An Cosantóir

www.military.ie the defence forces magazine | 23 While in China Paddy became aware of how private security companies were starting to work in hostile environments like Iraq and thought it would be something he would like to try. However, due to a deterioration in his father's health, Paddy came home to Waterford to help to look after him for nearly two years. "Even though it was completely different from what I had planned, I'm glad I did it as my father's doing great now," he says. In 2005 Paddy took an approved close-protection Officers course. The two-month course was based in Denmark, with some time spent in Bosnia. The training included, mission preparation and planning, defensive driving, combat medicine, with a lot of physical fitness and live- firing exercises. The course is designed to qualify and licence personnel to work in hostile environments, with plenty of emphasis on Iraq and Afghanistan. "We were trained to work as individuals and as small teams," Paddy says, "and it was here that my previous Defence Forces training helped me come to the fore amongst other European ex-military personnel." A few months later Paddy saw an advert in a national newspaper seeking ex-military personnel, trained in close- protection, to work abroad for Irish telecommunications company Digicell. "A week later I was on my way to Port au Prince in Haiti," Paddy recalls, "which at the time was prone to high-level kidnappings. All kinds of crime were rife in city due to the extremes of overcrowding and poverty in a city built for around 400,000 people but occupied by an esti- mated two million: there were shanty towns everywhere and the heat and living conditions in them were dreadful." Paddy was in and out of Haiti over the next three years and in August 2009 he started to work as a project manager for a small Irish tax consulting firm trying to establish itself in Haiti. Paddy was going about his normal daily routine on 12th January 2010, when at 4.53pm a massive earthquake, mea- suring 7.0 on the Richter scale, struck Haiti, killing 250,000 people in the first 40 seconds of the initial quake, with more tremors occurring hourly for the next few days and a few more over the coming weeks. The country quickly descend- ed into chaos, with all its infrastructures failing. "My Defence Forces training kicked in straight away," Paddy says, "and I kept calm, assessed the situation and then helped as many as I could while trying to make my way back home." Wanting to share his experiences of surviving the earth- quake and dealing with the aftermath, Paddy decided to write a book about it. The result of this decision is 'Broken Ground' which was recently published to coincide with the fifth anniversary of the earthquake. It is well worth a read and is available in Easons and other good book stores, priced €15.99, and also on amazon.com in Kindle and paperback. For the last four years Paddy has continued to work in the security industry, both on land and at sea. And with the successful publication of 'Broken Ground' we can now also expect another book or two from our former colleague. Paddy Doyle Paddy Doyle on Maritime Security Collapsed homes in Port au Prince, Haiti Members of 89 Inf Bn, UNIFIL (2001) Paddy is bottom right

• Cover