Connacht Tribune
Galway soldiers tell of life in the Irish Guards
They call them the Micks, although the world knows them as the Irish Guards, formed by order of Queen Victoria at the start of the 20th century. And while you don’t have to be Irish to join, as Dave O’Connell reports, there’s a fair smattering of our own among the ranks, including a number from Galway.
When the month started out, the 1st Battalion Irish Guards had one moment of history on their calendar for June – the trooping of its colours to mark the Queen’s birthday last weekend, for the first time since 2009 – until London found itself right in the firing line in the war on terror.
But being on the frontline is nothing new to these soldiers who spent their lives in the world’s hottest terror spots – among them many Irish natives who find themselves in Afghanistan or Iraq, or previously in Kosovo, Libya or the Middle East.
There’s a smattering of Galway soldiers among their number – but such is our history with our nearest neighbours, they are proud to serve but prefer to protect their families by remaining anonymous.
John is a Lieutenant Corporal in the Irish Guards, having joined in April 2011 at the age of 21. And typical of so many, he enlisted because he only ever had one dream – to be a soldier.
“I left school at 17 and attended university for a year, but quickly discovered that this path was not for me,” he says.
Upon leaving University in 2008, I entered the workforce, getting a job in a local supermarket, a job that I found incredibly boring and unfulfilling. Throughout this time I had harboured ambitions to join the Irish Defence Forces, but due to the economic situation at the time, there had been a moratorium on recruitment for a number of years.
“Then when recruitment had finally reopened, there were several thousand applications for just a few hundred positions,” he adds.
Domhnall, the regimental mascot for the 1st Battalion Irish Guards, parades past the crowd during the annual Trooping the Colour Ceremony in London.
At the same time, John used to watch ‘in awe’ at television documentaries of the escalating war in Afghanistan – and he also knew that he didn’t just want to be a soldier for the sake of it; he wanted to go to war and fight.
That left him with two options – the British Army or the French Foreign Legion.
“I initially considered the foreign legion, but after researching into it, I found the possibilities of going home to Ireland on leave to be very restrictive, especially during the first few years.
“I love my home town, and the thought of being away from it for too long proved too much to bear. That’s when I started to look into the British Army, and in particular, the Irish Guards. They guaranteed six weeks leave a year, and crucially, the chance to go to Afghanistan,” he says.
Another Galwegian, Joe, joined the Irish Guards in October 2015 – mainly because he had friends ‘in the Micks’ who spoke glowingly of the battalion and the camaraderie.
As a drummer in the Irish Guards, his career path has taken a different route.
“So far in my career with the Mick guards, I have had time spent working as a guardsman on the box in Buckingham Palace, the Tower of London and Windsor Castle, on exercise firing General Purpose Machine Guns with the drums and pipes then progressing from an infantry soldier/Guardsman into the rank of Drummer with a six-month course in Edinburgh qualifying me in music theory and in practical drum playing,” he says.
The Irish Guards was formed by order of Queen Victoria on April 1 1900 to commemorate the bravery of Irish Regiments in South Africa. On formation as a regiment of Foot Guards the Irish Guards adopted a blue plume to wear on their bearskins. The colour is said to have come through the quick thinking of Lady Settrington the wife of the Aide-de-Camp to Lord Roberts VC the first Colonel of the Irish Guards.
With green plumes already worn by the Royal Dublin Fusiliers, and therefore unsuitable, Lady Settrington dipped her husband’s white Grenadier plume into an ink well to produce a blue plume for the new Irish Regiment.
The Irish Guards have served with distinction through the two World Wars and in the period since then in Hong Kong, Belize, Aden, Germany, Northern Ireland, Kosovo, Iraq and Afghanistan.
The Irish Guards are dual role soldiers, which means they carry out both ceremonial duties and normal ‘green’ soldiering.
In recent years the Irish Guards have deployed on exercise to Kenya, Oman, Latvia and Belize and will be deploying to both the Falkland Islands and Thailand in the coming year.
Galway native John is among those shortly set for a three-month deployment to the Falkland Islands, which will mean he’s on the other side of the Atlantic over the New Year.
But, though separated from relatives and friends through the holiday season, he has comrades of all backgrounds as his military family to fall back on.
“What is probably most unique about the Micks, in my opinion, is the many different and diverse groups of people who, albeit from very different backgrounds, work together and go on to become very good friends. A man from an obscure Caribbean Island may be best friends with a Donegal spud farmer!” he jokes.
“The characters that inhabit the Micks are without doubt some of the most colourful, funny, and eccentric collection of individuals you will find in any work force anywhere, from all over Ireland to Liverpool, Birmingham, the Caribbean or Fiji!
Joe also points to the social side of life in the Irish Guards.
“In my spare time I enjoy training hard with Naomh Padraigh GAA Club which is the name of the Irish Guards GAA team,” he says.
“We are preparing to play teams in Ireland such as the Gardaí, PSNI and Irish Army then on to a week in New York to play the NYPD Gaelic football team.
