbatt in UNIFIL. We have
the long awaited results from our Defence Forces Photographic Competition, which was
kindly sponsored by Barker Photographic Ltd – well done to all who entered. Our Strategic
Review feature Carnage In The Desert by author and historian Paul O'Brien, looks back on
the January 2013 terrorist attack on the Tigantourine gas plant in Algeria. The 2 Bde Military
Skills Competition and the results are on page 24 and assistant press officer Capt Dónal
Gallagher briefs us on Exercise Joint Action, with the Nordic Battlegroup 15 that was held in
Sweden recently. We then have a three-page feature on The Congo Remembered, by Comdt
Conor O'Shea, who along with three other DF members visited historic sites of Irish interest
in the Congo. Our double History features are the infamous WWI story The Christmas
Truce by James Scannell, that's followed by Ballymullen Barracks by Robert Tangney to
compliment his recent book on the barrack's long history. In Sport, we have the recent 16th
Confidence Training Instructors Course, the DF Boxing Championship 2014 and a short piece
on the recent international women's soccer match against the Netherlands. Plus we have all
our regular features – Tac-Aide, Gear Review, Noticeboard and Reviews.
DEFEnCE FoRCES
REvIEW 2014
The Defence Forces
Review 2014 was
launched on the
10th October 2014,
in the Officers
Mess McKee Bks
by Defence Forces
Chief of Staff, Lt
Gen Conor O'Boyle,
OiC Public Relations Branch, Lt Col Michael
Dawson and current Editor Comdt Neil Nolan,
Mil Col, DFTC.
Limited printed copies are available and an
electronic copy is online: www.military.ie/info-
centre/publications/defence-forces-review/
MullIngAR
REMEMbERS
WWI
Pictured at the
WWI Cente-
nary Service of
Remembrance
held in All
Saint's Church, Mullingar on Sunday 9th No-
vember. Members of Mullingar Branch ONE,
Post 20 IUNVA, Mullingar, Westmeath Civil
Defence HQ, Mullingar, RSM Noel O'Callaghan,
2 Arty Regt and sitting is Lt Col Harvey Kelly Retd
MBE Irish Guards who fought in WWI on D Day
and at Arnhem Bridge. Photo: Ger O'Connor,
Mullingar Branch ONE
