An Cosantóir February 2015 www.dfmagazine.ie
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by SGT WAYNE FITzGERALD
P
addy Doyle grew up in Waterford and served with
the Naval Service Reserve there (then called No 3
Coy, An Slua Muirí) before enlisting in the Defence
Forces in December 1999. Paddy underwent his recruit
and three-star training with 1 Fld Arty Regt in Collins bks,
Cork, after which he was posted to Sp Coy, 3 Inf bn, in the
Curragh Camp. "The first time I'd seen a barracks without
walls!" he recalls.
Within his first year he was trained on a variety
of support weapons while also, like most units at
that time, rotating in and out of Portlaoise Prison for
security duties.
In 2001 he served overseas with B Coy, 89 Inf Bn, UNIFIL,
the last Irish battalion to serve in the old area of operations
that was headquartered in Camp Shamrock in Tibnine. He
found peacekeeping to be challenging but very rewarding,
and enjoyed his time in South Lebanon.
On his return to Ireland he rejoined his unit and under-
went further training, most notably the highly sought-after
Basic Snipers course.
The intensity of the sniper course and the skills of snip-
ing, such as stalking, observation and navigation, required
a high level of physical fitness and
fieldcraft. Such was the difficulty of
the course that Paddy was one of
only five of the original 16 students
to pass the course.
Just short of completing four
years' service, Paddy decided to
leave the Defence Forces in July
2003, as he wanted to see the
world. By the end of the year he
was in New York working for a
moving company for a short while. "It was a great way to
see New York", he says.
After he came back to Ireland, another former member of
the DF told Paddy how he had supported himself on his for-
eign travels by teaching English. So Paddy took a Teaching
English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) course over a number
of months, and within a fortnight of its completion headed
straight for China, where he started teaching English, firstly
at kindergarten level before working his way up through
primary and secondary school levels, before finishing with
college students.
Two minutes after the quake with Digicell building