“After our success at establishing new connections with GAA teams afar, we will go on pre-deployment exercise in Wales to prepare us for deployment to Thailand in the near future,” he adds.
Significant state investment is required to address ‘shocking’ inequalities that leave cancer patients in the West at greater risk of succumbing to the disease.
A meeting of Regional Health Forum West heard that survival rates for breast, lung and colorectal cancers than the national average, and with the most deprived quintile of the population, the West’s residents faced poorer outcomes from a cancer diagnosis.
For breast cancer patients, the five-year survival rate was 80% in the West versus 85% nationally; for lung cancer patients it was 16.7% in the west against a 19.5% national survival rate; and in the West’s colorectal cancer patients, there was a 62.6% survival rate where the national average was 63.1%.
These startling statistics were provided in answer to a question from Ballinasloe-based Cllr Evelyn Parsons (Ind) who said it was yet another reminder that cancer treatment infrastructure in the West was in dire need of improvement.
“The situation is pretty stark. In the Western Regional Health Forum area, we have the highest incidence of deprivation and the highest health inequalities because of that – we have the highest incidences of cancer nationally because of that,” said Cllr Parsons, who is also a general practitioner.
In details provided by CEO of Saolta Health Care Group, which operates Galway’s hospitals, it was stated that a number of factors were impacting on patient outcomes.
Get the full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune, on sale in shops now, or you can download the digital edition from www.connachttribune.ie. You can also download our Connacht Tribune App from Apple’s App Store or get the Android Version from Google Play.
Galway 3-18
Cork 1-10
NEW setting; new opposition; new challenge. It made no difference to the Galway minor hurlers as they chalked up a remarkable sixth consecutive double digits championship victory at Semple Stadium on Saturday.
The final scoreline in Thurles may have been a little harsh on Cork, but there was no doubting Galway’s overall superiority in setting up only a second-ever All-Ireland showdown against Clare at the same venue on Sunday week.
Having claimed an historic Leinster title the previous weekend, Galway took a while to get going against the Rebels and also endured their first period in a match in which they were heavily outscored, but still the boys in maroon roll on.
Beating a decent Cork outfit by 14 points sums up how formidable Galway are. No team has managed to lay a glove on them so far, and though Clare might ask them questions other challengers haven’t, they are going to have to find significant improvement on their semi-final win over 14-man Kilkenny to pull off a final upset.
Galway just aren’t winning their matches; they are overpowering the teams which have stood in their way. Their level of consistency is admirable for young players starting off on the inter-county journey, while the team’s temperament appears to be bombproof, no matter what is thrown at them.
Having romped through Leinster, Galway should have been a bit rattled by being only level (0-4 each) after 20 minutes and being a little fortunate not to have been behind; or when Cork stormed out of the blocks at the start of the second half by hitting 1-4 to just a solitary point in reply, but there was never any trace of panic in their ranks.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
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GARDAÍ and the IFA have issued a joint appeal to all road users to take extra care as the silage season gets under way across the country.
Silage harvesting started in many parts of Galway last week – and over the coming month, the sight of tractors and trailers on rural roads will be getting far more frequent.
Inspector Conor Madden, who is in charge of Galway Roads Policing, told the Farming Tribune that a bit of extra care and common-sense from all road users would go a long way towards preventing serious collisions on roads this summer.
“One thing I would ask farmers and contractors to consider is to try and get more experienced drivers working for them.
“Tractors have got faster and bigger – and they are also towing heavy loads of silage – so care and experience are a great help in terms of accident prevention,” Inspector Madden told the Farming Tribune.
He said that tractor drivers should always be aware of traffic building up behind them and to pull in and let these vehicles pass, where it was safe to do so.
“By the same token, other road users should always exercise extra care; drive that bit slower; and ‘pull in’ that bit more, when meeting tractors and heavy machinery.
“We all want to see everyone enjoying a safe summer on our roads – that extra bit of care, and consideration for other roads users can make a huge difference,” said Conor Madden.
He also advised motorists and tractor drivers to be acutely aware of pedestrians and cyclists on the roads during the summer season when more people would be out walking and cycling on the roads.
The IFA has also joined in on the road safety appeal with Galway IFA Farm Family and Social Affairs Chair Teresa Roche asking all road users to exercise that extra bit of care and caution.
“We are renewing our annual appeal for motorists to be on the look out for tractors, trailers and other agricultural machinery exiting from fields and farmyards,” she said.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App
Download the Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App to access to Galway’s best-selling newspaper.
Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
Or purchase the Digital Edition for PC, Mac or Laptop from Pagesuite HERE.
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The Connacht Tribune Live app is the home of everything that is happening in Galway City and county. It’s completely FREE and features all the latest news, sport and information on what’s on in your area. Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
Families queue up for school’s offer of free house
West has lower cancer survival rates than rest
Galway minors continue to lay waste to all opponents
Gardaí and IFA issue a joint appeal on summer road safety
Marathon Man plans to call a halt – but not before he hits 160 races
